Lyme Disease Confusion

Today my horses blood test came back and he has Lyme (as expected). I called the vet that drew blood for the test and asked if it was acute or chronic. Her response was a quick "both" and she made it clear that she didn't have time to explain further. From my understanding, acute means the horse is in the early stages of the infection and chronic means It's been in the horses system for a while... but I could be wrong. Here's the description of the two from the test done on him:

OspC – has been found to be a valuable indicator of early infection with B. Burg- dorferi. Antibodies to OspC can be detected as early as 3 weeks after infection. Anti- bodies to OspC start to decline after 7-11 weeks and become undetectable by 4-5 months after infection 12.

OspF – is an indicator of chronic infection. Antibodies to OspF are detectable by 5-8 weeks after infection and are maintained at high levels afterwards. Researchers at Cornell observed a very high agreement between antibodies to OspF and C6 as robust markers for infection 12. Horses with positive antibody values to OspF and negative antibody values to OspC are considered to be infected with B. Burg- dorferi for at least 5 months


....So what would being positive for both mean? He's getting the same treatment regardless, but it's really confusing me.

I'm not sure what she meant. Maybe tests showed he has had it before but now has a new flare up?
When will she have time to talk to you? When she does it may be helpful to have all your questions pre-written down so you don't miss any.
One of my 'used' dogs had lymes & yearly tests showed positive for years after treatment, then this year they were negative. Strange.

That's what I was thinking, but the test info made it sound like the horse could only have one or the other. I'll probably get a hold of the vet sometime this week... Although horses have been dropping like flies in the heat, which is why I'm using her rather than my regular vet (most people don't trust her... Me being one of them so they specifically request the other vets.). One thing that could suggest chronic Lyme is the fact that my horse has gone slightly down hill physically since I got him. He went from being foreward and rushy to calm and lazy... Plus he has cross cantering issues that were getting worse, despite chiropractic work and improved strength and balance. So maybe he's had mild symptoms this whole time, plus a recent flare up?
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Acute is not the beginning stages, it means "serious, crucial or critical, like an acute shortage of oil." So his level of Lyme can be "acute" as in a serious case, and also be "chronic" as in " continuing a long time or recurring frequently".

The answer of "yes" for both can be correct.

Hope he responds to the antibiotics, it takes such a long time to get it knocked out. Good luck with him.

Oh, ok thanks for clarifying. And thank you! I hope so too.