Dogs And Lyme Disease

Dogs And Lyme Disease

Lyme Disease and Dogs: Common Symptoms

Lyme disease in puppies is a sickness that is newly recognized. This type of dog disease is transmitted by deer ticks. Lyme disease in pets not only infects puppies but could also infect humans. The two seasons for the largest number of exposure to Lyme disease in pets is during spring through fall.

This dog disease appears mostly in the Midwestern and northwestern part of the US. Since 1975, several cases of Lyme disease in pets have been reported in more than 40 states.

White-footed mice and white-tailed deer are the hosts for the deer tick that is the direct cause for transmitting Lyme disease in pets. Since the ticks do not fly or hop, they wait on the ground where plants grow in tall-grassed or wooded areas that are heavily inhabited by mice, deer, and ticks. They wait patiently and eagerly to stick on to anything that brushes up against them.

Deer ticks can strike a dog on any part of the body, although they often attach and bite at his head, ears, neck and even his feet. This is where Lyme disease in a dog begins. A tick's bite barely causes sensation, unlike the painful bites from bees and mosquitoes. Dogs and other animals can be saturated with ticks and not show any distress.

Symptoms of Lyme disease in pets include fever, slowness, and sudden onset of lameness mixed with warmth, pain, and swelling in his joints. Sometimes a round area of inflamed skin around the tick bite may emerge with Lyme disease in pets, even though it may be hard to notice this due to the thickness of a dog's coat.

Call your vet right away when you notice any symptoms of Lyme disease in dogs. Those who recognize the early stages of Lyme disease can prevent your dog from suffering. When Lyme disease in your dog reaches its progressive stages of infection, your dog could suffer from paralysis. If this disease is left untreated, Lyme disease can attack the front and hind limbs. It will then attack the muscles in the chest area and even disable the respiratory muscles. This can cause the dog to suffocate.

If you believe your dog has Lyme disease and that the disease is in its progressive stages of infection, immediately call your vet. Hospitalization is necessary for progressive stages of Lyme disease in a dog.

To learn more, head to Amazon.com and search for books on, "lyme disease and dogs" to see which are the most popular choices. Using the tool in their drop-down menu on their search results page, you can rank their listings accordingly and choose what you like.

Funds short for shopping? No problem. Key in titles you find form Amazon into your local public library search box. Borrow the books and read more at your leisure at home or during break times at the office.

Other places to search are eBay.com - for new and used books, videos, cassettes and more on the topic. And MySimon.com, a price comparison site.

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Lyme Disease - did your dog respond to treatment immediately?

Have you had a dog with lyme disease that didn't respond to antibiotics? Please tell me about your experience with your dog and their treatment of Lyme. What were the symptoms? What meds did the vet give? Did first meds work? What ever information you can share is most appreciated.
Dog was on doxycycline, didn't respond. Went on clavamox, also non responsive.
They did do inhouse testing for Lyme which was positive.

Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi, which is passed to dogs through a bite from the deer tick. The tick must remain attached to the dog’s skin for one to two days before the bacteria can be transmitted.

Lyme disease can be a multi-systemic illness, with signs that may include fever, swollen lymph nodes, lameness, loss of appetite, heart disease, inflamed joints, and kidney disease. Disorders of the nervous system, while uncommon, may occur as well.

more info

http://www.vetvax.com/lymediseasedogs.html

http://www.thepetcenter.com/gen/lyme.html

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Fortunately, over ninety percent of dogs treated within the first week of obvious signs of Lyme Disease will respond rapidly to treatment with a tetracycline antibiotic. This medicine is administered for at least three weeks. In my experience, five percent of dogs will have some type of relapse of signs such as cardiac or neurological difficulties even after treatment . Some of these patients will experience chronic, lifelong Joint Pain from the damage caused by the bacteria and its direct and indirect stress to joint tissues. The earlier the antibiotic is started in the course of the disease, the better the patient's chances of a complete recovery.
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Did your vet run a test to confirm that is it lyme, and did he check for other forms of tick disease such as Ehrlichia and babesia?

Another treatment other than the doxy(which is a semi-synthetic tetracycline) is tetracycline

Some vets do not prescribe the correct dosage as it is twice the dose as when the drug is used for treating infections

THe following is the treatment for Ehrlichia, Lyme is usually treated for 2 to 3 weeks
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Doxycycline*** (a semisynthetic tetracycline) at 10 mg/kg of dog's weight (2.2 pounds = 1 kg), twice per day given 12 hours apart for 6 weeks or longer. Sometimes more than one course of therapy is necessary. Doxycycline should not be given with food (milk or yogurt) or supplements containing calcium iron or magnesium (like antacids) because these agents will interfere slightly with the absorption of the antibiotic. (Allow at least two hours pre or post doxycycline administration.) Do not give Doxycycline on an empty stomach--so administer the medicine with food or 30-60 minutes after the dog has eaten. Wrapping the pills in piece of bread often helps alleviate the upset stomach. Another thing some owners have found helpful--if you can do it with your work schedule--is to keep the dog somewhat active for a while after giving the doxycycline--if the dogs go and just sleep right after administering the doxycycline--the medicine sits in one spot in the stomach and seems to be more irritating to the stomach lining.
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http://www.mirage-samoyeds.com/tick.htm

Most of the greyhounds we test for tick diseases are non symptomatic at the time of testing and more commonly having babesia or Ehrlichia and even a combo that can include lyme We have their bloodworked tested in Arizona at the lab in the link below testing for Ehrlichia(2 strains), Babesia and Lyme, they use IFA test which is more acccurate than in house tests

http://www.adopt-a-greyhound.org/advice/hemotropic.html

Cynthia Holland from the above link the doctor at Protatek has been studing tick diseases for many years and has written several articles and has always beeen great about answering questions and offering advice on treatment, her contact info is here

http://www.protatek.com/contact.html

This article discusses an alternate med for lyme tha t is supposed to be particularly useful when there are neurological complications and also discusses diet for dogs with tick disease

http://www.vintagegoldens.com/tick.htm

Tick & Flea Control for Your Pet : How to Prevent Lyme Disease in Dogs

 

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Dogs And Lyme Disease

Tagged with: disease • dog • dogs • dogs and lyme disease symptoms • health • lyme

Filed under: Dog Joint Pain

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