How To Help A Dog With Lyme Disease

What Should I Do If I Find Ticks On My Dog

Tips for preventing lyme disease in dogs

Removing the ticks within 24-36 hours will usually prevent infection. Using tweezers, grasp the head as close to your pets skin as possible and pull straight out. Wash the area with soap and water, disinfectant with alcohol or hand sanitizer.

If possible, save the tick in a Ziploc bag and record the approximate date of the bite. If symptoms develop, contact our team at the Cabbagetown Pet Clinic.

Other Ways Your Dog Can Become Infected With Lyme Disease

The concept that Lyme disease may spread through contact with bodily fluids is a little-known truth in the medical community. This means that a dog afflicted with Lyme disease can transmit the disease to another dog. It is uncertain whether or not cross-species transmission is possible. In addition, in-utero transmission can occur, and animals can get re-infected with Lyme disease.

How Can Lyme Disease Be Prevented

Tick control and prevention methods significantly reduce the likelihood of infection. Maintaining antibodies against B. burgdorferi through vaccination can further protect your animal. Antibody amounts and duration of vaccine antibodies can vary in individuals. Verifying your animals antibody response to vaccination helps to assure durable protection.

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Discussing Symptoms And Treatments With Your Vet

1Monitor your dog if you find a tick that may have been attached for days. Lyme disease is caused in nearly every instance by the presence of a biting tick. The tick also needs to be attached to the hosts body for at least 48 hours to effectively pass the disease on. If the tick is removed before 48 hours have passed, it is unlikely that your dog will get the disease.

You should check your dog for ticks anytime its been outside, especially in wooded areas or if Lyme disease is common in your area.XTrustworthy SourceCenters for Disease Control and PreventionMain public health institute for the US, run by the Dept. of Health and Human ServicesGo to source

If you havent checked your dog for a few days and find a tick, however, pay close attention over the coming weeks for signs of infection. You can, but do not necessarily have to, contact your vet right away as well.

2Report possible symptoms of canine Lyme disease to your vet. Most dogs who get Lyme disease never show symptoms, and therefore are never diagnosed or need treatment. However, if your dog has had tick bites or frequents areas where Lyme disease is common, contact your vet if you observe one or more of the following:XTrustworthy SourceAmerican Kennel ClubThe American Kennel Club is a purebred dog pedigree registry in the United States. The AKC advocates for the responsible ownership of dogs and promotes purebred dog events, such as the Westminster Dog Show.Go to source

joint stiffness, pain, or swelling

How To Tell If Your Dog Has Lyme Disease

When I took Tenor in for his annual shots today, I learned something new. Our veterinarian said that he now uses the latest & greatest Heartworm test. And this one now tests for Lyme Disease in addition to testing for the presence of Heartworms!

Thats how I found out that our dog does not have Lyme Disease today.

So, you may want to check with your vet to see if they offer the Heartworm test that also checks for Lyme Disease especially if your dog gets a lot of tick bites.

In order to treat a dog for Lyme Disease, the dog must be showing symptoms. The primary way that Lyme Disease presents itself in dogs is in the legs and joints. If your dog suddenly cannot walk properly and it appears that the pain is in more than one leg, then your dog may have Lyme Disease. It is not until those particular symptoms are present that a dog can begin treatment for Lyme Disease.

And yes, Lyme Disease can be treated successfully in dogs, and they can go on to live a long and healthy life!

Did You Know? They say that it takes 48 hours of attachment for a tick to give a dog Lyme Disease. Thats reason enough to always check your dog for ticks any time hes been in tick-infested places. And continue checking for next 2 days, as well. You cant be too sure.

About Those Flea & Tick Preventatives

The good news is: It appears that those flea & tick preventatives that we spend so much money on each year really do appear to be working.

We use Frontline Plus. We have for years. In my opinion, K9 Advantix would be just as good at preventing Lyme Disease in dogs.

The best part about these tick preventatives: Even if a tick latches onto your dog, the tick will ingest the K9 Advantix or Frontline Plus that is in your dogs system. This will cause the tick to die, or at least stop biting and maybe even fall off. I can tell you that Ive actually found crusty old ticks buried deep in my dogs fur a few times.

This is evidence that:

I missed a few ticks when I was searching his body for ticks and
Those ticks froze in their tracks when they ingested the Frontline Plus in my dogs system.

But most times, ticks will not even latch onto your dogs skin if Frontline Plus or K9 Advantix has been applied within the last 30 days. Thats reason enough to keep your dog on Frontline Plus or K9 Advantix, dont you think?

What Is The Best Way To Prevent Canine Lyme Disease

Prevent ticks from transmitting disease with one of our veterinary-approved flea and tick medications.
Get your dog vaccinated.
Inspect your dog for ticks after walks through wooded trails. Check your dog under their collar, under their tail, between their toes, under their legs and elbows.
Remove ticks immediately. The quicker you find them the less likely your dog will be infected. Invest in a pair of fine tweezers and learn the proper method of tick removal.
At your next vet visit, ask our veterinarian to conduct a tick check during the exam. Well be able to find any you may have missed.
Keep your grass mowed and refrain from walking into grassy patches in endemic tick areas.

Meet the Team

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Ottawa Was Declared Endemic For Lyme Desease In 2016

In2016, Idexx Laboritories found there were 1539 positive cases of Lyme disease reported in Ontario pets. This is an 80% increase from the 859 reported cases in 2013. The number of cases has increased in each of the last 5 years.

WHAT IS LYME DISEASE AND HOW IS IT TRANSMITTED?CLINICAL SIGNS Golden Retreivers and Labrador Retrievers appear to be more susceptible to this more fatal form of Lyme diseaseDIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT PREVENTIONPreventing infection is the key to maintaining your pets optimum healthBravectoK9 Advantixdogs should be protected from Lyme disease through vaccinationNobivacFor more information or to schedule an appointment please call our office during regular business hours at 613-692-3411.

Is Treatment 100% Effective

How to protect dogs from Lyme disease?

Scientists are divided on this topic. Some studies suggest that that even long-term antibiotics may not completely clear infection dogs may get sick again at some point after antibiotic treatment is stopped. Other studies suggest that complete clearance of infection is possible with antibiotic treatment. Further research is required to answer this question.

Contributors: Ryan Llera, BSc, DVM Kristiina Ruotsalo, DVM, DVSc, Dip ACVP Margo S. Tant, BSc, DVM, DVSc

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Where Is Lyme Disease Found

In the United States, Lyme disease has been reported in every state, but over 95% of cases are from the Northeastern, Mid-Atlantic, and upper Midwestern states, with a small number of cases reported along the West Coast, especially Northern California. In Canada, Lyme-positive dogs are found mostly in southern Ontario and southern Manitoba, with a small number of cases in southern Quebec and the Maritime provinces.

About My Own Lyme Disease

For the longest time, Jim and I used products with DEET to prevent tick bites and ultimately lessen our chances of getting the dreaded Lyme Disease. It wasnt until recently that Jim and I discovered a better alternative to DEET. Its called Permethrin. Ever since we started using it last summer, we havent had another tick on our clothes or our bodies. Not one.

Unfortunately, that doesnt make me feel better about the fact that I got infected with Lyme Disease from a tick bite that I got more than 6 months ago possibly as long as 2 years ago.

The truth is Jim and I actually get dozens of tick bites each year at least 10 each year for the past 7 years that weve lived in Tennessee. And that doesnt include the multitude of tick bites I received when I lived in other states: Florida, New York, and Texas.

For the record, there is currently no reliable vaccine for humans against Lyme Disease.

How Can I Tell If Treatment Is Working

If joint lameness is the presenting sign, improvement may be noted after 3-5 days starting antibiotics. A dog’s response to therapy can be assessed by repeating the QC6 test six months after treatment is complete. Dogs that start with a moderate to high QC6 value typically show a 50% reduction or more in the QC6 at six months, indicating that treatment has been successful. Dogs that have a lower initial QC6 value may not show such dramatic reductions in the QC6 at six months, although the value should still be lower than the starting point if treatment has been successful.

A persistently high QC6 suggests treatment may not have been complete or that the dog became reinfected after treatment was stopped.

How Lyme Disease Spreads

Lyme bacteria are parasitic organisms, as many bacteria are. They need a host to live in. And because they cant make all the nutrients they need themselves, they scavenge them from their hosts. Most of what they need can be found in collagen tissues. So, once they enter the animal host, they begin breaking down collagen tissues into a kind of soup in order to feed. Its where they break down those tissues that important.

Joints = Lyme arthritis
Heart = Lyme carditis
Central nervous system = neurological Lyme with associated brain fog, difficulty thinking and remembering, tremors, facial paralysis, loss of limb function and so on.

This is the secret to understanding the disease and how to treat it.

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Clinical & Laboratory Assessment

Simply identifying antibodies to B burgdorferi in a dog does not constitute a clinical diagnosis of Lyme borreliosis. Before establishing a diagnosis of Lyme borreliosis, the clinician must:

Consider physical and laboratory findings
Determine whether the dog resides in, or has traveled to, a region inhabited by the Ixodes tick.

Laboratory Assessment. The laboratory assessment of any patient found to have serum antibodies against B burgdorferi should include:

Urine protein:creatinine ratio , if proteinuria is deemed significant.

With uncomplicated Lyme borreliosis, hematologic and biochemical abnormalities are unlikely. However, seropositive dogs are at risk for co-infection with other vector-borne pathogens and may have underlying laboratory abnormalities .

Significant laboratory abnormalities, revealing serious underlying renal disease , can exist in the absence of expected physical abnormalities .

Is Lyme Disease In Dogs Contagious

Thankfully, no! Your dog can’t get Lyme disease directly from another dog and can’t give it directly to you. A tick has to suck the blood from an infected animal and then bite another animal to spread the Borrelia bacteria. No tick bite means no Lyme disease.

It is also important to note that the tick must be attached for at least 24 hours to transmit Borrelia burgdorferi. Removing an attached tick from your dog promptly is one of the best ways to prevent Lyme disease.

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If My Animal Is Positive On The Assay Should He/she Be Treated For Lyme Disease

If your animal is displaying clinical signs of Lyme disease and is positive on the Lyme Multiplex assay, it is advisable to discuss treatment options with your veterinarian. If your animal appears healthy, discuss the risks and benefits of treatment and develop a monitoring plan with your veterinarian.

Can An Animal Get Infected Despite Being Vaccinated

Treating a Dog with Lyme Disease

Yes. This has been observed that some animals can still get infected after Lyme vaccination. This can be due to a low immune response of the respective animal and/or a very high exposure rate or Lyme prevalence in the area where the animal lives. A yearly check of the OspA titer is recommended for a vaccinated animal to ensure that the animal responded with high OspA antibodies to vaccination. Please indicate the name of the vaccine and when it has been last applied on the accession form.

Can Dogs Spread Lyme Disease To People

Dogs can be a good indicator of humans risk for exposure to infected ticks, since they frequent the same outdoor areas as their owners. A study published in May 2017 in the journal PLoS One suggests that testing canines for antibodies to the bacteria that cause Lyme disease can help predict areas where human Lyme disease risk may emerge.

A study published in September 2011 in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases found that areas with canine Lyme disease rates above 5 percent also had a higher-than-average rate of the disease in humans.

While the same ticks may affect humans and animals, there is no evidence to suggest that dogs can directly spread Lyme disease to humans. The risk to humans is that pets can carry infected ticks into the home.

On the other hand, cats may directly infect humans with the tick-borne bartonella bacteria through scratching or biting. Cats harboring fleas infected with bartonella bacteria can cause cat scratch disease , especially in children under 15 years of age, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .

What To Do If Your Dog Tests Positive For Lyme Disease

If your dog enjoys roaming freely through the beautiful Virginia outdoors, it is likely that it may come into contact with a tick sooner or later. Furthermore, because many ticks in this region are also carriers of Lyme disease, your pets outside activities may put him or her at danger of contracting a serious infection. Lyme disease is caused by germs found in the saliva of the tick. When a tick attaches itself to your dog, it does more than just sucking blood it also exchanges spit with the victim.

When this occurs, your dogs immune system may respond by releasing antibodies into the environment.

If your dog tests positive for the Lyme bacterium during this screening test, it is likely that your dog has the bacteria.

It only alerts the doctor that the dog has already begun to develop an immune response, even if you are not aware of any clinical signs or symptoms at this point in the process.

If your dog tests positive for Lyme disease, our veterinarians will often suggest a 30-day antibiotic therapy to combat the infectioneven if your pet hasnt showed any signs of illness.

If your dog tests positive during the screening, we will most likely request a second test to detect your pets immunological response, which will take around an hour.

This figure is directly related to how strongly your dogs immune system is protecting him or herself against the illness.

This means that the infection has ceased to function.

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What Does The Lyme Multiplex Assay Measure

The Lyme Multiplex assay quantifies antibodies directed against specific proteins on the surface of B. burgdorferi at three different stages of the bacterial life cycle. This antibody profile can indicate whether an animal has been recently infected or is chronically infected with B. burgdorferi. It can also be used to monitor protective antibodies after vaccination.

Signs & Symptoms Of Lyme Disease In Dogs

April is Prevention of Lyme Disease in Dogs Month. Talk to your ...

The symptoms of Lyme disease vary. While many dogs infected with Lyme disease may not exhibit any symptoms, others may show severe signs, including:

Bruising or unexplained bleeding

Lameness, painful or swollen joints, fever, swollen lymph nodes, loss of appetite, and lethargy are the most common symptoms of Lyme disease in dogs and can range in severity. If left untreated, Lyme disease can lead to more serious symptoms, like damage to the kidney or the heart and nervous system.

Lyme disease commonly affects the kidneys more than the nervous system or heart. Unfortunately, it is often fatal. In cases of Lyme disease that affect the nervous system, seizure disorders and facial paralysis can occur.

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Natural Treatment For Lyme Disease In Dogs

Lyme disease in dogs is the leading tick-borne disease in the United States.

And while Lyme disease may not be common and many dogs never develop any symptoms, it is something that you need to treat if your dog starts showing signs

But if your dog does get this infection, dont run to the vet for drugs without trying these natural alternatives first.

Where Do Ticks Live And How Do They Get On Dogs

Ticks that carry Lyme disease are especially likely to be found in tall grasses, thick brush, marshes, and woods especially where deer populations are high. Ticks do not jump but only crawl and in seeking a host, will latch onto your dog when they pass by.

Lyme disease was named after a high number of cases that occurred in Lyme, Connecticut, in 1975, but cases in dogs have been reported in every state in the United States. However, Lyme disease is more common in some geographical locations specifically, the Northeast, upper Midwest, and northern Pacific coast. Dog owners who live or spend time in these areas should be aware of the symptoms of Lyme disease in dogs, as well as the preventative measures available.