How to detect a Lyme disease infection in a dog

Dogs get a tick in no time. They often move about nature, to which they are somewhat closer with their stature than us and the fur is an ideal boarding bridge for ticks. They sweep out all kinds of high grass or bushes, so they are perfect collectors of these parasites. Little wonder that despite the use of antiparasitic agents, we have to pull out one tick from time to time.

Besides, a possible transmission of Lyme disease by other bloodsucking parasites such as fleas or mosquitoes is being researched now.

However, the main carrier still remains the castor bean tick. The incidence of ticks with Lyme disease ranges between 2% to about 40%. It depends mainly on local incidence of Lyme disease. Since it is the bacteria Borrelia that is responsible for the disease, which gets into the digestive tract of the tick only while it sucks blood of an infected animal. The infection rate of ticks in our republic is estimated at 20%.

Infection

For the dog to get infected with Lyme disease, the tick must be attached for more than 24 hours. That’s why a timely discovery and removal of the tick plays an important role. Therefore, check your dog after every walk, or at least every evening.

For the disease not to break out clinically depends not only on the amount of the transmitted Borrelia bacteria, but also on the health of the dog and the strength of its immune system. Correct removal of the tick is also important, but I’ll tell you about that next time. Lyme disease may break out in a dog even after several months from the infection, for example, when its immunity is weakened by another disease.

You surely know that a warning sign of an infection in humans is reddening of the place of attachment of the tick with a distinctive rim that appears after several days from the infection. In animals, however, this symptom doesn’t appear. So a timely detection of the infection is more difficult in dogs.

Symptoms

How do you detect Lyme disease in a dog then? According to veterinarians, among the most frequent symptoms belong:

• limping on one or more legs
• increased temperature
• loss of appetite
• apathy
• pain in the joints

In later stages of the disease, more severe and much more dangerous symptoms set in, such as damage to the heart, brain or kidneys. However, these symptoms can set in even in the absence of the ones mentioned above. The heart and the nervous form are rare, but all the more dangerous. In the nervous form, even a total paralysis might occur, along with seizures or painful spasms. Kidney damage will limit their function and it is often accompanied by swellings of the limbs.

Diagnosis and treatment

The main diagnostics of Lyme disease lies in a serological blood examination for antibodies or a direct find of bacteria in the joint or other bodily fluids.

Lyme disease can be diagnosed even by examining the attached tick. After you remove it, you can send it for examination where they will find out, whether it was infected. This way, you will detect the disease in time, however, the standard examination that detects tick encephalitis, Lyme disease and ehrlichiosis will cost you 1,990 crowns, just for Lyme disease it's 740 crowns. That’s why it pays off to have it done only in case you suspect the disease: for instance, if the tick is full and therefore it was attached for longer than a day and if you move around a place where the infection rate of ticks is high.

The treatment is usually lengthy and difficult. Not only are antibiotics administered for a minimum of two weeks, they also have to be accompanied by a symptomatic treatment of the symptoms as well. In addition, the lengthy treatment will also heavily burden the dog’s organism and your wallet.

Prevention

Therefore, as with everything, proper prevention is essential. In case of Lyme disease that lies mainly in the mentioned use of antiparasitic products and a regular check of the fur. It also pays off to treat the dog bed regularly with a suitable repellent, along with other places where the dog often stays.

And if you want to be even more confident that your fluffy friend won’t get infected, you can have it vaccinated against Lyme disease. The best time for vaccination is the period before the tick season, that is in January – March.

Even so, it may get infected. Since the vaccination is only about 50% effective. However, in connection with other prevention, it still significantly decreases the possibility of an infection.