Lyme disease in dogs

User00003

Well-Known Member
I know this should be in the VET section, but as I'm looking for some quicker responses I thought I'd start it here before the admin guys move it;) sorry, just don't know how much traffic the vet section gets.

Anyhow, I removed a tick from my labs eyebrow a few weeks ago (4 ish), and since then there's been a bit of a bump/lesion come back, but it's only now I correlate the two. She has been tired, and has had a sore shoulder and feet, I blamed it on my dog-walker over working her though.

is there any experience here with dogs getting lyme disease, the cure, time-scales, and long-term effects?
 
Borders/Midlothian mate,

been reading a few symptoms online and getting pretty concerned, as a lot seem to hit the mark, apart from fever and lack of appetite (but she's a lab!).
 
Borders/Midlothian mate,

been reading a few symptoms online and getting pretty concerned, as a lot seem to hit the mark, apart from fever and lack of appetite (but she's a lab!).

Take her to the vets and insist on a blood test. Its the only way you will be sure and do it sooner than later as if not treated sooner then it can stay in the system as in humans and make her feel ill long term. I know thats not the answer you are looking for in terms of what you want but a very should be able to do things straight away and get the process of diagnosis and treatment sorted.

ATB
 
I have two CBR's and they are from the same litter and when a Tick is removed one dog shows no marks or signs he has ever been bitten whereas his brother swells up and scabs over about the size of a pea. If i went to the vet when i seen a Tick on them i would have a fuel bill the size of Europe... it will be an allegic reaction and not Lymes. Some dogs take the bite badly, some don't.
 
thanks for your input up to know..it's the tiredness and limping + sore feet that's concerning me most. In the reverse situation, she'd take me to the GP if she could, so I will for sure take her to the vet this PM. appreciate your comments red-dot, and I agree, but it's the side-symptoms that really concern me rather than the bite area.
 
I was always of the opinion that Lymes takes a few years to show up but that may be in humans... I had my dogs in a pheasant pen for 2 hours and one had 40 ticks and the other 20 and i had 8.... horrible little parasites!!
 
I was always of the opinion that Lymes takes a few years to show up but that may be in humans... I had my dogs in a pheasant pen for 2 hours and one had 40 ticks and the other 20 and i had 8.... horrible little parasites!!

If you leave Lymes Disease un diagnosed in a human for any length of time, you will either be dead! or badly crippled to the point of no return.

As I have siad in other threads on this subject, having seen one lady at the BDS stand at Belviour CLA the other year, who had not been diagnosed properly for a couple of years........result paralysed from the waist down and lost the sight in one eye!!!

I am not familier with this disease in dogs, but the symptoms I had was apparent by the second to third week. If indeed your dog has contracted it, and I assume dogs can catch it as it is a parasite of sorts that lives in the blood stream, I would take your dog to the vets and get it checked out.

If you do not you may find you will end up with an horrendous bill from the vets anyway if the disease takes hold, worse still you may loose your dog.

Check it out, and be careful yourself as well, Lymes disease is not a bloody joke!!
 
The Government know which regions have and have not got Lymes in Ticks but they refuse to release the specific regions which have Lymes as this would have a serious affect to tourism.. i stay in Stirlingshire which apparently has no Lymes but i for one would like to know where has.
 
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The disease in dogs is called Piroplasmosis ( check Google) and can be treated with a product called CARBESIA .
A blood test gives the answer. The disease can be very lethal and once you clearly see signs, it can be to late. The south of France is a dangerous area. My dogs had ticks frequently( in Belgium) and I never had a problem up to now.
 
I might be wrong here, but I was under the impression that Lymes was a notifiable disease in Scotland?

It is spreading along the south coast of England and believe it or not an aquiantance of mine who works in the local hardware store in my village stopped me at the time I was getting over my episode with it and his 3 year old son was in Great Ormund Street hospital for children as he was very ill with it after contracting it after returning from a camping holiday in the New Forest!

I would consider any symptons you or your pets may show which may lead you to think you have Lymes to be treated seriously and get a blood test. It is just not worth the risk.
 
Unfortunately i can't help with the dog problem, but like everyone has said u should all be aware off it and take it seriously. There's 2 sites BADA and Lyme disease action that have info.

Is it possible to inocculate ur dogs aggainst lymes (any vets?) I once picked up some german hitch hikers while travelling in nz and somehow got on about lymes (?? dunno how i ended up talking about that as they were both well fit:D) it is seemingly very common in parts of germany and they get their dogs jabbed for it annually/biannually.

A good reason for keeping up the Advantix or frontline

Also i was in an outdoor shop the other day and it had tick testing kits, pop the tick that bit into the kit and it will tell u if tick carrying lyme or related diseases.
Does anyone know if these kits work? From wot i've heard/read it can be very hard even for doctors to find clear evidence off lymes without trusting a throw away kit.

Cheers. I'm away too advantix my mutts, jist incase
 
The problem is that really the only way to test for lyme disease is a blood test and the test will only tell you that the dog has created an antibody. Unfortunately this does not tell you that the dog has a current infection, it may have had an infection in the past.

One of my springer's had a suspected lyme infection last year and my vet put her on a course of antibiotics and rest, after which she was fine. He said it was not worth doing a blood test for the above reason and far better to put her straight on the ab. I rested her for, I think, 6 weeks and then back in to dogging in and she was fine.

Symptoms were lethargic, lame and swolen lymph nodes and just generally off colour.
 
I am convinced that one of my Jack Russels passed away due to the end result of Lyme's, I remember taking a tick off his ear flap, the site was easily found by the lump that was left, he got progressively worse & as he was very old, it did not occur to me that Lyme's could be the cause.
 
I have removed many ticks from my dogs but a couple of months or so back I removed one from a spaniels face and within a short period of time his face had a firm lump around the site of where the tick had been. Vet checked lump and thought it was just a reaction that would go but within a couple of days the lump turned bright red. It was removed and found to be a benign tumour. Vet reckoned that the tick bite had set it off. Anything at all after a tick bite my dog would be at the vet.
 
A good friend, also very keen on spaniels, has a house in Belgium and one in the Dordogne area in France. Her garden is just next to the Lascaux caves. She travels up and down every 3/4 weeks. 7/8 months ago she bought a good dog from Ireland. After a few months he suddenly, in Belgium, started being "bad" . Dark urine, no life in him , etc....
She was back a few days from France. Vet does a blood test, Piroplasmosis, and there seems to be no cure ready available in Belgium. Delivery time 2/3 days, mortal in 48 hours. She drives with the dog about 2 hours into France to a vet which has the treatment readily available. The dog died on the way back home.
 
The disease in dogs is called Piroplasmosis ( check Google) and can be treated with a product called CARBESIA .

This is a different condition, my friend. Your information only muddies the water. Lyme disease is treated with very commonly available antibiotics that every pharmacy and almost every vet will have in stock.

I might be wrong here, but I was under the impression that Lymes was a notifiable disease in Scotland?

You are correct.

Is it possible to inocculate ur dogs aggainst lymes (any vets?)

There is no vaccine available in this country. They are available elsewhere but only reduce the risk and are associated with high number of vaccine reactions. The rules here are very strict as far as licensing medicines go and I suspect it's not a good enough or safe enough vaccine to get a UK licence.

The problem is that really the only way to test for lyme disease is a blood test and the test will only tell you that the dog has created an antibody. Unfortunately this does not tell you that the dog has a current infection, it may have had an infection in the past.

You are half right! What you say would be true of an antibody test, but we now have test that look for fragments of DNA (called PCR tests) that look for the pathogen itself. If it come back as positive the dog is carrying the disease. It's very sensitive and can detect dogs before they have made an antibody response. The PCR would likely be the test of choice.

I am convinced that one of my Jack Russels passed away due to the end result of Lyme's, I remember taking a tick off his ear flap, the site was easily found by the lump that was left, he got progressively worse & as he was very old, it did not occur to me that Lyme's could be the cause.

Very unlikely. It tends to prefer young dogs. Your dog was probably old, the tick a coincidence.

She was back a few days from France. Vet does a blood test, Piroplasmosis, and there seems to be no cure ready available in Belgium. Delivery time 2/3 days, mortal in 48 hours. She drives with the dog about 2 hours into France to a vet which has the treatment readily available. The dog died on the way back home.

Still a different disease...........

Please remember it's rare in dogs. They did a study back in 2005 where they did the PCR test on 120 dogs and cats and only 7 came back as positive. They were in the following areas:

Cat B burgdorferi Enniskillen, Fermanagh Chronic recurrent fever, renal disease

Cat B burgdorferi Swindon, Wiltshire Chronic recurrent fever, weight loss

Cat A phagocytophilum Scarborough, North Yorkshire Acute fever, weakness, lethargy

Dog A phagocytophilum Frome, Somerset Bleeding from surgical site, splenomegaly

Dog B burgdorferi Edinburgh, Lothian Chronic recurrent fever, lymphadenopathy, splenomegaly

Dog B burgdorferi Biggin Hill, Kent Uveitis, ocular disease

Dog B burgdorferi Broadway, Gloucestershire Chronic recurrent fever, lethargy

Dog B burgdorferi Swindon, Wiltshire Acute fever, lethargy, weakness

Dog B burgdorferi Scarborough, North Yorkshire Acute fever, lethargy, weakness
 
Gents,

many thanks for your input, it is much appreciated.

I went to the Vet last night after work, who informed me of the following (well, my best account anyway:rolleyes:):

a. Lymes in dogs is a risk, but can take a few months to show proper symptoms, mostly fever, lethargy, swollen joints and nodes, arthritic pain, depression, vomiting, and loss of appetite.

b. In the meantime, a blood test is available, but it might show positive even if the dog does not have Lymes, or show negative IF the dog has Lymes! Therefore, the best solution is (esp. since the dog has had quite a few tick bites already this year) to do a 3 week antibiotics course. This will also flush any other undesirable issues out of her system that may be there, and at least you will be sure the problem is tackled.

c. The government has stopped issuing information on where and how many cases of Lymes has been found - red tape to avoid reduced tourism basically

d. The swollen tick bite is just an irritation, which will over 2-3 months gradually go away

e. Should a dog contract Lymes, going untreated, it will most likely be fatal, but an early detection treated with antibiotics will cure the dog completely with no ongoing complications.

£39 later and a good soaking from a rogue rain storm (is it never summer in Scotland?), I'm pretty pleased with the situation. Dog also got a perfect 'sign off' from the Vet, so all should be good me hopes:D
 
Apache; You are half right! What you say would be true of an antibody test said:
Thank you for that, I will speak to my vet and bring them into the 21st centuary as they only spoke of the antibody test and advised, treated and prescribed accordingly. Not good enough, particularly as I'm quite a large customer.
 
The Government know which regions have and have not got Lymes in Ticks but they refuse to release the specific regions which have Lymes as this would have a serious affect to tourism.. i stay in Stirlingshire which apparently has no Lymes but i for one would like to know where has.

No lymes in Stirlingshire? depends what they class as Stirlingshire certainly in Central Region [north] and has been for some time I contracted it in 1995.
 
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