Dogs and Lymes Disease

Summer 2010 brought a fairly unknown and vicious attacker into our home. We had known about deer ticks as we do alot of hiking, biking and camping. We also knew the risks of Lymes disease. What we didnt know or failed to see were the risks for our beloved 4 legged balls of fur.

Our Old English Sheepdog/Lab mix, Maggie, was just about a year old when I noticed some peculiar behavior from her. This is a puppy we believe came from a puppy mill (we rescued her from the humane league). As such, she was fairly aggressive when it came to meal time, she would gobble all of her food down in less than 5 minutes and was ALWAYS looking for dropped scraps or missed crumbs.

But, that summer I noticed she was not eating as heartily or as aggressively as usual. I wasn't too concerned at first, until I noticed that she seemed to also be having trouble standing and looked a little unsure when she walked, really walking slow. She seemed to have developed a shallow pant even though our house is kept at a steady 66 degrees from May through September.

I contacted the vet and was told to keep an eye on her and if she stopped eating all together call them back and they would see her. The next day the poor thing was still laying in the same spot when I got home from work and even though I brought her food to her she refused to eat. The vet agreed to see her immediately. When I arrived at the vets I was relieved to see that she could walk in the door herself, after carrying her 50 lb furry, solid body to the car at home I was dreading carrying her again.

The vet took her tempeature and declared it to be at least 3 degrees above normal, which by his explanation was 3 degrees too much and constituted a fever. Her poor little limbs were shaking severely and she was panting heavier by now. She looked so out of sorts and disoriented my heart was beating like crazy for her. The vet did a Lymes disease test on her and the test revealed she had it before it was even finished analyzing her blood.

He prescribed her an antibiotic, doxycycline, which we then had to administer to her several times a day for 30 days. We were also given an anti-inflammatory, remadyl. She seems to have fully recovered from this bout with the disease, but time will only tell. We have been informed that the disease lurks in the body dormant and she will most likely suffer arthritis and inflammation in her body as she ages.

The main things to understand about this disease and your dogs:

• The younger they are, the worse the symptoms
• The symptoms in your dog are NOT the same as symptoms for humans
• The earlier (obviously) the disease is discovered, the better chance your pooch has of recovering
• Lymes disease not only attacks the joints it also attacks the heart, kidneys and nervous system.
• If not treated, your pet could die from kidney or heart failure.
• A simple tick/flea control product can help you avoid the worst of tick infestation, if ticks are in heavy concentration in your yard a tick eliminating yard insecticide is recommended. Also check him for ticks after walks.
• If your pet has had Lymes disease, DO NOT vaccinate them against the disease. This could prove to be fatal for your dog.

Our loving furry friends depend on us to protect them and keep them healthy, though sometimes something can sneak right by you. We checked our dogs religiously for ticks at least twice a week. Now I know to make sure the tick formula is put on both my dogs as soon as warm weather starts to break and we will definately be spraying the yard this year.

I hope that the information in this story helps somebody, we thought we were educated about it, unfortunately we only had information about humans not canines. Now we know and we are alot more diligent. Dont let these horrid bugs make your summer a nightmare, make sure to check for ticks and use tick control products.