Anyone else have their dog get Lime Disease?

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My brother who lives in the north hills of Pittsburgh removed a tick from his dog a while ago, and recently the dog started limping. He took it to a vet and was told that the dog has Lime disease. The vet put the dog on antibiotics. Then he found out that his son who lives in Ohio has a dog that also has Lime disease.

So keep an eye out for ticks on humans and animals, and if you have to remove a tick it probably would be wise to have the human or animal that had the tick tested for Lime disease. Apparently it is going around.
 
I live near a wooded area and have timber in my back yard. Lyme disease vaccination is part of my dog's annual vet visit. Along with rabies, heartworm test, and all the other ones.
 
Good thing they caught it early; it can be debilitating for dogs and people. Lyme disease can be misdiagnosed easily, so well done for the docs.
 
Are there any cons to a dog getting the vaccination? A local vet indicated he doesn't recommend the vaccination since his experience is that it makes the situation worse should it not prevent the illness; Has anyone else heard that?

FYI: Lyme disease is named for a town in CT; only a stone's throw from my house....

as a public service

https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/stats/maps.html
 
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It is caused by a spirochete bacteria. A 28 day course of Doxycycline will clear it out of your system. Trouble is the Cape ticks carry some new illness that is worse than Lime =. I blouse my pant cuffs and spray my boots with insecticide with permetherin or the caption Kills them dead. I only go to the doctor when I get the bulls eye rash. I get my blood tested every yr for it anyway.
 
Since we all agree on not saying "mobile 1," we can agree on not calling it "lime" 8)

I have a DOT orange shirt I used to wear outdoors; I might have to find that thing.
 
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It's not just Lyme disease. The same tick also carries 4 or 5 other diseases that are similar. So you or your dog can get several diseases from one tick bite. Not saying all ticks carry all the diseases.

This past year was a boom for mice so they are expecting a surge in ticks.

Best advice from my vet is to use Frontline or a Soresto collar.

And obviously check yourself for ticks after walks in the grass.

I read they are trying out these mouse tunnels where a mouse runs through the tunnel and gets some Frontline like chemical rubbed on it to kill ticks. But it's just a trial now.
 
Two of my coworkers' kids have had Lyme disease. One had it about 14 years ago and it caused permanent problems because the doctors were too slow to diagnose and treat it.
 
great. If it can be gotten, my dog will get it. He's been hit by a car, had heart worms and skunked three times. I am running out of money and if he gets it I wont be pleased.
 
My wife contracted lyme disease from a tick bite. We were out on my boat and she was wearing a bikini , and I happened to spot the tell-tale bullseye target rash on the back of her thigh., which a tiny tick at the center. Took her to the doc, and she prescribed an antibiotic that is specific for lyme disease. 10 day course of medicine and minimize sunlight exposure, and she was cured.
 
My sister had a dog that got Lyme and whenever it kicked in the poor dog was suffering. IWe have a family member that has Lyme and it went undiagnosed for a while and that person suffers a lot from it.

My Vet suggested the vaccine for our dog, I get it yearly for her. Also treat her with Frontline but be aware that sometimes the bugs get immune to the stuff, I had my current dog on Frontline one year and she had live ticks (and I know it can take up to 48 hours to kill ticks). Vet confirmed that sometimes it doesn't work.
 
Yes, my yellow lab contracted Lyme disease a couple of years ago. And, yes, he was on flea and tick prevention at the time. One Saturday morning, he could not stand up so we immediately went to the vet. They could not determine a cause and he was fine by the afternoon. Happened again a month later and we ended up at a vet school running all kinds of neurological tests. Bottom line, after 3 months of tests (and $$$) they determined it was Lyme disease. Treated with Doxy and he was OK, but it flares up from time to time. My understanding is he will always have it, we just treat the symptoms and give a course of Doxy when they arise. Fortunately, vet doesn't think any permanent joint or other damage occurred. BTW, our vet is not a proponent of the vaccine as he doesn't feel its effective for most dogs.
 
My dog died from kidney failure brought on by Lyme disease, that was 14 years ago. I got bit my a tick around the same time. I didn't think too much about it and didn't go to the doctor till much later as I started having weird illnesses. It was worse from fall through winter. I'd do a few weeks of antibiotics and seemed ok for the rest of the year till fall came around again. Then about 6 years ago I was getting seriously sick. I've been on various antibiotics non stop for the last 6 years. They've helped but I'm still very ill. It was in me untreated for too long unfortunately. Life has become a living Hades. I believe less than half of the people who get Lyme disease had the bulls eye rash, I didn't have it. I also have one of the many more deadly co infection of Lyme, Bartonella, which destroys your nerves and does other nasty things to the body and mind. If you think you might have been bit by a tick get to a Lyme literate doctor right a way. Many doctors don't really understand Lyme disease and the seriousness of it.

Whimsey
 
Agree with Whimsey- I think the bulls eye rash can be missing or not readily observable in many cases. Fortunately for my wife it was pretty obvious. I saw it on her leg and immediately I thought "D*mn thats some sort of disease and it can be bad" but that's all I remembered at the time. I was pretty upset about it at the time, but the doc was saying it was no big deal as long as you take the meds exactly as prescribed. She said "we do not even need to run a test for it- the bulls eye rash is quite obvious, and you found a tick. No sense running an expensive test with the other 2 bits of clear evidence. There was a high incidence of Lyme disease in Maryland when she got it 6-8 years ago, but I have not heard as much about it recently.
 
I know a guy who fought with Lymes for years. It finally took his life a couple years ago.

Vectra works very well for my lab. He hasn't gotten a tick on him since I started using it. Its very strong though and can make some dogs sick. Frontline didn't work very good for him. He's a black lab, and I had to pick 36 ticks off of him once from just one day in the woods.

The large wood ticks don't carry Lymes. AFAIK only deer ticks carry Lymes.
 
Originally Posted By: Srt20


The large wood ticks don't carry Lymes. AFAIK only deer ticks carry Lymes.


Any tick can carry Lyme disease. I was bit by a large tick and got infected. At that time I ONLY thought the deer tick carried Lyme disease, boy was I wrong
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Whimsey
 
When I looked online about treatment for Lyme disease some sites talked about a 30 day, or a 28 day course of antibiotics, but it seams that the people who talked about their own, or other peoples experience with treatment involved only a 10 day treatment of antibiotics. I am not a medical doctor, but it does seam that there may be some question as to how long of course of antibiotics should be used once a person is diagnosed as having Lyme.

From Wikipedia: Treatment:
Antibiotics are the primary treatment. The specific approach to their use is dependent on the individual affected and the stage of the disease. For most people with early localized infection, oral administration of doxycycline is widely recommended as the first choice, as it is effective against not only Borrelia bacteria but also a variety of other illnesses carried by ticks. Doxycycline is contraindicated in children younger than eight years of age and women who are pregnant or breastfeeding; alternatives to doxycycline are amoxicillin, cefuroxime axetil, and azithromycin. Individuals with early disseminated or late infection may have symptomatic cardiac disease, refractory Lyme arthritis, or neurologic symptoms like meningitis or encephalitis. Intravenous administration of ceftriaxone is recommended as the first choice in these cases; cefotaxime and doxycycline are available as alternatives.

These treatment regimens last from one to four weeks. If joint swelling persists or returns, a second round of antibiotics may be considered. Outside of that, a prolonged antibiotic regimen lasting more than 28 days is not recommended as no clinical evidence shows it to be effective. IgM and IgG antibody levels may be elevated for years even after successful treatment with antibiotics. As antibody levels are not indicative of treatment success, testing for them is not recommended
 
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