by Dr. Erin Forbes, DVM, VVMA Communications Committee Chair April is Lyme Disease Prevention Month. While many people have heard of Lyme disease and know how prevalent it is in Vermont, they may not know much about how it spreads, the signs of disease, and how best to treat and prevent it.
Lyme disease is spread through deer tick bites and caused by a bacteria called borrelia burgdorferi. This disease can cause your dog to be lame, lethargic, and not want to eat and can also lead to kidney disease and rarely death. Preventing Lyme disease through vaccines and preventatives is the best way to keep your dog healthy.
Knowing the signs of Lyme disease is crucial as immediate treatment can prevent many of the complications associated with the disease. Some of the first signs seen are signs of joint pain. This includes an unusual gait, favoring one leg, difficulty walking, or walking with an arched back. Your dog may be sensitive to being petted or may cry out when jumping. Other signs include a fever, acting tired, or not wanting to eat. Some dogs develop kidney problems and will pee and drink more than normal, start vomiting, or develop acute kidney failure and stop peeing altogether.
The best way to keep your pet from getting sick is preventing Lyme disease. There are three main ways you can do this: using flea and tick prevention, getting your dog vaccinated, and checking your dog for ticks whenever she comes inside.
Inspecting your dog every day for ticks is crucial in prevention. A tick must be attached for 24 hours to transmit the disease, so if you check every day for ticks, you should be able to find any attached ones (that are large enough to be seen) and remove it. Removing a tick from a dog is best done using a tick removal device or tweezers. Grasp
the body with tweezers and gently pull the tick out. You want to remove the entire tick, head and all.
Flea and tick preventatives are the best way to keep your dog from contracting Lyme. There are many different types of flea and tick prevention, including topical, oral, and spray products. Topical products are the ones you put on the back of the neck and generally last for one month at a time. These include Frontline, Vectra, and Advantix to name a few. Oral products are treats that you give once a month or every 3 months, depending on the brand. These include Nexgard, Simparica, and Bravecto. There are sprays available, however, these generally need to be applied every day. Sometimes it is good to use these as a supplement--if you are planning on taking your dog in a heavily wooded area, applying the spray before the hike is a great idea. However, you should still use a monthly preventative.
Finally, there is a vaccine for Lyme disease that is very effective. All available canine Lyme disease vaccines produce borreliacidal antibodies in the dog, which work in the tick’s gut to bind the bacteria during the blood meal, sterilizing the gut of the tick and preventing transmission of bacteria into the dog.
Using prevention, vaccination, and inspection you can help keep your dog free of Lyme and the serious consequences that come from infection. If you have any questions or would like to discuss options more in depth, contact your veterinarian today.
The Vermont Veterinary Medical Association (VVMA) is a professional organization of 380 veterinarians dedicated to compassionate animal care and quality medicine.
