Your pet could have Lyme disease if it likes to go to heavily wooded and grassy areas. These areas are where ticks carrying this disease thrive. Therefore, you need to take suitable precautions if you live or spend time in such areas. About half the counties in the United States, as of 2016, have these ticks.
Unfortunately, Lyme disease is an often under-researched, underreported, and debilitating condition. It has a wide range of symptoms, many of which mimic those of other diseases. This makes it quite challenging to diagnose. You need to understand that black-legged ticks transmit other types of disease-causing parasites, viruses, and bacteria.
What Is Lyme Disease?
A bacteria known as Borrelia burgdorferi causes Lyme disease, which is an infectious condition. This bacteria spreads through a host’s body after suffering a bite from an infected deer or black-legged tick. The tick gets an infection after feeding on infected mice, birds, or deer.
Symptoms of Lyme disease can occur anywhere from three to 30 days after the bite. Depending on the stage of infection, the symptoms can be wide-ranging. Sometimes, they can appear several months after the bite.
Chances of Developing Lyme Disease
Chances of your pet developing Lyme disease depend on the type of tick, how long the tick is attached to its body, and where the bite occurred. The ticks must attach to their host for about 36 to 48 hours to transmit the disease. If you remove the ticks before 36 hours, your pet might be lucky enough not to develop an infection, according to specialists.
How Big Are the Ticks?
The ticks that transmit Lyme disease come in three sizes. This, however, depends on their stage of life. Adult or full-sized ticks are about the size of an apple seed. Medium-sized ones are approximately the size of poppy seeds, while larvae are the size of a grain of sand.
Signs and Symptoms
Some of the earliest signs and symptoms of Lyme disease in your pet include fever and loss of appetite. Other signs include reduced energy, general pain, stiffness or discomfort, shifting, recurring or intermittent lameness, and swollen joints. Unfortunately, all of these symptoms are common in many other diseases.
Without treatment, the symptoms may worsen and lead to kidney failure, neurological effects, or cardiac arrest. These are dangerous and could cost your pet its life.
Treating Lyme Disease
When you discover any of the above symptoms, you need to make your way to the vet to conduct tests. If the pet has this condition, the vet will prescribe antibiotics to treat the disease. Within a month of taking the medication, the condition should quickly resolve. However, in instances where the condition persists, the vet will continue treating the pet for longer periods. The vet can even turn to specific therapies to resolve persistent symptoms.
To learn more about Lyme disease, visit Madison Animal Care Hospital at our office in Madison, Alabama. You can also call 256-461-7575 to schedule an appointment today.
