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Avoiding Lyme Disease

By: Author Paris Permenter

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steve-dale

At last week’s BlogPaws conference, I had the opportunity to attend a private breakfast sponsored by Virbac Animal Health and hosted by Steve Dale, well-known for his books, radio show, and more. We discussed an important topic for both pets and humans: Lyme disease.

In the first of a series of posts I’ll be doing about the sessions I attended at the conference, I wanted to give you a rundown of 10 things you need to know about Lyme disease and how it can impact you and your pets.

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10 Things You Need to Know About Lyme Disease

  1. You can ask your vet for a four-way test that, while testing for heartworms, also tests for exposure to Lyme and other tick-borne diseases. It is only slightly more expensive than the heartworm test.
  2. Lyme disease numbers are up because people are in closer contact with wildlife.
  3. A tick needs to stay on your dog 24 hours or longer to infect for Lyme. (Other tick-borne diseases can be transmitted in less time.)
  4. If your dog is vaccinated for Lyme disease, he is not protected from other tick-borne diseases.
  5. Your vet is your best resource for products that protect your pet based on your location and your lifestyle.
  6. The summer months are the peak time for Lyme disease in the US.
  7. Symptoms of Lyme disease in pets include sudden lameness, sometimes symptoms of severe pain, often swollen joints, fever, lethargy, severe depression, and lameness that may recur even after a period of recovery.
  8. Antibiotics are the treatment for Lyme in pets (and people).
  9. Corticosteroids can mask the diagnostic value of the antibiotic treatments and don’t have a true healing effect.
  10. Lyme disease attacks various organ systems in the body: nervous system, activity system, circulatory system.

This post is sponsored on behalf of the BlogPaws Blogger Network . I am being compensated for helping spread the word about BlogPaws, but DogTipper.com only shares information we feel is relevant to our readers. BlogPaws is not responsible for the content of this article.

Paris Permenter
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