You have a dog?You usually take her for a walk in the countryside and usually finish the tour with ticks?Be careful and protect your pet from them, as it’s better that your dog doesn’t have them instead of going home and having to take them out., as ticks transmit many diseases.
One of the diseases recently discovered in dogs that transmit ticks is Lyme disease.Read this Animal Expert article carefully to learn all about tick disease in dogs, their symptoms and their treatment.
- This disease.
- Also known as Lyme disease.
- Is caused by a bacterium.
- Specifically called Borrelia burgdorferi.
- Which is transmitted by ticks of the genus Ixodes; in dogs.
- This disease has been known since 1984 and in Brazil it was first diagnosed in 1992.
Lyme disease causes several health problems, but if diagnosed early and if appropriate antibiotics are administered, the disease can be overcome The clinical picture it presents includes, as mentioned above, several health problems, but is mainly associated with arthritis, joint deformity, nephritis, fever and carditis.
Symptoms can take a few weeks or even months to appear, in this disease the symptoms are numerous and there may be dogs that present them all, there may be only one isolated symptom, such as limping, which is the most common symptom, many of them or most.Symptoms that may appear include:
When you go to the veterinarian because of one or more of the symptoms described above that occur in your dog, you should explain in such detail that you saw what was happening with your pet, what activities you have performed recently and whether or not they are not a habit, it is possible.Previous health problems (especially if you are not your regular veterinarian), respond to anything you ask for in the clearest and most sincere way, because every detail provides a lot of information to the specialist veterinarian.
In addition, with all the information, the veterinarian should perform tests on the dog to rule out or confirm the possible causes of the symptoms, having to perform blood and urine tests as thoroughly as possible.
If the veterinarian deems it necessary, he or she may perform more tests to determine the diagnosis, it may be necessary, for example, to remove fluid from the inflamed joints for analysis, to do ultrasounds and x-rays, among many other tests useful to the specialist, and if you want to help your four-legged friend, you should give him permission to perform them.
The prognosis of this disease is good if it is diagnosed and acted quickly, is reserved if it is a chronic case and is bad if the disease affects the heart, central nervous system or kidneys, as long as it is not treated in time.the case of the kidneys.
If you want to know how long a tick lives, check out this Animal Expert article
Treatment for Lyme disease will depend on the organs and parts of the body affected and the state of the disease. First of all, antibiotics should be administered, in addition, at home, you must ensure that your dog makes little effort and is always warm and dry.
Initially, the antibiotic or antibiotics recommended by your veterinarian will be accompanied by certain analgesics, but you should never administer an analgesic medicine only to your dog, it should always be prescribed by the veterinarian, both the type and dose and time of administration.An attempt should be taken to avoid the administration and prescription of corticosteroids, as in this case there is a risk of spread of Lyme disease.
In general, with antibiotics, there is already an improvement in acute inflammation of the joints in a few days, however, the overall treatment should last at least a month, although it all depends on the severity of the disease.
The only prevention of Lyme disease in dogs is the prevention of ticks.Therefore, it is essential to apply the right pest control to your dog as often as your veterinarian tells you and in the way that suits your faithful friend, whether pipettes, collars, etc.
It is very important that, while we have up-to-date pest protection, as long as we go to areas such as countryside, gardens, parks, etc., where there may be ticks, at the end of the walk, it is important to check the entire body of the dog to make sure that it does not have ticks or other possible parasites on the skin.
If you find any, you must extract it with great care and ensure that no part of the tick remains attached to the skin of our dog, for this it is necessary that you find out as much as possible how to do it with the minimum risk. It is essential to remove the ticks the same day, because the longer they remain on our pet, the more likely they are to become infected.
Find home remedies for ticks in dogs in this peritoAnimal article
This article is for informational purposes only, in Animal Expert.com.br we cannot prescribe veterinary treatments or make any type of diagnosis, we suggest that you take your pet to the veterinarian in case of any condition or discomfort.
If you would like to read articles similar to, we recommend that you visit our Bacterial Diseases section.