Lyme Disease is a tick-borne illness that typically affects your dog’s joints, but may also attack other systems in your dog’s body. The disease is transmitted when a tick carrying the disease-causing bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi feeds on your dog and transfers the bacteria to your dog’s blood stream. The typical symptom is lameness due to joint inflammation; however, a list of possible symptoms is provided below:
- Sudden onset of lameness
- Swollen joints
- Fever, lethargy, loss of appetite or weight-loss
- Swollen lymph nodes
- Kidney disease
If your dog presents any of these symptoms, have them checked by your veterinarian. There are tests that can be done to determine if your dog has Lyme Disease and symptoms can be treated.
Our dog had two bouts of Lyme Disease. The first time the ankle joint on his front paw was swollen. We had just returned home from vacation and thought he sprained it playing on the beach – no, it was Lyme Disease. The second time he got Lyme Disease it affected his back and he was all hunched up and did not want to walk anywhere – that was Lyme Disease too. Now he gets tick preventative all-year round!