OK, dog people, listen up.

Cat people...you can click on the nice picture of Simon's Cat. If you have not seen the newest video clip, you are missing another hilarious cartoon. BTW cat people...I still have Ms. Luvbunny here. Not cool to leave a mother lonely through the holidays. If you adopt Ms Luvbunny, know that she probably will not get Lyme disease....

OK dog lovers, here we go

So, every year we do a Heartworm/Lyme test on each dog in the practice. Fortunately, the heartworm rate is very low thanks to the widespread use of heartworm prevention (and some pretty cold winters).

But, the frequency of dogs testing positive for Lyme disease has risen dramatically.

2 years ago, 5% of our population was positive for Lyme

Last year it was 8%.

This year, our Lyme positive rate is 15%...a 3 fold rise in two years!

Lyme disease, as you may know, is a bacterial infection that is carried by the deer tick. The type of bacteria is called a spirochete. A spirochete is cork screw shaped and can wreak havoc on a dog or person.

The good news is that you cannot catch lyme disease from your dog and vice versa, the other good news is that ticks are pretty much gone now. But I'm still seeing dogs that are positive for lyme on a weekly basis. Most are not sick, and as it turns out, many dogs that are exposed to the Lyme bacteria never do get sick. But when they do, it can attack the joints, or the kidneys, or the neurological system.

In the interest of having a standardized approach to Lyme disease, several national veterinary groups have come up with recommendations for approach to this disease in our canine patients. There are a couple things that I discuss with each client whose dog tests positive, but then I have my own recommendations on what to do in the case of a positive test result.

National recommendations at this time go like this...since most dogs do not get ill, each dog that tests positive on the in-house test should have a titer performed (to determine just how high a positive or get quantitative information for you science types). In addition, positive dogs should have a blood test for kidney damage and a urine test for the presence of protein in the urine. For dogs that have a history of stiffness, or neuro signs, or abnormal blood or urine tests, treatment with doxycycline is recommended.

In dogs that are treated, we expect 75% to have eliminated it from their system by the following annual test.

I toed the party line for about a year. The more I explained the recommendation, the more a couple things bugged me.

1) the dogs that were not treated were a reservoir for other ticks to be exposed to the bacteria

2) the workup only told me that the dog was safe at that time, it didn't tell me about the future

3) the workup cost the client $250-300, the antibiotic is about 20 bucks.

So about 3 years ago I veered off of the path and started recommending antibiotic treatment for most dogs that were positive...and I feel good about that.

In addition, many vets recommend the Lyme vaccine. Again I'm feeling like the renegade vet on this. By nature most of you know that I want to minimize vaccines whenever possible. I think that we have historically vaccinated too aggressively for most pets and as more up-to-date info comes in I think it is our responsibility as vets to use the least amount of vaccination that will keep our patients safe. So the reason I don't generally recommend the Lyme vaccine is that its by most accounts about 70% effective. Also, it's one of the most likely to cause dogs to feel sore at the vaccination site.

I admit on this second point that as our relative infection rate climbs, 70% efficacy doesn't look as bad. There is no doubt that if I practiced on the Cape or in Lyme Connecticut, that I might reconsider this point. Some practices report greater than 50% positive dogs in their population. But we just got to 15%.

For now, let us know if you see any sudden stiffness in your dog. Also, let us do the yearly 4Dx test which is the test that is the basis of all of this info.  Don't bother with the topical agents for fleas and ticks this time of year unless you travel outside of Maine or if your dog is in daycare (and then its only to avoid bringing home fleas). I'll send out a reminder, but we will likely start back up in April (my general guideline is April 15th, although last year we started a month earlier because it was warm).

If you find a tick on your dog, do not freak out.

A few things to know....

Ticks have to be on the dog for greater than 24 hours to transmit Lyme disease

Ticks are easily removed by just grasping where they enter the skin and gently rotating. Put a little alcohol on first. They don't really have heads, but they do have big pinchers that they can leave behind. If they do, it will not grow another tick or get into the bloodstream. It'll just form a lump like if you had a little splinter.

Why the update on Lyme disease right before Christmas? Because it takes about 30 days until most dogs can get sick from exposure and we just ended the tick season in November.

Now you may click on the kitty and laugh.

:)