Nine questions for your vet about protecting your pet from Lyme disease
Tick-borne diseases can be fatal to dogs but there are plenty of ways to prevent them, veterinarian says.
Ticks and the diseases they carry are not only becoming a much bigger problem for humans in much of Canada but also for pets.
Dr. Mike Howlett, a veterinarian who works in a small practice in Amherst, in northern Nova Scotia near the New Brunswick border, says animals that have had run-ins with ticks are an almost daily occurrence in his clinic.
Southwestern Nova Scotia, where he began practising when he first moved back to his native province from Ontario, has long been a Lyme disease hot zone. Now, he says, tick-borne infections in pets have also risen sharply in northern Nova Scotia.
”The whole province is considered endemic to Lyme disease now,“ he said in a Zoom interview back in early December. Owners tell him their dogs are “going out, running through the yard and coming back with ticks on them.”
Nova Scotia isn’t the only province where ticks that spread Lyme disease and other illnesses have gained a foothold. Thanks to climate change, if you live in New Brunswick, or the southern regions of Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia, you are at much greater risk of encountering disease-carrying ticks. Case counts in these regions are soaring. Some estimates put the number of Lyme disease cases in Canada at more than 13 times the reported total.
Your pets also stand a good chance of bringing ticks into your home and getting infected themselves. So we asked Howlett some questions about how to protect them from tick bites and the diseases they cause.
How do I spot ticks on my animals?
Ticks can be hard to detect on dogs and cats, especially on breeds that have long hair and dense coats. Adults are generally about the size of an apple seed, somewhat larger if they’ve attached themselves to your pet’s skin and have begun feeding.
Howlett says your animals don’t have to venture far from your door to encounter ticks. You should comb through their fur thoroughly every time they’ve been outdoors to make sure the pests haven’t hitched a ride.
In much of Canada, they’ll most likely be black-legged ticks, also known as deer ticks. They’ll have reddish brown bodies and dark legs and they’ll generally be about one centimetre across if they’re fully engorged with blood.
How do I remove a tick that’s feeding on my pet?
“Should you find an attached tick, there are several products available to purchase from pet stores, outdoor stores and even Canadian Tire,” Howlett says.
“Some are “’keys’ which you slip over the tick and elevate it out. Other ones I prefer are called ‘Tick Twisters’ … They slip under the head of the tick against the skin and you gently twist and roll back, which is very effective.”
Howlett says if you have nothing else you can use fine-tipped tweezers and pull straight up.
“But make sure you have the head,” he adds. And he warns pet owners to beware of some of the methods described online.
“I see many at home remedy suggestions on social media, like burning the tick or using soap or oil. I would not recommend these methods as they are more likely to stimulate the tick to regurgitate and detach, which is how the Lyme bacteria is transmitted.”
You can also get a tick removal kit from the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation (CanLyme).
How do I get rid of ticks once I find them?
After removing them from your pet, you should dispose of them by immersing them in rubbing alcohol, wrapping them in tape and flushing them down the toilet. But whatever you do don’t crush them, because you run the risk of spreading the disease-causing bacteria they carry.
What are the early symptoms of Lyme disease in dogs?
If a tick has latched on to your dog and is feeding, you should make a trip to your vet immediately. Howlett says early intervention can ensure your pet makes a full recovery.
Treatment consists of a course of antibiotics to kill the bacteria that cause Lyme disease.
But often owners can overlook tick bites and it can be quite a while before your pooch can exhibit symptoms.
Lyme can be a pretty sneaky disease,” Howlett says. “If we tested every single dog that walked through our door, probably about 85 per cent of those positive dogs aren’t showing us really any symptoms at all.”
He says early symptoms can include:
- Loss of appetite,
- Low energy,
- Fever that comes and goes.
But he says probably the biggest red flag is lameness, a form of Lyme-related polyarthritis.
“Especially in young dogs that shouldn’t be lame and have arthritis,” he says.
But Howlett assures owners that the condition is reversible.
”That’s the great thing about that … Once these animals start antibiotics, often within 24 to 72 hours, it’s remarkably different,” he says.
”We have some of these older dogs that we’re thinking about osteoarthritis in addition to Lyme, we start taking care of the Lyme disease and we’re going to put that osteoarthritis on the back burner for now because the dogs are moving so much better,” Howlett continues.
”The quality of life is dramatically improved just after even a few days of treatment.”
Can Lyme disease be fatal to my dog?
If it goes undetected for several months, the infection can attack the dog’s heart and nervous system. It can also invade the kidneys and result in a life-threatening condition called Lyme nephritis — sometimes referred to as Lyme nephropathy.
“When we see these dogs that have a Lyme nephropathy, you’re looking at a one- or two-per-cent survival rate,” Howlett warns.
How can I prevent Lyme disease in my pets?
Owners should get their pups vaccinated and also take advantage of the preventatives — parasiticides that can kill ticks before they can infect your dog — that are on the market, Howlett says.
”Some of these are going to be topical drops on the back of the neck … Those typically sort of paralyze the tick and cause it to die.”
He says there are also chewable products that kill ticks after they bite but before they can transmit the disease-causing bacteria.
But Howlett cautions there’s no substitute for vigilance and you should still be checking your pets for ticks after every outing.
Can my cat get Lyme disease?
Howlett says the ticks that cause Lyme disease can and do feed on felines. But for some reason, cats rarely develop the illness.
Can I catch Lyme disease directly from my pet?
You can certainly get Lyme disease from ticks your pets bring into your house. The pests can piggyback on their fur without attaching to their skin, and then crawl around your home until they find another host — possibly you or your kids.
But Howlett wants to assure you that your pets can’t transmit tick-borne diseases directly to you or through the ticks that have already fed on them.
”You’re not going to catch Lyme from your dog,” Howlett says. That’s because the tick that bites your pet is going to feed, then detach itself and not feed again for a while, he explains.
“They usually feed on a single host,” says Howlett.
”The risk isn’t so much going to be them biting the dog and biting you. It’s going to be … being in the same place as the dog was so a different tick is going to bite you.”
If my pet can get vaccinated for Lyme disease, why can’t I?
Believe it or not, this is a question pet owners often ask their vets.
”It’s my understanding that there was a vaccine (for humans) at one time available in North America … but they removed it … and I believe that they are thinking about reissuing it out again,” Howlett says.
He’s right that there was once a human Lyme disease vaccine available on this continent. LYMErix was about 75 per cent effective. It produced antibodies a tick would absorb when it latched on to a human host. The U. S. Food and Drug Administration approved it back in 1998 but pulled it in 2002 due to weak demand.
There are several efforts to get human Lyme vaccines back on the market. Pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Valneva have one in Phase 3 human trials right now. At least two others are in development.
But CanLyme cautions that such a vaccine could give recipients a false sense of security.
“Although vaccines are an important tool, it’s too early to say that we have our silver bullet. While we may end up with an effective vaccine, ticks carry more than just Lyme disease,” the foundation’s website states.
“All vaccines have their limitations and in a lower risk region of Canada, it’s likely that the very difficult diagnosis of Lyme disease would be even harder to get for someone who had been vaccinated. We need better testing.”
CanLyme warns that if you want to protect yourself from Lyme disease, you’ll still have to be vigilant about coming into contact with ticks and learn to recognize the early symptoms.