Dealing with tick bites in dogs / Lyme disease risk

RE: Dealing with tick bites in dogs / Lyme disease risk

Bob Russell — Wed, 07 Mar 2018 11:47:55 GMT

I don't give amoxycillin to treat Lyme disease. Only infection secondary to mouthparts being left in place. Not as a routine!

Having discussed the various tests with TDDS there appears to be limited confidence in the blood tests. I have never found a positive despite 30 years in the centre of the Lyme disease world!

Most cases in humans seem to be diagnosed on classic clinical signs which are pretty much absent in dogs. I don't know how common infection is in dogs around here but I suspect many cases just get symptomatic treatment which may be far from ideal.

I would therefore agree that antibiotic use is generally to be avoided after a tick attaches.

RE: Dealing with tick bites in dogs / Lyme disease risk

Sammy82 — Wed, 07 Mar 2018 10:43:18 GMT

Yes, this is my experience at the GP too. I react to ticks with immediate itch, redness and swelling similar to eg. horse fly bites (although my reaction to those b******* is worse) which lasts about 24hrs. So when I went to the GP the next day he reassured me that the rash with Lyme disease is not immediate but rather appears days or weeks after the tick bite. He booked me in to check for antibodies a couple of weeks later and said they wouldn't give preventative ABs as it has to be a lengthy course (several months!). So how much good are we doing with a short course of Amoxicillin?

I guess the advantage of my reaction is that I notice the tick pretty quickly and can remove it before it had the chance to transmit anything. I'd rather not get any in the first place though but where I lived before I even picked them up in my own garden.

RE: Dealing with tick bites in dogs / Lyme disease risk

Andrea Tarr — Wed, 07 Mar 2018 09:32:47 GMT

It might be helpful to know that routine antibiotic prophylaxis in humans is not recommended after tick bites (https://cks.nice.org.uk/lyme-disease#!scenario).

RE: Dealing with tick bites in dogs / Lyme disease risk

Bob Russell — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 14:40:42 GMT

Until such time as someone comes up with a good, reliable Lyme disease test it will remain a mystery how many dogs become infected.

I have stopped looking because they always test negative. Does not mean it is not causing infection just that I cannot reliably identify it as Lyme disease.

if someone has found a useful test then I would use it often.

How many of our autoimmune disease problems are Lyme/tick related?

I do have doxycyclin for situations where I am convinced it is Lyme disease but generally use amoxycillin.

I will remove any ticks and try to sell the owner Nexguard (and a tick hook for any that attach to the human going for a walk). No antibiotics unless there is significant swelling or if the only remnants are mouthparts.

I have a zero tolerance for ticks. I do not expect my patients to get ticks because I expect owners to take proper preventative action.

Dogs that travel to Europe, especially the Mediterranean are supplied with a repellent product such as Vectra 3D because disease transmission can be far more rapid for some of the exotic tick diseases.

RE: Dealing with tick bites in dogs / Lyme disease risk

Martin Atkinson — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 14:21:46 GMT

[quote user="Noweia"]What do people generally tend to do when a dog comes in with a tick attached, and there is marked swelling and redness around the bite?[/quote]Remove it, sell 'em some Nexgard and a tick hook and tell them to bring it back if it gets unwell.

RE: Dealing with tick bites in dogs / Lyme disease risk

Miriam Lodewyks — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 13:50:46 GMT

Having grown up in South Africa where ticks were a daily occurrence before Bravecto was invented, I have become adept at picking them off with my fingernails. If left to engorge themselves they often result in an "eschar" but this usually goes down after 5-10 days.

Giving antibiosis to every tick-bite case in that country would be untenable!

In SA the main concern with ticks is "Billiary" caused by Babesia... utterly deadly and claims thousands of dogs a year. I've never come across Lyme disease in the UK in 20 years and I generally don't make a big deal of it.

Always preach "prevention" though.

RE: Dealing with tick bites in dogs / Lyme disease risk

Neil Wheadon — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 12:03:41 GMT

[quote user="Anthony Dennison"]That was 'The Big Tick Project' done by Bayer and University of Bristol wasn't it? They followed it up a year later doing the same but with cats I think. [/quote]

No, not that one, that one was 'what type of tick is it?'

This one was a retrospective, looking at actual prevalence.

Neil

RE: Dealing with tick bites in dogs / Lyme disease risk

Anthony Dennison — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 12:01:20 GMT

[quote user="Neil Wheadon"]

Wasn't there a study a few years ago where something between 1000 and 5000 blood samples were tested retrospectively and 13 had a titre? It was in the Vet Times. I looked at it and thought 'It's about, but rare'

Willing to be corrected or the proper reference stated

Neil

[/quote]

That was 'The Big Tick Project' done by Bayer and University of Bristol wasn't it? They followed it up a year later doing the same but with cats I think.

RE: Dealing with tick bites in dogs / Lyme disease risk

Iain Richards — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 11:45:12 GMT

Interesting question. A 1995 paper suggested that the classic target lesion doesn't occur in animals. However co-feeding is a very common means of pathogen transmission between ticks. An infected tick feeds and injects a pathogen, which is then taken up by an uninfected tick feeding in the same place. It accounts for animals acting as a means of transmission, despite having no bacteraemia.

On this basis, I'd treat a dog in a known tick infected area (or having acquired the tick in the known Lyme area) with doxycycline. I'm doing some literature research on this, so the advice may change!!

RE: Dealing with tick bites in dogs / Lyme disease risk

Neil Wheadon — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 11:34:11 GMT

Willing to be corrected or the proper reference stated

Neil

RE: Dealing with tick bites in dogs / Lyme disease risk

Will McMullan — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 11:19:56 GMT

Remove the tick, unless it is hugely swollen and painful, do nothing. They settle down very quickly. Is Lyme disease a concern unless you live in some very specific areas of the country? Are people diagnosing it?

RE: Dealing with tick bites in dogs / Lyme disease risk

Anthony Dennison — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 11:19:27 GMT

We're not in a Lyme endemic area, but the inflammation is just the natural reaction to the tick. I'll remove the tick, and then leave it, ask the owner to monitor it and the swelling should go down by itself in a few days.

I grew up in an area where there were loads of ticks, and there was an area where Lyme's disease could be picked up. Used to take 3 or 4 ticks a week of each of our dogs, and they never had any complications or swellings that didn't go down after a few days.

I still always brush my legs off after going through long grass now after being conditioned to do it when I was a child!