Lymes disease in dogs

@Apache how do you spot this dreadful disaese in a dog - bit hard to see the 'bullseye' under all that fur, so is there something else we can look for?

Might want to send him a PM  Binky .... he doesn't look in very often.  

Or I should have an email  for him  if you want .  

he's been around quite a bit lately, I can always FB him if necessary, but knowing how many dog owners are on here, I thought it might be useful to share any info.

Apache's profile said he was last on 22 hours ago, so may well be back on soon?

Doc H.

If I'm honest I've never diagnosed or suspected it in a dog. A couple of colleagues have tested dogs and they have come back as negative.

We have so many effective treatments for ticks these days that it's unusual to see a dog with a tick these days.

Interestingly it's "Lyme" disease, with no 's at the end. It's named after a place not a person.

Talking about dogs , I see our pet insurance  is piling the  £,s on for next year ,   dearer than insuring the car now .    Have to see what the merkats have on offer. 

Looking at this ...the twin peaks in the distance  would be approaching  the Land of Special Location ,  the land in between is known as Mordor , the entry into Yam-Yam Land . 

Apache said:

If I'm honest I've never diagnosed or suspected it in a dog. A couple of colleagues have tested dogs and they have come back as negative.

We have so many effective treatments for ticks these days that it's unusual to see a dog with a tick these days.

Interestingly it's "Lyme" disease, with no 's at the end. It's named after a place not a person.

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I spend a lot of time on the moors, there aren't that many ticks up there as the cows and sheep are treated well. However I avoid places like the Tamar valley in summer becuase of the deer population, which is out of control. Wherever they roam in numbers, ticks seem to abound, and I think they are responsible for spreading Lyme? Recently deer have moved into forestry land on the moors, and we found a large dead tick on Ruby the other day - the flea stuff kills but doesn't stop them biting first it seems. She seems well enough, but Lyme is moving into areas of Dartmoor where I like to roam, hence the concern.

NB Exmoor is terrible for ticks, a dog owner I was talking to picked 40 ticks off her dog after a walk on Exmoor. It was also one of the first places to get Lyme in the UK.

During spring to Autumn I take on average one or two ticks of my dog every night, we treat her with something like Samparia every month, which as stated doesn’t stop them biting, it just kills most of them once they have.

To be fair to our dog she is a dream to check as her fur is a light hair coat with no down layer as she just lies there as we check her and twist the ticks off. My mate has black labs and they are a whole lot more difficult to spot.

Ruby has dark patches a black spots..... makes finding ticks hard! 

Use one of the tablets that kills them from the vet - Nexgard or Bravecto. You'll never see a tick again. Kills before the disease can be spread.

I did wonder if it is the procees of trying to remove  tick that causes the infection to be spread, ie ticks 'suck' blood so how would Lyme be transferred? But if you start pulling at it to remove it, then I understand they can 'blow' blood back - disease transferred? 

You need something called a O'tom tick remover. Prevents reguritation and infection of the host. Can use them on yourself and your dog

My flat retriever had what I was told was a tick burrow into it's nose. I dabbed it with vodka on a cotton bud which allegedly makes the tick release it's hooks or whatever. Then removed with tweezers. Left a bloody great hole in her nose but it healed up.

Used to do the same with the cat that'd get a cluster of things in front of it's ears. Silly sod would then wash it's ears with it's paw and get a bit pi$$ed.

I once got a tick bite on my leg from walking out on the moors.

Hot end of a match made that sucker jump off pretty sharpish. Although probably not the best way of removing one, and definitely not suitable for animals.

Putting alcohol or heat on the tick makes them regurgitate the blood back into the animal and vastly increases the chances of disease transmission. Use the tick remover I reccomend and treat your pets so they don't get ticks. You can get special cloting for you to wear impregnated with insecticide.

Apache said:

Putting alcohol or heat on the tick makes them regurgitate the blood back into the animal and vastly increases the chances of disease transmission. Use the tick remover I reccomend and treat your pets so they don't get ticks. You can get special cloting for you to wear impregnated with insecticide.

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Whoops! Good to know.