LYME DISEASE

How many ticks are actually infected with Lyme Disease? That's a good question.  Do you agree?  Every time one of us pulls a tick off our dogs or off of ourselves... our chest tightens.   The word LYME DISEASE flashes in big bold neon letters inside our heads.

Facts: 

1. The Tick Lab Tests ticks from all over the country for tick-borne diseases.

About 21 % are infected with tick-borne disease.

Therefore, the chances are 1 in 5 [about] that the tick you pulled off is carrying a disease.  

  2. Experts in Lyme Disease state that dogs don't get Lyme Disease [like people do].  Dr. Meryl P Littman [and I knew her well] felt that dogs rarely got Lyme disease. A very rare but serious problem from a Lyme positive tick is Lyme Nephritis, which is an autoimmune disease of the kidney tubules [vaccination for Lyme would increase the predilection for this problem] That's why I recommend that any dog who has tested positive for Lyme Disease do a routine clean urine test once a year to check for protien, which is the first sign that Lyme nephropathy is present.

Do I recommend a month of Doxycycline for dogs who test positive for Lyme Disease with a C6 Antibody Test from IDEXX? I sure do. One major reason I do this is to help prevent that immune mediated glomerulonephritis in the kidney.  I also give dogs a special homeopathic combination twice a week for 10 weeks or so to prevent complications.

But... the statistics don't lie........

Asymptomatic dogs who will never have a problem are at 95%.   

All that said, 95% of dogs who test positive for Lyme disease are not affected at all by the disease. Let that sink in. Check out this peer reviewed publication.

Here is the full article, if you're interested: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1939-1676.2006.tb02880.x

When a dog gets stiff, lame and has a fever the first thing I do is check for tick borne diseases. One important tick borne disease rarely checked for is Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. This disease responds wonderfully to doxycycline and one a dog gets RMSF it has lifetime immunity.

So.. let's sum up the data above.  Twenty percent or so of ticks are actually infected with Lyme Disease.  95% of dogs have no problem, no reaction and no illness even though they test positive for Lyme.

Add this up. 

Let it sink in.

For the 5% of dogs who get really sick, how can you blame the tick when 95% of dogs don't have any problems even though the bacteria is transferred from the tick into the dog?    It's because their immune system is shot; from overvaccination, flea and tick preventives and toxic overexposure. Believe it or not, the vast majority of dogs testing positive for Lyme disease are on - yes - flea and tick preventives.

Flea and Tick Preventives

The FDA has issued multiple warnings about these products. Click the green button below to read the full FACT SHEET

• Bravecto (fluralaner) tablets for dogs
• Bravecto (fluralaner) topical solution for cats and dogs
• Bravecto Plus (fluralaner and moxidectin) topical solution for cats
• Bravecto 1-month (fluralaner) tablets for dogs
• Credelio (lotilaner) tablets for dogs and cats
• Nexgard (afoxolaner) tablets for dogs
• Nexgard Plus (afoxolaner, moxidectin, and pyrantel) chewable tablets for dogs
• Nexgard Combo (esafoxolaner, eprinomectin, and praziquantel) topical solution for cats
• Simparica (sarolaner) tablets for dogs
• Simparica Trio (sarolaner, moxidectin and pyrantel) tablets for dogs
• Revolution Plus (selamectin and sarolaner) topical solution for cats

Here is what the FDA says once again:

Let's add this all up:

1. 20% or so of all ticks in US carry Lyme. Other tick borne diseases are even less.
2. 95% of adult dogs do not get any disease while a few have symptoms that resolve quickly. Puppies get joint symptoms which resolve on their own.
3. The flea and tick medicines have FDA warnings. People lose their dogs. Some dogs start with seizures and it last their entire lifetime. NO MATTER if it is oral, spot on or a collar it all enters their system.

Imagine you have cockroaches and your 2 year old niece visits often and crawls around. An exterminator is out of the question so you take old sponges from your laundry room, soak them in cockroach poison and put them around the house.  The same thing is true for these products as you are making your dog or cat into a poison soaked sponge with all these poisons circulating through every blood vessel and organ 24 hours a day. Every month you add more but applying it again..... and it keeps building up.

ADD THIS ALL UP ONCE AGAIN!

What's Your Conclusion?