EDMOND -- Q: My Golden Retriever, Rosie, recently was diagnosed with Lyme disease but seems to be doing fine now. We have two other dogs and they all roam on a 5-acre back yard. Can my other two dogs, or I and my children get Lyme disease from her?
The Vet had an excellent reply, and NEVER said that lyme disease doesn't exist here. (good thing they didn't ask an MD) People are not educated or warned about lyme disease here because the doctors are all denying its existence!!
Here is part of her reply:
A: Lyme disease is a tick-borne disease that is caused by a bacterium carried in the tick's midgut called Borrelia burgdorferi.
Infected dogs can indeed act as a reservoir for Lyme disease. They will test positive for the disease and may or may not be symptomatic.
However, the only way anyone else would contract the infection is by a tick bite from a tick that is carrying the bacterium.
A tick could bite Rosie and pick up the disease, and later bite someone or something else and transmit it.
Basically an infected dog provides a place for a tick or ticks to feed on and pick up the Lyme disease.
Dogs also may carry infected ticks indoors on their fur. If unattached ticks are infected and they drop off, they will seek another warm body.
Should they attach to you, your children or the other two dogs they certainly can transmit Lyme disease.
There is another level of possibility for human infection.
If an infected tick is removed with bare hands and the tick is crushed, the bacteria living in the tick's midgut can enter your skin through cuts or mucous membranes.
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96239 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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Leelee
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 19112
posted
quote:
Infected dogs can indeed act as a reservoir for Lyme disease. They will test positive for the disease and may or may not be symptomatic.
However, the only way anyone else would contract the infection is by a tick bite from a tick that is carrying the bacterium.
A tick could bite Rosie and pick up the disease, and later bite someone or something else and transmit it.
Basically an infected dog provides a place for a tick or ticks to feed on and pick up the Lyme disease.
I am having trouble understanding this. Is the vet saying that a tick that doesn't have Lyme bites a dog that has Lyme then the tick gets the Lyme and goes on to bite a human and give the human Lyme?
I am intrigued b/c about ten years ago one of my dogs got Lyme. My LLMD seemed to think this was significant when making my clinical diagnosis.
-------------------- The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. Martin Luther King,Jr Posts: 1573 | From Maryland | Registered: Feb 2009
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