posted
Yeah I got him on saturday and he was at vet on Monday and was tested. It was neg. reliable?
Posts: 22 | From SC | Registered: Jul 2009
| IP: Logged |
posted
Yeah I got him on saturday and he was at vet on Monday and was tested. It was neg. reliable?
Posts: 22 | From SC | Registered: Jul 2009
| IP: Logged |
BoxerMom
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 25251
posted
Probably unreliable as it takes time for the body to make antibodies to the Lyme bacteria.
If he has a follow-up, you could ask for prophylactic antibiotics. Also, he may react badly to normal vaccines if he has Lyme. You should know for sure before he gets his regular vaccines.
I would retest him in 4-6 weeks, just to be safe.
I'm so sorry you have to go through this with your new puppy.
posted
He could definately transmit bartonella, just as a cat could through bitting/ scratching/ fleas/ ticks, although it is much more likely for a cat (kitten) to carry bartonella.
-------------------- "Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear." Posts: 16 | From Austin | Registered: Jul 2010
| IP: Logged |
nenet
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 13174
posted
There is not enough known about alternative modes of Lyme transmission (human to human, other animals to humans, etc.) to be able to say one way or another.
If you want to err on the side of caution, I would just avoid bites or contact with broken skin and your dog's saliva or blood, and wash hands after playing with him or cleaning up after him.
Please try not to be overly worried about this - just use the regular precautions anyone should use when handling pets.
By the way, tick saliva transmits Lyme because it includes specific chemicals that Lyme has evolved to use for its transmission to a host (as well as transmission from host to tick).
The tick must also bite you for the saliva to work, and for transmission to occur.
As was mentioned above, Bartonella can be transmitted by the scratch of a cat, or by fleas or ticks. It may also be transmitted by dogs, but I am not as familiar with how that can happen.
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic