Lyme Disease in Dogs | Free Dog Health and Veterinary Information!

Oftentimes, it is hard to spot signs of Lyme Disease because most manifestations may signify a variety of different disease conditions. A dog with Lyme Disease often exhibits the following symptoms—lameness, swelling of the affected joints, fever, lethargy, loss of appetite, and swollen lymph glands.

Lameness can often be mistaken for arthritis however lameness associated with Lyme Disease has a sudden onset and may alternate between one leg to another. Whereas, lameness due to arthritis develop over a considerable period of time and consistently affects a particular joint or joints.

What’s confusing about Lyme Disease is that the symptoms may mysteriously disappear even without treatment only to show up again sometime later. Beware though, for this can mean that the disease may have progressed to a more advanced level.

Major problems associated with Lyme Disease include renal failure as a consequence of a progressive kidney disease. Other major organs can also be affected including the heart and nervous system resulting in serious complications.

Tetracycline or penicillin-based antibiotics are the drugs of choice for Lyme Disease in dogs. Although dogs can recover within two weeks since the start of treatment, antibiotic therapy is usually a long-term regimen reaching thirty days or longer to prevent recurrence.

A good preventive program against Lyme Disease in dogs involve vaccination and tick control. Puppies living in tick-infested areas should be vaccinated at twelve weeks of age followed by another shot three weeks after and yearly boosters.

Tick control can be done by applying topical tick medication once a month and never allowing your dogs to wander around the bushes and grassy areas where ticks wait to cling to passing dogs.


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