Summertime is the high season for insect-borne diseases. With the warmer weather, we are spending more time outdoors, among the tall grass that makes a happy home for all sorts of creepy crawlies and especially TICKS! In North America, Lyme disease in dogs or humans is most commonly transmitted through the bite of a blacklegged tick, also called deer ticks. You may not even notice that you or your pet have come into contact with these little buggers until long after the fact, when symptoms begin to surface. Luckily, although CBD is not a cure for Lyme disease, CBD for Lyme disease in dogs can help in many ways.
What is Lyme Disease?
Lyme Disease is a tick-borne illness, however it is not the tick bite itself that causes Lyme Disease, rather a particular bacterium which ticks are prone to hosting, Borrelia burgdorferi. The only natural way that this bacterium has been found to enter the bloodstream of humans and animals is through tick bites.
According to research, it takes between 36 and 48 hours for the bacterial transmission to occur. The most common age of tick to bite is a nymph. Nymphs are almost invisible; they are about the size of a pencil tip. Due to their small size, it is likely that you may not realize the bite, and the resulting transfer of bacteria, has happened until it is too late.
So even if you do everything in your power to prevent tick bites and Lyme disease in dogs, it’s possible your pet could still become infected. But how do you know if your dog has Lyme disease?
Symptoms of Lyme Disease in Dogs
Lyme disease has been called ‘The Great Imitator’ because of how easily its symptoms can be confused with other diseases. As mentioned above, Lyme disease is often transmitted by very small, immature ticks in their ‘nymph’ stage. Without seeing the tick that caused the infection, it can be difficult to make sense of the symptoms that come with Lyme disease in dogs.
According to Dr. Rania Gollakner, DVM, Lyme disease in dogs is one of the most common tick-transmitted diseases in the world. However, it only causes symptoms in 5-10% of affected dogs. So some dogs may have it, but never show symptoms. In other dogs, symptoms may not show up until years after the event that infected them.
Common symptoms of Lyme disease in dogs include:
