Signs of Lyme Disease in Dogs

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Of the hundreds of cases of canine Lyme Disease that I have seen, over 90 percent of canine patients were admitted with signs of limping (usually one foreleg), lymph node swelling in the affected limb, and a temperature of 103 degrees (101 to 102.5 degrees is normal). The limping usually progresses over three to four days from mild and barely noticeable to complete disuse of the painful leg. Once the dog starts to be affected by the bacteria, Lyme Disease can progress from a mild discomfort to the stage where a dog will be in such joint and muscle pain it will refuse to move; it is not uncommon for an owner to have to carry a sick dog into the animal hospital. Over the span of two or three days a dog can progress from normal to completely unable to walk due to generalized joint pain. In addition to joint damage, the bacteria can affect the dog's heart muscle and nerve tissue. If the disease is diagnosed in time, treatment can cure the dog before permanent joint or nerve damage occurs. Certain antibiotics, such as the Tetracyclines, are very helpful in eliminating the disease.
Generally, the diagnosis of Lyme Disease is based upon clinical signs and history. For example, if a dog ran or played normally a few days ago, has had no signs of trauma or previous arthritic discomfort, and now displays tenderness upon palpation of the affected limb and has a mild fever and swollen lymph nodes, I'm going to seriously consider Lyme Disease as a possible diagnosis.
On the other hand, just as in human medicine, Lyme Disease is called "The Great Imitator" because it has often been mistakenly diagnosed when another disorder is present, such as an autoimmune disease, lymph tissue cancer, Blastomycosis, or septicemia. Just as vexing is the fact that at times other similar-appearing diseases are diagnosed when the culprit is actually Lyme Disease. There are published reports of Lyme Disease being misdiagnosed and over diagnosed in human medicine.

Keeping other disorders in mind, if I suspect Lyme Disease, I start treatment immediately, generally prescribing an antibiotic such as tetracycline and possibly some aspirin if the dog is in a lot of pain. Many veterinarians do not wait for blood tests to confirm the tentative diagnosis because in dogs the information obtained may be confusing and require too much time to hear back from the lab. I have seen patients that from clinical experience I know have Lyme Disease, yet their blood test curiously indicates no exposure to the disease. And there are numerous cases of normal-appearing, healthy dogs with positive blood tests for Lyme Disease.
Fortunately, over ninety percent of dogs treated within the first week of obvious signs of Lyme Disease will respond rapidly to treatment with a tetracycline antibiotic. This medicine is administered for at least three weeks. In my experience, five percent of dogs will have some type of relapse of signs such as cardiac or neurological difficulties even after treatment . Some of these patients will experience chronic, lifelong joint pain from the damage caused by the bacteria and its direct and indirect stress to joint tissues. The earlier the antibiotic is started in the course of the disease, the better the patient's chances of a complete recovery.

Can a dog contract Lyme Disease a second time? Yes. But, quite honestly, we don't know for sure if the reoccurrence is a second, distinct infection or a flare-up of the original episode (because the Borrelia organism replicates quite slowly). And, since dogs can harbor the bacteria in their tissues a long time before the disease is evident, Lyme Disease cases are showing up all year long. In the northern states, however, the summer months are the busiest for Lyme Disease case presentations.