Lyme Disease risk from dogs

[Avantia]

Lyme Disease risk from dogs higher than thought

Get those removers ready !

Um, it is not the risk from the dogs though. It is that there are more ticks with Lyme disease in the UK than though, and this has been discovered after testing ticks found on dogs.

I lived in an area where ticks were common and never heard of anyone getting a tick from a dog, but from walking in forests or long grass.

Yes your are absolutely right - but worth bearing in mind re ticks .

Yes, think it is very important, but sadly many people won't even read that because they see "dog" and click away.

I am currently being tested for lyme disease, results should have been in yesterday.

Think there needs to be more awareness about Lyme as my doctor has only just order the test when the potential bite was on 8th October and I have been back and forth to doctors since week after. Doctor asked about other symptons at start of Jan but dismissed Lyme as the rash is the only sympton I have. I then looked on several UK Patient websites and discovered that in around 33% of cases the rash is the only sympton so had to then almost force them to run the test.

It's worrying that long term symptons can be very serious and now I am mentioning lyme several people have said "oh a friend had that... he ended up paralysed/with arthritis as docs couldn't work out what was wrong".

Hope this gets good coverage in news.

CestTout
I know several people in Germany that had Lymes disease and they all recovered well. Most do.

It is hardly known in UK and that won't improve if the press are so shit at reporting the problem.

Hope the tests come back clear

I've had lyme's disease, I didn't even see the tick that got me, apparently deer ticks found in the long grass around here are as small as a pin head. I actually thought I had an ingrown hair gone bad on my leg that just got worse and worse.

Have to say for me the antibiotics to treat it were much worse than the sore leg.

I emailed the BBC about the misleading headline. Pedantic maybe, but it annoyed me on two counts - firstly as MmeLindor says people may ignore thinking it's only a dog issue, secondly it's just more of the whole 'dangerous dogs' media hysteria thing.

BBC should know better [grr]

Oh, good for your Ephiny.

Ewww my dog had a tick! I had been fingering it thoughtfully for days thinking it was some kind of skin tag. Looked flesh coloured (boak) showed DH - "It's a tick!" he cried and he was right. He plucked it out but poor DD must have had it for weeks it was the size of my little finger nail!
Blee!

Doesn't flea treatment protect dogs against ticks?

This news story is factually incorrect Lyme disease is transmitted by ticks when the inject saliva into their hosts body just prior to sucking blood. Humans and dogs occupy the same host position in the ticks lifecycle so a tick will not fall off a dog and then attach to the human. It is in fact that both the human and the dog have walked in the same area and had ticks attach to them at the sametime.
In high risk areas you should wear long trousers tucked into socks (as they love to climb up trouser legs and attach in the groin area) and a long sleeved top. After returning from walking in a high risk area you should check yourself thoroughly for ticks.

I found a tick on DS1's stomach a couple of years ago that could only have come from one of the cats.

No sign of a rash or any illness afterwards, so I'm assuming he was lucky.

Lizcat
Yes, I have read that they won't transfer from one host to another.

There are special tick removing gadgets. If you find a tick, don't just pull it out. Either go to a doctor / vet (depending on who has the tick) and have it removed or do it with one of these tools

You have to be careful not to leave a bit of the tick in the person/dog as it could get infected.

If in doubt, get a professional to do it.