By Dr. Johnathan Pierce
Spring is right around the corner and many of you will be traveling back up north for the summer. While here in the St. Pete area we don’t have many ticks, it is very important to be aware of the dangers that ticks pose to our pets.
Travel into wildlife areas, wooded areas, tall grassy fields, or areas that have endemic tick populations increase the risk of exposure significantly. Springtime and warm weather brings an uptick in the tick population as they awaken from their dormant states and start breeding. These ticks, depending on the type, carry a variety of tick-borne diseases that are generally classified as rickettsial disease.
The most well-known rickettsial disease is Lyme’s disease (Borrellia borgdoferi). Symptoms of Lyme’s can include fever, lethargy, or lameness/limping; or pets with acute cases may show no symptoms at all. In some “quiet” Lyme’s cases, pets can fight off the infection completely, causing an exposure but no clinical disease.
However, there are a number of instances where the infection can hide in the body for years without the pet showing symptoms and cause kidney failure, blood protein loss, high blood pressure, lethargy, inappetence, vomiting and even death. This syndrome is called Lyme nephritis and can go undetected until it is too late.
Another of these diseases is erhlichia. Classically with acute infections, patients may have a fever, bleeding disorders by attaching to the patient’s platelets, respiratory distress, severe organ damage, possible central nervous system inflammation and possible death. Like Lyme’s disease, erhlichiosis can be “quiet” or sub-clinical and the pet may be able to fight it off completely. However, the disease may hide in the body and can cause a glomerulonephropathy, which is a kidney condition the can cause kidney damage, high blood pressure, blood protein loss, lethargy, inappetence, vomiting and even death similar to Lyme nephritis.
There are also other less common rickettsial diseases such as anaplasma and Rocky Mountain spotted fever that should not be taken lightly. The commonality here is that all of these diseases are spread by ticks and cannot be transmitted or communicated without them.
Detection is very important and has been made readily accessible through yearly testing during your pet’s annual wellness checks. At Island Life Animal Hospital, we use Idexx 4DX Plus testing for our patients’ yearly heartworm testing. It not only tests for heartworm, but also tests for Lyme, erhlichia, and anaplasmosis rickettsial diseases. This is important because if there is detectable exposure to these diseases then we can make the determination to treat based on the patient’s history in order to help prevent subclinical infections and issues later in life. Additional testing is often necessary to determine the clinical significance of a positive result and can help determine if there are current issues arising from the infection.
Luckily with the advent of isoxazoline flea and tick preventions we can reduce the possibility of transmission of these diseases, even if your pet is bitten by a tick. These preventions often kill the tick within 6-8 hours or less preventing the tick from being able to inject the rickettsial bacteria into the pet. These diseases typically require the tick to feed on the pet for 24 hours or longer to move the bacteria from the hind gut to the mouth parts. Examples of these preventions are Nexgard, Simparica, Simparica Trio, and Bravecto.
Make sure your pets are up to date on their annual visits to your veterinarian and ask if they perform annual tick-borne disease testing. Always use heart worm prevention and paired with flea and tick prevention, your pet will be protected against tick borne diseases.
Island Life Animal Hospital
Dr. Danielle Gallo & Dr. Johnathan Pierce
5901 Sun Blvd., Suite 107, St. Petersburg
727-289-3776
islandlifeanimalhospital.vet