Does anyone do routine lyme disease testing? We used frontline once this spring, and it only lasted barely a a month. We don't usually use it, but we thought one time a year shouldn't be so bad to get us past the spring tick fling. But his year we had frequent rains, and we have had a lot of ticks all season. I use natural spray before walks, and brush him afterward, but I think we are both picking them up in the yard.I check him before bed, too. But the tiny "seed" ticks are so small, they are easy to miss.

This morning when brushing him, I dislodged a "full" seed tick so it was on for who knows how long? Having contracted a tick disease before myself, they really freak me out. I must have gotten into a nest of them yesterday because I had three in one day, and one on my shirt.

I did some reading and I came up with them being able to treat lymne in dogs if caught early, but what is early. A few days, a few months? I also read that they can test for a few tick diseases and heartworm all together so I was thinking that maybe I should change his heartworm testing time to the end of the tick season each year, and check him then, but I wonder if that would make much difference in catching it "early"?

I wondered if anyone else does the testing?

SInce the Rx for lyme =< the test for lyme, I prefer to just treat it if I suspect it.

You mean a course of Doxycycline?

I wouldn't have a reason to suspect it. Not now anyway. Just wondering if it is worth adding it to the test for HW.

If you live in "hi lyme area" it's always something to consider.

HW is easy to test for. If there are microfillaria in the blood, the dog has HW period and needs to be treated.
Lyme tests are a little different. Ask your vet, maybe they have a test for Lyme antigen in the blood that is cheap and reliable. A routine test like a "titer" test wouldn't be very useful.

I have lived in a tick infested area (Wisconsin). I did a yearly 4DX snap test (the snap test checks for hw and 3 tick diseases). I did the 4DX snap test beginning of the year for heartworms and the tick diseases. The snap test at my vets was only about $10-20 difference than just the hw. There are lymes vaxs if you are so inclinded to vax your dogs to it, but it does not protect againest other tick diseases in your area. Where I lived I did not vax because the dog would mostly likely come up postive with a tick born disease anyway (mostly being anaplasmois (sp?) and lymes (if not vax)). Both are treated with 30 days of doxy.

I wouldn't think Lyme is that easy to treat after it becomes established, since it's like that in people. That was one of the things I was wondering. What is the timeline for "catching it early"?

I don't know if there is a necessary timeline to catch it early. The only way I know is if the dog is showing signs and the vet suspects a tick born disease.

Tick titers are not bullet-proof methods of determining illness.

There are numerous false positives and false negatives. A very sick dog may have a very faint positive result, or a negative result due to a low immune-level response (which is why the dog is so sick). A healthy dog, who was formerly exposed to a ricketsial disease may retain a high titer for life but be perfectly healthy.

I talked to an infectious disease specialist in Colorado who recommended specific blood work yearly for dogs that have 'chronic' ehrlichia. Titers mean nothing- in terms of actual illness. Some dogs will always have high titers for certain tick-borne illnesses.

You can simply treat a positive snap test for Lyme, because doxycylcine is a fairly benign drug, but often the DX is made based on response to treatment. Limping dog with fever, treated with doxy, recovers, it was probably Lyme.

An ounce or prevention is worth a pound of cure. I would use Advantix religously if I ever ventured back into tick country. I've seen what tick-diseases can do and I'm not messing around with natural stuff. I've never had natural stuff work in tick-infested areas and almost had a dog die due to tick illness.

I am struggling with this in terms of the chemicals. I have a lot of allergies, sensitivities to chemicals, etc, and dosing him with chemcials and having him spread it all over the house , and on us, is bad. Not to mention what it does to him. On the other hand, I am right with you on the worry over him catching something, because I cannot keep them all off of him naturally, OR find them all when they do get on him, no matter how religious I am about it. And since he has bouts of an elbow issue, there is no clear DX even with a limp on him. I really don't know what is the right thing to do here. I know I do love the winter.