Is my dog's aggression and potty training due to Lyme disease?

There is a lot of controversy over Lyme. I would recommend keeping Buddy on flea/tick prevention all year round. Dogs with Lyme disease can get kidney failure but this is rare. Adopting an older dog is a great thing to do and I wouldn't stress over Lyme disease as any dog can get it if they get bit by a tick. Here is a website with information about Lyme disease in dogs: http://pawbark.com/lyme-disease-dogs/ I would also discuss with your veterinarian about the Lyme vaccination for future tick bites. Thank you for using PetCoach.

Hello, While we know that Lyme disease can cause kidney disease, we cannot assume that the Lyme disease is causing kidney injury in this case. Many pets will test positive for Lyme disease on a screening test if they have been exposed to the disease. However, exposure does not equate to clinical infection in every case. In order to determine if Lyme disease is causing kidney injury, we need to measure antibody levels in the blood, ultrasound kidneys, and obtain a kidney biopsy. Without this information, it will be difficult to give a prognosis. I would advise you to follow up with your veterinarian to discuss recheck kidney values, abdominal ultrasound and urinalysis.

Although it's not common, lyme disease can progress to severe kidney disease, which can be difficult to treat and may lead to the death of the dog. Other symptoms of lyme disease include fever, lameness, swollen joints, swollen lymph nodes, lethargy, and anorexia. It can be successfully treated with doxycycline.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your questions. After the treatment of 4 weeks with Doxycycline, you can test Dash for Lymes by sending out a test called a PCR. This particular test is usually expensive but will tell you if Dash has a current active infection of Lymes. Unfortunately, with Lymes disease, it is never eradicated from the body, treatment gets it down to a very low bacterial burden to the point where no symptoms are evident. The snap ELISA test that is done in the veterinary hospital, will likely always show positive, but this is because it tests for antibodies to Lymes, which Dash will likely have for years (if not forever). His creatinine being elevated could indicate early kidney disease. I would recommend having the veterinarian assess his urine to see if it is adequately concentrating and also check an SDMA test to help establish whether or not he has early renal disease and what stage it is. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

The answer is a bit complicated. Yes, I would be concerned about tick diseases, however the test may or may not show a positive even if he did get infected with lyme disease because it takes about 4 weeks for antibodies to be high enough for the test to detect them. Furthermore, he could have been exposed to lyme disease, but have a different issue causing the signs you're seeing. So, it's definitely a judgement call -- and if your funds are more flexible testing again may give you interesting information, but if your funds are more limited, it may make more sense to just treat for tick diseases with an antibiotic like doxycycline. Of course, your vet may see something on the physical exam or general blood work or x-rays that makes them concerned about something else more than tick disease, in which case pursuing that makes sense. I know that's not horribly helpful, but hopefully it gives you some context to think about.

If where you live has a problem with Lyme disease, then yes there is a concern. That being said, if she is up to date on her tick treatments, then it should work to kill the tick before something like Lyme disease can be transmitted. Best of luck, I hope this helps!

Just because she tested positive for Lyme disease does not mean she she has an active infection. It just means she was exposed to lyme disease. Most animals (95%) exposed to Lyme do not ever show signs of illness. In order to find out whether she is actually ill with Lyme disease you will need a) clinical signs b) an elevated Lyme titer and c) depending on a and b possibly some extra tests verifying that she has an active infection.