What is Lyme disease?

Lyme disease, the most common vector-borne disease (transmitted by insects or arthropods) in people, is caused by corkscrew-shaped bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi, carried by ticks that transmit the infection when they feed on animals and humans.

In the United States, Lyme disease occurs predominantly on the Pacific Coast, the Midwest, and Atlantic Coast states. About 75% of dogs living in endemic regions are exposed to infected ticks, but only a small percentage develop signs of disease.

Infected ticks must feed for about 24 hours to transmit the bacteria to a susceptible animal, so quick removal of ticks from your pet reduces the chance of infection.

Can I get Lyme disease from my pet?

If your pet has been diagnosed with Lyme disease you are not at risk of becoming infected directly from your animal. The bacteria increase to high levels in the blood of wildlife, but humans and domestic animals develop only low levels of the bacteria in their blood and at not high enough to infect a feeding tick.

What are the symptoms of Lyme disease in dogs?

The most common sign of Lyme disease in dogs is arthritis, which causes sudden lameness, pain, and sometimes swelling in one or more joints. Other signs may include fever, lack of appetite, dehydration, inactivity, and swollen lymph nodes.

In severe cases, the infection can cause kidney failure and death, although this does not occur commonly in dogs.

Humans often show a skin rash that looks like a target, but this is rarely seen in infected dogs.

How is Lyme disease diagnosed in dogs?

A diagnosis of Lyme disease is usually made based upon a history of being in an endemic area, signs of arthritis, and favorable response to treatment.

A blood test can measure antibodies to the bacteria, but many dogs that live in endemic regions will have a positive result. A positive only confirms the dog was exposed to Borrelia burgdorferi, but not all exposed dogs show signs of disease.

How are dogs infected with Lyme disease treated?

Lyme disease is easily treated with antibiotics, and symptoms usually regress rapidly in response to treatment. Untreated, the disease becomes chronic and can cause kidney damage.

How can you prevent a dog from becoming infected with Lyme disease?

The best method of preventing Lyme disease is to avoid tick-infested areas, especially in the spring when the young ticks are most active.

When returning from a tick-infested area, do a thorough search for ticks on yourself and your animals. Ticks should be removed carefully with tweezers, pinching the tick near the point they enter the skin.

There are also many highly effective veterinary products that will kill ticks on your dog before they can transmit the bacteria. Early removal of ticks reduces the chance of transmission.

A vaccine has been approved for use in dogs for Lyme disease prevention, but most authors of veterinary articles on Lyme disease do not recommend vaccinating dogs in non-endemic areas. Not all authors agree on how effective the vaccine is in preventing Lyme disease or whether it should be given in endemic regions. For more information about tick control products or Lyme disease, consult your veterinarian.

What should I do if I suspect my dog may have Lyme disease?

If your dog is showing symptoms of Lyme disease, contact your veterinarian or the WSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital at 509-335-0711.

Borrowed from MPC Vet Care of Texas

Do you know how many calories you should be be feeding your dog each day? Most owners overfeed their dogs, resulting in fat dogs and fat pet food bills.

Understand that each food is different with regards to its caloric content and caloric density. As a result, the brand of food you are feeding plays a big role in the amount you'll ultimately be offering your dog. Don't always go by what the label recommends to feed. Dog food manufacturers tend to aim high with their recommendations; after all, the more food your dog eats, the more money they make. Instead, focus on the calories per serving. Armed with that information:

Step 1: Determine your dog's RER (Resting Energy Requirement). Here's the calculation: RER in kcal/day = (30 x body weight in kilograms) + 70 So for example, the RER of a 20 pound (9 kg) dog would be (30x9) + 70 or 340 RER

Step 2: Using the RER, determine your dog's daily caloric needs based on the following calculations:

• For Weight Loss 1 x RER
• Neutered Adult normal Activity 1.6 x RER
• Intact Adult normal Activity 1.8 x RER
• Light Work 2 x RER
• Moderate Work 3 x RER
• Heavy Work 4 x RER
• Super Heavy Work (Prolonged hunting, sledding) 6-8 x RER
• Pregnancy (Early) 1.8 x RER
• Pregnancy (Late) 3 x RER
• Nursing Mother 4-6 x RER, depending on # of pups
• Puppy (1 to 4 months) 3 x RER
• Puppy (4 to 12 months) 2 X RER

For instance, if that 20 lb dog in the previous example is a spayed female with a normal activity level, her daily caloric requirement will be approx. 1.6 X 340 RER or 544 calories per day. If you want her to lose weight, you'll want to feed 1 x 340 RER or 340 calories per day (minimum).

Obviously, these are general guidelines, as caloric requirements will fluctuate some based on a number of other factors, including breed, size, coat length, health status, and environmental temperature. For example, assuming a base environmental temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit, caloric requirements rise 7.5% for every 10 degree drop in temperature and fall 7.5% for every 10 degree rise in temperature.

Confused yet? Don't be. You don't need to get hung up on details like these. Instead, by knowing what your dog's ideal weight should be (this info is readily available over the Internet, including at www.akc.org), you can use the RER based guidelines above and simply tweak the daily caloric intake offered up or down in order to obtain and maintain that ideal weight. Obviously, if your dog is mixed-breed, determining this ideal weight could be tricky, so have your vet help you with the guesswork.

The word "cancer" is a fairly nonspecific term and includes a variety of diseases stemming from abnormal cell growth. There are many types of cancer and a number of proposed mechanisms or causes for the development of aberrant cell growth. Inflammation, especially chronic inflammation for example, is one possible mechanism or trigger that induces cancerous changes in cells that make up tissues in the body. Back in 2008, an article published in The Lancet Oncology stated that, annually, approximately 2 million human cancer cases were believed to be caused by infectious agents such as bacteria and viruses. A decade later another article published in PLOS Pathogens stated "the importance of infectious agents in cancer causation remains relatively underappreciated by the general public and even the scientific community. In addition, mechanisms contributing to infection-related cancers and development of potential prevention and treatment approaches are arguably understudied."
 

The suggestion that an infection could be a root cause of cancer proposes that early diagnosis and treatment of the infection might prevent or resolve the cancerous state. Similarly, a vaccine to prevent that infection could prevent the associated cancer type from developing. These are not theoretical statements. There are several well-documented associations between infectious agents and their association with specific cancers. One of the better known relationships between infection and cancer causation is that of H. pylori (a gastrointestinal pathogen) and its link to the development of gastric MALT lymphoma. In many cases, treatment with an antibiotic can be curative for gastric MALT lymphoma. In other instances, due to a variety of mechanisms, H. pylori infected patients can go on to develop a more serious form of cancer (gastric adenocarcinoma).
 

We recently spent some time with Edward Breitschwerdt, DVM, DACVIM - a veterinary internal medicine specialist and researcher at North Carolina State University - who is focused on studying vector borne diseases, with a particular interest in Bartonella spp. He spoke with us about what he and his research group have learned about the role of Bartonella spp. in the development of hemangiosarcoma in dogs.  
 

In his presentation "Cancer Attributable to Infection - What we know about the genus Bartonella and its role in the development of hemangiosarcoma in dogs", Dr. Breitschwerdt details the background of his work in researching this particular genus of bacteria and his team's more recent work investigating its possible role in causing hemangiosarcoma in dogs. Hemangiosarcoma is a very aggressive type of cancer with a poor short-term and long-term prognosis. The work that he and his research group are doing in this area is exciting and their determinations may be transformative to the way we approach caring for dogs with this type of cancer in the future. As Dr. Breitschwerdt stated, "We might be able to keep veterinary surgeons from cutting these dogs with a ruptured spleen and belly full of blood in the middle of the night. On a comparative medical basis, Mary-Dell Chilton, Ph.D., was named a 2013 World Food Prize Laureate along with two other distinguished scientists for showing that [the bacteria] Agrobacterium tumefaciens is able to insert its DNA into the plant genome, thereby inducing plant cells to proliferate and turn into tumors. On an evolutionary and phylogenetic basis, Agrobacterium and Brucella are the two closest relatives to the genus Bartonella. I think Bartonella likely inserts DNA into the mammalian genome, similar to Agrobacterium inserting its DNA into plant cells. We just have to be smart enough to figure out how to prove this in the somewhat more complicated mammalian system. We are conducting research now looking at what pathways Bartonella turns on or off that could potentially result in transcription errors and, ultimately, the development of cancer."
 

He went on to say "I've been trying to convince pharmaceutical companies, many of which I've lectured for and consulted with for over 30 years, that Bartonella is an important, zoonotic, emerging pathogen that induces chronic infection (inflammation) and a spectrum of diseases in pets and people. It is my opinion that we really need a vaccine to protect cats, dogs, and their owners. I think rabies represents a somewhat good analogy. Obviously, rabies is really bad if it infects the unvaccinated dog, but it presents an even worse scenario if that dog then infects or exposes numerous veterinary hospital staff, animal control officers or the pet owner’s family." With respect to what the future holds Dr. Breitschwerdt said "I think, one, we have an opportunity to document the first bacteria in medicine and in veterinary medicine that actually causes a tumor in the dog. And, two, I think we have an opportunity to develop a vaccine, like they did for papilloma virus (to prevent cervical cancer) that will decrease the prevalence of this tumor (hemangiosarcoma). And, so, it's honestly the reason that I keep getting up in the morning and the reason that I'm very happy to come to work. I am so grateful, particularly to the AKC Canine Health Foundation and the Cohen Foundation, because those two foundations have essentially allowed us to do things that we would not have been able to do otherwise. Their financial support of our research has put us in a position where we're literally the leading laboratory in the world trying to define the medical importance of the genus Bartonella, both for veterinary and human medicine. I've been really, really fortunate to be able to surround myself with extremely dedicated, intelligent and hard-working people. And as you know, I can't give them enough credit for what we've been able to accomplish to date. It takes a team in science and medicine to put together epidemiological data, genetic data, biochemical data and, most importantly, clinical data that ultimately defines and solves a problem. If we end up with enough research publications and enough data, then we may be able to come to the conclusion that Bartonella is a cause of hemangiosarcoma in dogs, like Helicobacter pylori is a cause of MALT lymphoma in humans. As you are well aware, in human medicine it probably took thousands of publications to get to the point that anybody was even starting to believe that cancer causation is associated with specific infections. And so, it's going to take considerable work and that is going to take a while. However, if you ask me what I believe, I believe that Bartonella clearly is a cause of hemangiosarcomas. And I believe that if we can create a vaccine, which is also work that's, in part, being supported by the AKC Canine Health Foundation in our laboratory, we may be able to potentially prevent a devastating cancer in man’s best friend."  

View his presentation "Cancer Attributable to Infection - What we know about the genus  Bartonella and its role in the development of hemangiosarcoma in dogs" On Demand (running time: 37 mins).

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