Tick-Borne Diseases in Dogs – Symptoms and Treatment

Every year, thousands of dogs suffer from a range of tick-borne diseases. These ailments can produce some very serious and painful symptoms for your dog. Some diseases spread by ticks can even be fatal to your dog.

Tick-borne diseases are a growing threat to both canine and human health. Ticks are parasites that attach to animals and people. Ticks feed on blood and transmit diseases directly into the host’s system. The disease occurs when an infected tick bites an animal or person and transmits the disease into the victim’s body.

Tick-Borne Diseases and Your Dog’s Immune System

Ticks transmit a single type of organism or multiple organisms through a single bite. This allows different organisms to work together to release toxins and trigger your dog’s immune system.

Once these organisms infect your dog, they invade your dog’s cells and hijack their immune system. Some of the organisms spread by the ticks can even feed off each other within the host’s body, which can lead to chronic or recurring infections.

An infected dog’s organs and tissues become inflamed when infected by a tick, resulting in a variety of symptoms. In some cases, it can take a few weeks until the symptoms appear.

Common Tick-Borne Diseases Seen in Dogs

According to the CSU extension office, there is a rise in the tick population in Colorado. Reasons given for this increase include warmer winters, suburbanization, and the migratory patterns of tick hosts such as birds, rodents and deer.

Here are the most common tick-borne diseases diagnosed in Colorado’s Pike Peak Region.

• Colorado Tick Fever

Colorado Tick Fever is the most common tick-borne illness found in our area. This disease is spread by the Rocky Mountain wood tick found throughout the Rocky Mountain states. This viral infection causes flu-like symptoms for 3 days, and often goes unreported, making it difficult to determine the actual number of cases in dogs. There are no vaccines or treatment for this disease. The best prevention is to remove the tick as soon as possible if your dog is bitten.

• Ehrlichiosis

Ehrlichiosis is a bacterial infection transmitted by the brown dog tick. There are several different strains of ehrlichiosis; dogs are susceptible to all strains. There are three stages of the illness: acute, sub-clinical and clinical.

• Acute stage

The acute stage is the first stage of the illness. It lasts for 2 to 4 weeks. If your dog shows any of the symptoms listed below, please have your dog seen by a veterinarian.

Symptoms to look for include:

• Swollen lymph nodes
• Weight loss
• Respiratory distress
• Spontaneous bleeding or hemorrhage
• Fever
• Neurological disturbances (meningitis or unsteady on feet)

• Sub-clinical stage

Most dogs do not show any symptoms during the sub-clinical stage, making this a particularly dangerous time. Some dogs are able to fight off the infection and avoid progressing to the clinical stage, but others cannot. German shepherds and greyhounds are particularly prone to developing long-term symptoms of this condition.

• Clinical stage

Symptoms of the clinical stage of ehrlichiosis are very serious and potentially lethal. At this stage, the dog’s bone marrow (where blood cells are produced) can fail, causing death because the dog’s body cannot generate the blood cells needed to survive.

Symptoms of this stage include:

• Bleeding episodes
• Anemia
• Lameness
• Swollen limbs
• Neurological problems
• Ear problems (possible blindness or hemorrhage)

Treatment of ehrlichiosis is administration of antibiotics. Steroids may be prescribed depending on your dog’s symptoms. If the disease is caught early enough, most dogs respond well to the antibiotics but prognosis is guarded for dogs who have reached the clinical stage.

• Tularemia

Tularemia, also called Rabbit Fever, is a bacterial disease transmitted by rabbits, hares, rodents, ticks and other insects. It is unusual for dogs to become infected. Usually infection occurs when a dog kills an infected rabbit or eats an infected rabbit carcass.

Tularemia is generally mild in dogs; sometimes there are no symptoms at all. However, if a puppy or immune-compromised dog becomes infected, it can become serious.

Common symptoms of tularemia include:

• Lethargy
• Dehydration
• Loss of appetite
• Sudden high fever
• Swollen or painful lymph notes
• Abdominal pain
• Skin ulcer
• Throat infection
• Jaundice
• White patches on the tongue
• Organ failure
• Enlarged liver or spleen

Antibiotics are the primary treatment for tularemia.

• Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever is spread through the bite of an infected brown dog tick, Rocky Mountain wood tick, or American dog tick. The disease can be transmitted to your dog in as little as ten minutes after the tick attaches.

Symptoms appear between 2 – 14 days after the bite occurs. Any organs in your dog’s body can be affected and can range from mild to life-threatening. Common symptoms:

• Poor appetite
• Non-specific muscle pain
• Joint pain
• Abdominal pain
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Swelling of the face or legs
• Fever
• Lethargy
• Lack of appetite
• Pain
• Eye/nose discharge
• Nosebleed
• Cough
• Enlarged lymph nodes
• Lameness
• Tiny hemorrhages in the skin
• Spinal pain
• Lack of coordination
• Weakness
• Balance problems
• Seizures

Primary treatment for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever is a round of antibiotics. The prognosis is good if the disease is diagnosed early. If the disease advances more severe complications can occur, such as kidney disease, neurological disease, vasculitis, and coagulopathies.

• Tick-Borne Relapsing Fever

Relapsing fever is a bacterial infection can cause recurring bouts of fever, headache, muscle and joint aches, and nausea. It can be spread by two different species of ticks and lice. Tick-borne relapsing fever is a rare infection linked to sleeping in rustic cabins, particularly cabins in mountainous areas of the western United States.

Tick-borne relapsing fever is treated with antibiotics.

• Lyme Disease

Lyme disease is a fairly common canine disease. It happens in every state in the U.S. but is not commonly seen in Colorado. The ticks that carry Lyme disease are especially found in tall grasses, marshes and woods. A tick can transmit Lyme disease after it has been attached to a dog 24 to 48 hours.

Typical symptoms of canine Lyme disease include:

• Fever
• Loss of appetite
• Reduced energy
• Lameness
• Generalized stiffness, discomfort, or pain
• Swelling of joints

Symptoms can progress to kidney failure, which can be fatal. Serious cardiac and neurological effects can also occur.

Treatment includes antibiotics, at least for 30 days.

How to Prevent Tick-Borne Diseases

There are three strategies to prevent your dog from becoming infected with a tick-borne disease.

1. Prevention

Although ticks are a threat to dogs year-round, they are most active during the warmer months. Tick season in Colorado runs from April through November. Ticks thrive in tall grasses and woods, so make sure to keep tall grasses cut down in your yard.

The best prevention against ticks is to keep your dog on a year-round flea and tick preventive medication as recommended by your veterinarian. Depending on the age or breed of your dog, the protocol may vary.

Be sure to check your dog for ticks after being outdoors.

• Give them a once-over as soon as you get home so you don’t bring a tick into your home if at all possible.
• As soon as you can, comb through your dog’s fur with your fingers, feeling for any bumps. Ticks can be as small as a pinhead and as large as a grape. Be sure to check between your dog’s toes, inside their ears and around the face and neck.
• If you feel a bump, part your dog’s fur so you can see their skin. Look for a brown, black or grayish-brown bug. You might see the tick’s body or you might see it’s legs too.

2. Remove the tick

If you find a tick on your dog, you’ll need to remove the tick right away.

Here’s the supplies you will need:

• A pair of latex or rubber gloves
• Rubbing alcohol
• Antibiotic ointment or antiseptic liquid
• A clean pair of tweezers (or a tick-removing tool, which you can buy at a pet supply store)

Once you have your supplies ready, put your gloves on. Find the bug again and part the fur so you are exposing the tick. Take the tweezers and grab the tick as close to the dog’s skin as you can and pull upward. Try to remove it in one motion. Jerking can cause part of the body to break off and get stuck in your pet’s skin. Put the tick in a glass jar and seal it tight. Add a teaspoon of rubbing alcohol. The alcohol will kill the bug. Save the container for a few weeks in case your dog starts to show symptoms. If your dog seems ill, take the tick to your vet to help with identifying what is causing your dog’s illness.

If you’re not sure you can remove the tick, call your vet. Your vet or vet tech will remove it for you. Watching them will help you know how to remove the next one.

3. Watch for symptoms

Watch for the symptoms of tick-borne diseases listed above. If you suspect your dog is not feeling well, be sure to bring your dog (and the tick you collected) to your vet. Early detection is vital and can save your dog’s life.

Final Thoughts

Dogs with tick-borne illnesses are typically treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics. Probiotics might also be recommended to help prevent gastrointestinal issues.

Recurring tick-borne conditions can be particularly challenging to overcome. Even after your dog appears to have recovered, regular blood work may be needed to help detect recurrences early so treatment can prevent the condition from becoming serious.

Has your dog been infected with a tick-borne disease? What happened? Please share your experience with the rest of the Canine Campus community.