Lyme Disease

First seen in Lyme, Connecticut, lyme disease is an illness caused by a bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi.

This group of bacteria are called spirochetes due to their spring-like shape. The most common source of infected ticks are household dogs.

In humans, this disease causes a wide variety of signs including rash, painful, swollen joints, fever, enlarged tender lymph nodes and a variety of neurological signs (please read the article in this series on Lyme disease in pets and man).

Over the last few years a number of products have come onto the market that are quite good at keeping ticks off your pets. T

hree of these products are Frontline spray, Revolution and Preventic tick collars. Dogs can also be vaccinated to prevent this disease.