Trouble moving.

Dr. Marie replied:

I'm sorry to hear that your dogs are going through this.

This is an unusual situation. What has me puzzled is that normally an animal has to have lyme disease for 3-5 weeks before the lyme test will be positive. Also, we don't tend to see symptoms of lyme disease until 2-5 months after exposure to the tick. So, if your dog picked up a tick a few days ago, we would not see symptoms of lyme this soon.

Many dogs can be lyme positive and not actually get symptoms of lyme disease.

It is certainly possible that the dogs had been exposed to a lyme positive tick a few months ago as well. It is quite coincidental though if they both started showing symptoms so suddenly.

However, I am having a hard time trying to come up with a condition that could affect both dogs like this.

The most common reason for a dog to have trouble with the back legs is a back problem such as intervertebral disc disease. However, it is not something that should affect multiple dogs.

Another possible condition (although not common) is a condition called tick paralysis. Some ticks can produce a toxin that can cause a dog to lose function of two or more legs. If this is the case, however, the dogs make a dramatic recovery within 24-48 hours of the tick being removed.

Have the dogs been treated with a tick product such as frontline or Revolution? If not, I would definitely recommend doing so. Sometimes a tick can be present in an area that is hard to find.

If this were my case I would be recommending a repeat visit for both dogs to assess their backs for intervertebral disc disease. I would likely put both dogs on doxycycline (which treats lyme and other tick borne diseases) just to be sure. I would probably also be doing some general bloodwork to see if I could get any more clues as to what could be going on.

I wish I could give you more info....this is a difficult situation. I hope everything is ok!

Dr. Marie.


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