Dangers in life doesn’t come with seasons, it’s just that they are more active in their favorable phase of the year. Similarly, though ticks are ubiquitous creatures, they become more active in the warm season. Fleas and ticks are like vampires to your dogs, they want to suck their blood anyhow. In the era of abundant availability of preventive measures, you might have tried various flea chewable for dogs and other tick preventives for dogs, but these creepy-crawlies want what they want.
The fleas and ticks are the smallest yet cause many dangerous diseases. Among the variety of diseases they transmit, Lyme disease is prevalent. Primarily, the bacteria transmitted by ticks can cause Lyme disease. Let’s understand how Lyme disease haunts your Fido.
What is Lyme Disease?
Lyme disease not only occurs in humans but also in pets. Lyme disease is caused by the spirochete bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi. The disease is transmitted to humans and dogs by the nymph and adult stages of the black-legged ticks, lxodes scapulairs. The tick requires two years and a blood meal at each stage to complete its life cycle from egg to larvae to nymph to adult.
Ticks find their first blood source of meal from bird, mouse or other small mammal and when infected with the bacteria, it will pass the disease to host tick through the blood. When this infected tick bites a human or dog and attaches for over 48 hours then the animal is susceptible to be infected with Borrelia burgdorferi that causes Lyme disease.
Here’s how you can find the symptoms of Lyme disease in your pooch.
Symptoms of Lyme Disease
As you start spending more time out with your dog during spring and summer, it is imperative to be aware of the tick bites. The typical symptoms of Lyme disease include:
- Loss of appetite
- Fever
- Lameness
- Reduced Energy
- Swelling of Joints
- Generalized discomfort, pain or stiffness
- Also skin problems, heart irregularities, neurological issues or kidney dysfunction are quite rare symptoms but may also occur in a minimum number of dogs infected with Lyme disease.
Just as humans, even animals display the same symptoms of Lyme disease. However, the issue is that they cannot always communicate their problems. So, being a pet parent you need to keep a check on their well-being.
Buy Nexgard Chewables for Dogs at Lowest Price
Nexgard – Convenient Preventive for Lyme Disease
Lyme disease can surely be treated with antibiotics if you want an instant and temporary improvement. Administration of antibiotics to your dog resolves symptoms quickly but applying antibiotic treatment can be harmful due to its ingredients that may cause detrimental side effects to your dog. The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) suggests preventing the Lyme disease but to avoid using pharmaceutical products.
Therefore, the best way to protect your dog from Lyme disease is to keep a regular check on ticks and remove them without any delay. There is an emergence of a fairly new drug in the category of oral flea and tick preventives called Nexgard.
Nexgard was approved in the US in late 2013. Nexgard is a beef flavored handy chewable tablet that kills fleas and ticks found on dogs. This is a new formulation that kills both fleas and ticks. Nexgard flea and tick chewable is a monthly treatment that starts killing fleas within 8 hours, destroys 100% adult fleas in 24 hours and ticks within 48 hours of administration.
Nexgard ingredient Afoxolaner destroys fleas and ticks found on the pet’s body. It is a new age treatment that disrupts the flea life cycle by killing fleas before they lay eggs. Moreover, it is highly effective in eliminating and controlling deer ticks, lone star ticks, and American dog ticks.
So prevention may be better than cure but the best prevention is to keep the ticks off your dog. Fortunately, Nexgard serves as one of the best ways to protect your Fido from flea and tick infestations and also prevent the horrifying Lyme disease.
You may also like to read Top Five Tried, Tested and Proven Spot On Flea and Tick Treatments
