Rabies and heartworm and ticks — oh my!
Back in the “old days,” most dog owners could do very little to prevent diseases in their furry companions. Today, we have dozens of options that can prevent a battery of nasty diseases in our four-legged friends — but the top three are tickborne illnesses, rabies and heartworm.
Tick-borne diseases
Every year, thousands of dogs are infected with serious illnesses spread by a tiny insect that can be found everywhere from the deepest backwoods to the most pristine urban parks: the tick.
Ticks — which most medical experts agree need to be embedded for 24 to 48 hours to spread infections — attach themselves to dogs, feed on blood and transmit diseases directly into the bloodstream.
Both prescription and over-the- counter products can keep ticks from attaching most of the time, but the best preventative is to check your dog daily if you live in a tick-prone region, and remove and destroy any ticks you find.
Major canine tick-borne diseases include:
• Lyme disease. The tiny (barely the size of a sesame seed) Western black-legged tick or deer tick — found in 56 of California’s 58 counties — is the main vector for this serious bacterial infection. It can cause stiffness, lameness, swollen joints, loss of appetite, fever and fatigue.
• Ehrlichiosis. Caused by the brown dog tick, this is one of the most common and dangerous tick-borne diseases infecting dogs; symptoms include fever, loss of appetite, weight loss, runny eyes and nose, and swollen limbs. In its acute stage, ehrlichiosis can be fatal. • Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. The American dog tick, the wood tick, and the lone star tick carry this disease, which causes fever, stiffness, skin lesions and neurological problems. Serious cases can result in death.
Rabies
This terrifying disease is almost 100 percent lethal in unvaccinated animals, and 100 percent preventable, thanks to the development of a canine rabies vaccine in 1960.
Rabies vaccination is mandatory for all dogs throughout the nation. This means that if your dog isn’t vaccinated against rabies, you’re breaking the law. You’re also endangering your dog’s life, not to mention your life and the life of every other animal and human with whom he comes into contact in the event he’s bitten by a rabid animal.
Heartworm
Heartworm is a parasite that is transmitted when an infective mosquito bites a dog; the mosquito larvae eventually migrate to the animal’s heart, where they multiply and cause life-threatening symptoms. Prescription heartworm preventatives such as Heartgard destroy the larvae.
While a heartworm-infected dog can be treated if the infection is in its early stages, the treatment is costly, extremely toxic and requires up to three months of absolute rest to prevent lethal exercise-induced blood clots.
Parvovirus
Veterinarians agree that vaccinating your dog against this disease is absolutely critical to control its spread, since its viral particles are found everywhere.
Death from parvovirus comes from either extreme dehydration and shock, or system-wide infection from toxic intestinal bacteria.
Distemper
Once upon a time, distemper was the most feared disease found in domestic dogs. Today, it can be prevented through vaccination. This highly contagious, largely incurable disease attacks the respiratory, gastrointestinal, and central nervous systems, and is fatal in half of adult dogs and 80% of puppies.
All this being said, keep in mind that every medication has both risks and benefits. While not every dog needs to be medicated against every disease, that cannot be said of this group of illnesses. And don’t forget that many of these diseases can be transmitted to you, which is another reason to make preventing them your top priority as a responsible pet owner.
Joan Merriam lives in Nevada County with her golden retriever Joey, her Maine coon cat Indy, and the abiding spirit of her beloved golden retriever Casey in whose memory this column is named. You can reach Joan at joan@ joanmerriam.com. And if you’re looking for a golden, be sure to check out Homeward Bound Golden Retriever Rescue.