Canine Lyme Disease Mat Test

Positive results from a lyme disease test may not necessarily indicate that a dog is currently infected as the antibody can stay in the dog s bloodstream for life.

Canine lyme disease mat test. Lyme disease is transmitted by an infected tick and can be deadly if not treated. If treatment has been successful reductions in the qc6 at six months should be lower than the starting point. It can be scary and confusing to get positive results so i d like to take a few posts to go over what positive results on theses tests mean and what we. Burgdorferi spirochetes are transmitted to dogs by infected ticks.

Lyme disease spread by ticks can be diagnosed with a simple blood tests in your veterinarian s clinic. Burgdorferi 1 typical clinical signs in dogs are sporadic fever acute arthritis arthralgia lameness and glomerulopathy 2 4 clinical signs of lameness often develop two to five months after infection. Cornell s lyme multiplex assay provides a unique tool to determine the stage of lyme disease infection treatment outcomes and vaccination status in dogs and horses. Urine protein screening in general only dogs who have symptoms of lyme disease fever swollen lymph nodes shifting leg lameness and or swollen joints or protein in their urine should be.

Background lyme disease is induced by the spirochete b. However the great majority of lyme disease transmissions are due to the bite of a very tiny tick commonly called the deer tick or black legged tick. And out of over 5 5 million dogs that were tested nearly 6 percent came up positive for the disease. This spring dog owners may have noticed that we are using a different heartworm test this year.

The amount of time your dog spends outdoors. Clinical diagnosis of lyme disease is usually confirmed with a positive blood test for lyme along with the clinical signs associated with lyme disease. Similar to humans dogs are incidental dead end hosts for b. Diagnosing lyme disease in dogs.

For dogs the two blood tests for diagnosing lyme disease are called the c6 test and quant c6 test. The c6 test is very sensitive and specific at diagnosing cases of lyme disease and depending on clinical signs and concurrent results treatment may be started immediately. At least 4 known species of ticks can transmit lyme disease. Lyme disease which is caused by borrelia burgdorferi bacteria and transmitted through the bite of a tick affects domestic animals dogs horses and possibly cats and humans.

You will need to provide a thorough history of your dog s health to give your veterinarian clues as to which organs are being affected. There are different forms of the lyme disease test that are available to help diagnose this infection in dogs. Depending on the type of test used to screen for lyme disease a confirmatory test e g a c6 antibody test or western blot may be necessary. Dogs who test positive for lyme disease come from all over the us according to this map by the companion animal parasite council.