Dogs and cats have been found with Lyme disease. The most common signs are recurrent arthritis and lameness, sometimes accompanied by loss of appetite and depression.
By Joe Fasbinder / Special to The Malibu Times
Barbara Barsocchini became interested in Lyme disease after she contracted the illness. Today, she has a warning for dog and cat owners in Malibu and similar communities: beware.
A Malibu resident, Barsocchini is vice president of the California Lyme Disease Association, and she believes that ticks teeming with the disease might be on your best friend-be it feline or canine.
Barsocchini is an expert on the disease. She carried it for eight years before it was properly diagnosed.
“Back in the ’80s, there was a fire near my home and a wild cat came to us. We let it become an indoor-outdoor pet and it carried fleas and ticks,” Barsocchini said. “It also carried Lyme disease, but I didn’t know it.
“I had all the symptoms,” she continued, “the eyes and ears and forgetfulness, but none of the doctors I went to correctly diagnosed the disease. I even had a dermatologist who had the disease himself treat me for a rash and even though he had a similar rash himself, he didn’t think it was Lyme disease.
“I started losing my hair in the ’90s; I went to a thyroid specialist who was a specialist in Lyme disease. As soon as he found out I was from Malibu, he became suspicious,” she said.
She credits retired Dr. Saqn Ling for spotting the illness in her, after eight years of examinations by other doctors. “He had more than a thousand patients with Lyme disease, most of them from Southern California,” Barsocchini said.
Malibu makes a good breeding ground for ticks, which carry the disease, because of its mixture of rural and urban landscape. In wild places, many rodents carry the ticks that carry the debilitating disease, and ticks easily transfer onto the bodies of other warm-blooded animals-either pets or humans. Ticks on a human body are pretty easy to spot, because they are not covered with hair like a cat or dog, and pets are lower to the ground and tend to frolic in places where infected rodents might have passed or died.
The symptoms in humans vary widely. An infection may include a rash, flu-like symptoms, neurological, arthritic and/or heart trouble. Early detection and prompt antibiotic treatment usually result in an excellent prognosis, though some patients remain symptomatic. Delayed or inadequate treatment may lead to a chronic illness that is disabling and difficult to treat.
Many cats and dogs exhibit no outward evidence of Lyme disease infection, but the most common signs are recurrent arthritis and lameness that lasts for three to four days, sometimes accompanied by loss of appetite and depression. Pet owners should be aware of these additional signs: reluctance to move or a stiff, painful gait, joints that are swollen and warm to the touch; pain in the legs or throughout the body; fever, fatigue and swollen lymph nodes. Lyme disease symptoms may come and go, vary in intensity from mild to severe and can mimic numerous other conditions. In many animals, the signs are not apparent or may not appear for several months after infection.
Barsocchini said it’s not a good idea to examine your pet yourself for ticks. The animal might be infected already, even if it’s not sick.
The thing to do, she said, is to keep your pet outside at all times. Don’t let a pet become an indoor-outdoor cat or dog. And always use a flea and tick repellent on your pet.
“Keep them outside. Don’t let them bring the disease to you. Ticks can live for a long time on carpets and furniture,” Barsocchini said. “We had our carpet torn up and the house was fumigated by an exterminator. When he was done, we found evidence of ticks inside the home. Later, I found out he [the exterminator] had to retire because he got Lyme disease.”
The disease can be cured if caught early.
The International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society has published guidelines for diagnosing and treating the disease, with the focus on curing newly infected patients. Writing in the Lyme Times, Spring 2004 Edition, Dr. Steven Phillips of Connecticut said, “The purpose of the guidelines is to provide doctors with the guidance and support they need to diagnose early, when the chance for a cure is best, and to provide effective treatment.”
“Go to your doctor if you have any suspicion,” Barsocchini said. “It can get into your nervous system in 24 hours. Unfortunately I went eight years [without knowing]. I now have a chronic illness. I don’t think I’ll ever get rid of this.”