When it comes to Lyme Disease in humans, please read Part I compiled in 2023. In the case of Lyme disease in Dogs, read on…
Refresher
Lyme disease is named after Lyme, Connecticut—the town a few miles from a top-level biowarfare lab called Plum Island Animal Disease Research Center. Not only did this facility do outdoor tick experiments, but it also has a history of pathogen leaks.
In the 1960s, on an 840-acre island at the entrance to Long Island Sound, scientists at the highly guarded Plum Island Animal Disease Center were at the forefront of U.S. biological-weapons research and to create vaccines. Specifically, scientists sought to create pathogens that could be deployed stealthily, via insects.
By 1975, when the nearby town of Old Lyme, Connecticut, became the epicenter of a strange, tick-borne illness. “Children began to report unusual skin rashes, chronic fatigue, and swollen knees.” In 1981, the condition was named, ironically, Lyme Disease.
In July 2008, a creature dubbed, “The Montauk Monster” washed up on a Long Island beach, then mysteriously disappeared.
Update 2025
In 2019, the USDA finalized the Plum Island bio lab’s new home. After more than a decade, the pathogenic lab relocated to Manhattan, Kansas, prompting some to ask whether pathogens will show up in the commercial meat supply.
Initially estimated to cost $451 million, the price tag more than doubled after the National Research Council published a report in 2010 that questioned putting the facility in the heart of cattle country with a history of large, destructive tornadoes. – Kansas City News
Are strange, new diseases of human and beast man-made?
Dogs and Lyme Disease
In the US, dogs are conventionally tested and treated for Lyme Disease using the same methods as humans. After treatment, the animal can be tested to verify whether it still has Lyme or not, using a titer.
Note: a titer is a measure of antibodies in the blood to certain disease agents (bacteria, spirochete, etc) due to exposure. So a Lyme antibody titer answers the question Yes or No, was there an exposure.
A positive titer means that a dog gets treated with the antibiotic doxycycline for 4-10 weeks, but some vets see through the problem. They do not recommend it.
When it comes to Dogs with Lyme, veterinarian Dr. Todd Cooney, DVM (see Vital Animal podcast) says, “I’ve never really seen many dogs go back to being titer negative.”
Dr. Cooney continues, “So, a dog is exposed, gets an antibody, never has any symptoms…Therefore is not sick. They don’t have Lyme disease… They have immunity.”
According to an ACVIM paper, researchers have never been able to cause Lyme disease in experiments by putting infected ticks on dogs. And they’ve tried. According to this research:
In endemic areas, the fact that up to 50% of the canine population can be asymptomatic, yet seropositive, suggests that positive antibody titers do not necessarily indicate the presence of disease. Instead, the presence of a positive antibody titer should be considered evidence of exposure to the agent. Many dogs apparently are exposed to the agent of Lyme borreliosis but do not come down with the disease. Immunoblots are not able to distinguish between infection versus exposure.
Dr. Cooney, DVM, describes the testing on dogs: “Not just putting ticks on the dogs, but injecting the actual organism into the dog. So, putting it in injectable form and just giving them a shot of Lyme disease.”
“The closest thing they got to was just a transient arthritis in the leg closest to the tick bite in 6- to 12-week-old puppies. But when they tried this in adult dogs, they couldn’t produce the same symptoms. And all these puppies had self-limiting symptoms, which means they got better on their own. They didn’t require treatment.”
Cooney continues, “The other thing they said is that the more serious complications of Lyme disease, like kidney, heart, neurologic, and skin disease, things that are common in people, have not been reproduced with dogs at all. So, there are hypothetical possibilities. They could happen in theory, but they haven’t happened.”
Further, “They [ACVIM authors] argued against routine screening of healthy dogs for the following reasons:”
- results in overdiagnosis and overtreatment, based on a test that doesn’t really diagnose Lyme disease, nor predict its occurrence, … And also, the fact that most positive dogs never become ill with Lyme disease and don’t need treatment.
- overtreatment with incomplete removal of the organism can result in resistant strains. So, we could be making things worse accidentally, if the organism is there (i.e., superbugs). Overuse of antibiotics, generally, increases other resistance in the environment, which is a bad thing for everybody.
- immunity is not permanent and treated dogs can be reinfected.
- expense.
- potential drug reactions in dogs not needing treatment.
“So, it’s not that they would just treat any dog that tests positive, but a dog that has symptoms that match.”
Bottom line: routine testing for Lyme is unnecessary.
So, why is this information not available to every dog owner who sees a veterinarian?
For those who would rather seek out alternative care, why not find a homeopath?
For instance, Ledum Palustre, is a tried and true, homeopathic remedy, proven to be a winner in the race against tick diseases. “With Ledum you don’t have to think about what kind of tick bit your dog because Ledum works to restore the body’s defense mechanism against all tick diseases.”
Best to work with a homeopath when using homeopathic remedies.
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