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Lyme Survey Results

We have received 10 responses from the 28 Lyme Disease surveys that we sent out to owners of dogs that tested positive for Lyme disease.

What other states has your dog been in?

  • 2 dogs were adopted at older age and have unknown histories
  • 8 dogs had been to Minnesota
  • 3 dogs had been to Wisconsin
  • 2 dogs had been to Montana
  • 1 dog had been to Ontario
  • 3 dogs had been to other states

Does your dog spend time at a lake cabin?

  • 7 dogs spent time at a lake cabin
  • 1 dog had not spent time at a lake cabin
  • 2 dogs had unknown histories

Is your dog a city or country dog?

  • 7 dogs were city dogs
  • 3 dogs were country dogs

Is your dog indoor or outdoor or both?

  • 7 dogs were indoor outdoor dogs
  • 2 dogs were mainly outdoor dogs
  • 1 dog was mainly indoor dogs

Has your dog ever been vaccinated for Lyme disease?

  • 9 dogs had never had Lyme vaccination
  • 1 dog had previous vaccinations 2 years ago

Has your dog ever had an unexplained lameness?

  • 7 dogs had not had a previous lameness of unknown cause
  • 3 dogs have had a lameness of unknown cause, 2 of these dogs had been to Minnesota and Wisconsin and the other had an unknown history.

Have you noticed ticks on your dog?

  • Owners had noticed ticks on 8 of 10 dogs

What type of tick control do you use, if any?

  • 8 of 10 owners had used Frontline on their dogs
  • 1 had used just a shampoo and a tick spray
  • 1 dog had had no tick treatments

Do you know of other dogs that live in your area that have been diagnosed with Lyme disease?

  • No one knew of another dog that lived close to them that was also Lyme positive.

What conclusions can we make from the surveys?

We have to realize that this is not a scientific survey because only half of the people that owned a positive dog responded and we did not sample any non-positive dogs. The survey does seem to show that there is a greater risk of coming into contact with Lyme disease outside the state of North Dakota especially the lake country of Minnesota.

Dogs that stay in exclusively in North Dakota seem to be less likely to be exposed to Lyme disease.

Dogs that go in to Minnesota or stay at lake cabins seem to have higher rates of infection.

Using Frontline for 3 months on dogs that go to Minnesota or that go to lake cabins does not totally eliminate the possibility of being exposed to Lyme disease. We feel that the Frontline works well but may need to use Frontline for the entire summer and early fall to protect the dog from later season ticks that we do not see much of here in North Dakota. One of our technicians had a dog test positive for Lyme and that dog had been exposed to deer ticks in Bemidji area last fall.

What we recommend is that dogs that go to the lake country or go traveling to other parts of the country use Frontline for the entire time they are out of state unless it is below freezing.

If you have any questions please feel free to call us.