Anaplasmosis is a tick disease, which is caused by the bacterium Anaplasmaphagocytophilum and is transmitted with a bite of a black-legged tick . The lighter form of the disease is transmitted through a canine brown tick. Anaplasmosis affects not only dogs, but also other animals around the world.
Symptoms of anaplasmosis in dogs
There are several forms of the disease, depending on which symptoms may vary. In the most common form, meaning the first phase of the disease, the symptoms are as follows:
- lameness;
- lack of appetite;
- temperature increase;
- drowsiness, weakness;
- diarrhea ;
- pain in the joints;
- icterus of the mucous membranes;
- enlarged lymph nodes.
After infection, symptoms usually appear on day 1-7, in some dogs they are minor or nonexistent. If the treatment was not performed on time or the disease did not go away (which often happens in mild form), the symptoms may worsen. In some dogs anaplasmosis can go to the second phase, which is characterized by such symptoms:
- increase in the size of the spleen;
- hematomas;
- bleeding.
During the second phase, often the dog does not have any symptoms, it looks healthy, and the disease can be detected only with the help of a clinical blood test, which will show a decrease in the number of platelets and an increase in the level of globulins. The second phase can last several months or even years. And in the absence of veterinary care, the consequences of anaplasmosis can be serious - the disease can go into a third, chronic, phase. During this period, abnormal bleeding, blood in the urine, bleeding of their nose are possible.
Anaplasmosis in dogs - treatment
Treatment is similar to what is being done with other closely related tick-borne infections, for example, with Lyme disease. It includes the administration of the antibiotic Doxycycline, the course of which can last up to 30 days.
Often the symptoms are already in the first day or two, the prognosis of the clinical recovery is quite favorable.