How serious is to have lyme disease?

Question

My cousin just found that he has lyme disease a year ago that his doctor never follow up with. Can this affect his health to wait that long with this disease.

Answer 1

lyme disease can become serious http://www.lyme-disease.biz/symptoms.html

Answer 2

Lyme disease is only a problem if it is left untreated. One of our geldings had Lyme some years ago and recovered completely- he's perfectly healthy now, because we caught the disease early on and treated him for it. I also have relatives who've been treated successfully for Lyme and have recovered, and I myself was bitten by a "dirty" tick but recovered from that with treatment.Symptoms of Lyme in horses are different than they are in people. In horses, the disease causes lethargy, poor appetite, and a low grade fever, but the biggest tip off for it is internmitent, inexplicable lameness. The horse will be lame in one leg one day, and then lame in a different leg the next day and the day after that, often for a week or more at a time. There will be no obvious external cause for the lameness, and usually, there is no heat or swelling in the affected limb. Any time any horse exhibits symptoms like this, a call to the vet is in order. The vet will pull blood so that a Lyme titer can be done- this is a lab test which detects the bacteria which causes the disease. Lyme Disease responds well to treatment with antibiotics of the tetracycline class. The most favored antibiotic is doxycycline, but there are others in the same group which work equally well. Horses must be given large doses- up to 60ml a day- for periods of up to 3 weeks, after which a second titer must be done to determine if further therapy is needed. The vet may also recommend that the horse be given probiotics to help rebalance the digestive system and prevent colic, because these antibiotics tend to wipe out everything they come in contact with, both good and bad. Horses in the active stage of infection should NOT be worked or ridden, because stress will aggravate their condition and can lead to the development of complications such as arthritis.The antibiotic therapy is expensive, yes, but if it is done when the disease is in its early stages ( as it was with our horse) then you can often cure a horse. That's what we did- as I said, the horse we have that had it is now 28 years old and is fully recovered. I knew at least one other horse that had the disease too, and he also recovered after getting doxycycline for a month. I've never heard of any case where a horse relapsed after being treated for Lyme. In people, yes, I am aware of several cases, but not horses. OUR horse never relapsed, even though he played polo for several more seasons after he recovered. I think that if the owner had the horse you're interested in treated, he should be fine- but it's easy for the vet to verify that he is negative by doing a Lyme titer during the pre-purchase exam. It just requires a simple blood test that takes a few days to get results from. If the horse is still positive (in other words, he still has an active infection) the vet can give you a cost estimate and an opinion on how to treat him. But if he's negative, you have nothing to worry about. Your focus should be on prevention of a future case instead of treatment. Make sure that you use a bug repellent that kills ticks as well as flies and mosquitoes, and that your horse is fully vaccinated against all the mosquito transmitted diseases. Don't ride through wooded or brushy places where ticks live without treating your horse with something like Skin So Soft or even Deep Woods OFF ! before you do. If you have dogs, have your vet give them the Lymevax shot- this is a vaccine which will protect them from infection.Keep in mind that horses and humans are end-stage hosts for the Lyme bacteria, and cannot transmit the disease to one another or to other members of their own spiecies. You can't get Lyme from your horse, and he can't get it from you. Good luck- I hope this helps.

Answer 3

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection transmitted from infected deer ticks.
Symptoms of lyme are headache, stiff neck, fever, muscle aches or fatigue. Some people will develop a ring-like rash days to weeks after the bite, but rash will last for only a few weeks then vanish.
Some people do not notice the early signs of infection as symptoms usually disappear after several weeks.
People may continue to experience headaches, and may develop dizziness, difficulty concentrating, stiff neck and perhaps a irregular heartbeat. Some people may also develop joint pain and swelling. The symptoms may occur up to two years or perhaps longer after the tick bite.
Doctors usually treat lyme with antibiotics and it is most reliable with early lyme symptoms but with longer standing symptoms the treatment with the antibiotics will usually be longer.

Answer 4

lyme disease can become very serious and debilitating, effecting the nervous system and joints if it is left unchecked, so definately tell your cousin to take care of himself and get to the doctor. lyme disease is a bacterial infection that is caused by ticks and other bugs. The term Limeys coined for british sailors comes from the amount of limes that sailors would eat to avoid getting scurvy, a vitamin C definciency.

Answer 5

Lyme disease is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi and is transmitted to humans by the bite of infected blacklegged ticks. Typical symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue, and a characteristic skin rash called erythema migrans. If left untreated, infection can spread to joints, the heart, and the nervous system. Lyme disease is diagnosed based on symptoms, physical findings (e.g., rash), and the possibility of exposure to infected ticks; laboratory testing is helpful in the later stages of disease. Most cases of Lyme disease can be treated successfully with a few weeks of antibiotics. Steps to prevent Lyme disease include using insect repellent, removing ticks promptly, landscaping, and integrated pest management. The ticks that transmit Lyme disease can occasionally transmit other tick-borne diseases as well.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has funded several studies on the treatment of Lyme disease. These studies have shown that most patients can be cured with a few weeks of antibiotics taken by mouth. Antibiotics commonly used for oral treatment include doxycycline, amoxicillin, or cefuroxime axetil. Patients with certain neurological or cardiac forms of illness may require intravenous treatment with drugs such as ceftriaxone or penicillin.

Patients treated with antibiotics in the early stages of the infection usually recover rapidly and completely. A few patients, particularly those diagnosed with later stages of disease, may have persistent or recurrent symptoms. These patients may benefit from a second 4-week course of therapy. Longer courses of antibiotic treatment have not been shown to be beneficial and have been linked to serious complications, including death.

Studies of women infected during pregnancy have found that there are no negative effects on the fetus if the mother receives appropriate antibiotic treatment for her Lyme disease. In general, treatment for pregnant women is similar to that for non-pregnant persons, although certain antibiotics are not used because they may affect the fetus. If in doubt, discuss treatment options with your health care provider.

Answer 6

Not unless he stopped ingesting citrus fruits or vitamin C. People on ships ate fruits to avoid Lyme disease. That is why many sailors from Brittan were referred to as limeys.

Answer 7

1

Answer 8

VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY SERIOUS!!!!!!

MY AUNT HAD IT BEFORE THEY KNEW WHAT IT WAS....THAT WAS 15 YEARS AGO. SHE HAS PERMANENT MUSCLE AND NERVE DAMAGE.

TODAY IF ITS TREATED AGRESSIVELY WITH ANTIBIOTICS IT JUST GOES AWAY...BUT YOUR FRIEND NEEDS TO BE TREATED ASAP!!!!! OTHERWISE HE/SHE WILL HAVE PERMANENT HEALTH PROBLEMS THAT WILL PLAGUE HIM/HER FOR THE REST OF HIS/HER LIFE. IF ITS NOT TOO LATE ALREADY.

ALSO, IF DOCTOR DIDN'T FOLLOW UP, THIS COULD BE A MEDICAL MALPRACTICE CASE....SINCE PROMPT TREATMENT WOULD HAVE GOTTEN RID OF THE PROBLEM AND A DELAY CAN CAUSE LIFELONG COMPLICATIONS.

MY AUNT HAD A CATHATER IN HER CHEST FOR ALMOST A YEAR WITH IV ANTIBIOTICS BEFORE HER ORDEAL WAS OVER.

Answer 9

Probably not. It is one of those diseases that once you get it, you will have it for the rest of your life, I think. It isn't all that debilitation, and I think people can have different levels of it, but he should talk to the doc again.

Answer 10

yeah, it can cause symptoms similar to arthritis which makes it painful to move jointed parts of your body like your fingers. and its more difficult to get rid of the critter that causes it if you wait a long time after being infected