aggression and Lyme disease

[Rott-Wiley]

I got this from a group I belong to and wanted to share it here:

Very interesting post about aggression and Lyme disease.

Sudden Aggression...please test. (Permission to crosspost)

We recently had a very strange event that I think we should share
around the rescue community:
Young (~2 years) male, a Lab mix, came into our program with a
"questionable" background. He may have been aggressive toward some
children, maybe not. We kept him for a good long while --- months of
fostering in our premier foster home, with no problem -- and placed
him carefully, with a single mid-age man who absolutely adored him. We
also, as we do with all our dogs, tested him for Lyme. He had it; we treated
it; case closed-- we thought.
Everything went very well after adoption -- he was the star of his
obedience classes, a frequent alumni visitor to our clinics - for over a year.
And truly adored by his adopter. Then, over a year after placement, Mojo
became suddenly, erratically, and seriously aggressive: literally attacked
visitors to the home, people at the vet's waiting room, etc. Terrifying. Very
sudden. Totally inexplicable. He was returned to us with genuine
heartbreak from a very loving adopter.
Mojo then went to our regular vets and was a totally different dog:
bared teeth and growling to anyone who approached his kennel, lunging at
other dogs when being walked, etc. We figured that whatever was happening
with him, he had become implacable and started a TDC (Tough Decisions
Committee - something we "convene" and that is open to anyone with an interest in
the dog when we think that euthanasia might be an option).
However, someone at the vet's office said that perhaps we should test
him for Lyme. Huh???????? They had had a regular client of theirs come in
recently with similar, out of the blue aggression, and it turned out
that was the problem - puzzled them, but seemed to be the case. Okay --
hey, we'll try anything -- so we had him tested. He was high positive!
Fine, we started treatment while we continued to figure out what to do with
him via the TDC. Almost immediately, however, once the antibiotics were
begun, the Mojo we knew came back!! He was himself again -- bouncy, happy, a bit
neurotic, but not at *all* aggressive! The staff at the vet's was amazed,
but all confirmed this change.
We didn't believe it; and the veterinarians didn't believe it ....
BUT a thorough search of the Internet turned up a number of studies and
anecdotal observations indicating that in some dogs (and in some humans!!) the
primary symptom of their Lyme Disease can be sudden, irrational and serious
aggression. Well, we've known for a while to check the
thyroid levels of dogs that show aggression that just "doesn't fit".
Now we have added testing for Lyme as well. And we have --- results not yet
in -- another dog that we placed over a year ago who has been returned
because of out-of-the-blue aggression ... and he has also tested high positive
for Lyme! We've started treatment and will be monitoring his response.
So --- plug this in to your protocols. It's worth checking out. I spent
the day today with Mojo ... and he truly is just the same dog we
placed over a year ago. (We've let his original adopter know -- because he vowed
that it had to be *something* causing this behavior. But he cannot take
Mojo back because his roommate, one of the people attacked, won't even
consider it. For the record, there were no skin-breaking contacts in any of
these attacks, but plenty of fear and we consider them as serious as if
they were full-fledged bites.) We actually have additional insight into this
because one of our volunteers (human) has had Lyme Disease. Took many months
for her to be diagnosed, and once she was, she learned that it's a VERY
nasty bug that really remains around permanently, waiting for a chance
to "crop up" again. When we place Mojo again (and our TDC unanimously agrees
that we should do this), we're going to explain the background, these amazing
events, and require that the adopters have him tested every six
months, whether or not he's showing symptoms. We have no idea whether that
will work or be sufficient - we're rather flying blind in this -- but it
seems a rational approach.
I'll post again if we learn more from the second dog (also a Lab mix). But
based on what we know now, it is a real possibility: Lyme *can*, in a few
rare cases, cause aggression, aggression that can be reversed.

Name of author removed for board policy reasons

[mmgy]

http://www.rottweiler.net/forums/showthread.php?t=36186

[Rott-Wiley]

Sorry about that, I don't know how I completely missed your post. Doh!