Ticks transmit multiple serious pathogens to dogs including Lyme disease, ehrlichiosis, anaplasmosis and babesiosis, each causing distinct welfare impacts requiring prevention and prompt treatment.
Tick-borne diseases cause significant, often severe suffering in affected dogs. Ehrlichiosis in its acute phase causes profound thrombocytopenia, fever, lethargy and haemorrhage — dogs bleed from mucous membranes, develop petechiae and may collapse. The chronic phase of ehrlichiosis, when untreated, causes bone marrow suppression resulting in pancytopenia (loss of all blood cell types) — a condition that is extremely difficult to treat and often fatal. Babesiosis causes haemolytic crisis: rapid red blood cell destruction leads to profound anaemia, jaundice and organ failure that requires blood transfusions, anti-parasitic treatment and intensive supportive care. Lyme nephritis — kidney failure caused by immune complex deposition — causes chronic pain and progressive renal failure. The preventability of most tick-borne disease through consistent parasite control makes under-prevention a significant welfare issue; many cases occur in dogs whose owners were unaware of local disease risk or inconsistent with preventative treatment.