Lyme Disease

Aug. 14, 2025 | Pop singer Justin Timberlake recently announced that he was among the nearly half a million Americans currently suffering from Lyme disease, a bacterial infection most commonly spread by the bite of infected ticks. The ticks that spread the disease are known as blacklegged ticks or deer ticks and they are commonly found in the U.S. in the Northeast, mid-Atlantic, and upper-Midwest regions. These ticks can attach to any part of your body but they are often found in hard-to-see areas such as your groin, armpits, and scalp. Usually, the tick must be attached to you for more than 24 hours to spread the bacterium to you. Most tick bites happen in the summer months when the arachnids are most active and people spend more time outdoors. But you can get bitten in the warmer months of early fall, or even during late winter if temperatures are unusually high. And if there is a mild winter, ticks may come out earlier than usual.

Aug. 14, 2025 | The symptoms of Lyme disease are usually seen between three to 30 days after an infected tick bites you. One of the most common symptoms is a red rash called erythema migrans. The rash will get bigger over several days and may feel warm. It is usually not painful or itchy and as it starts to get better, parts of it may fade. Sometimes this makes the rash look like a bull’s-eye. The patient may also experience a fever, chills, a headache, muscle and joint aches and swollen lymph nodes. Some late-stage symptoms, such as an irregular heartbeat, may not appear until weeks or months after a tick bite. When left untreated, the bacterial infection can spread to joints, the heart, and the nervous system and cause permanent damage. Lyme disease is rarely fatal but if not treated properly, it can become a chronic illness where the symptoms might continue for weeks, months, or even years after the initial tick bite.

Aug. 14, 2025 | In order to properly diagnose the bacterial infection known as Lyme disease, your doctor will have to consider your symptoms, the likelihood that you were exposed to infected blacklegged ticks and the possibility that you could have other illnesses that cause similar symptoms. Most Lyme disease tests check for antibodies made by the body in response to infection. These antibodies can take several weeks to develop. If you are tested right away, it may not show that you have the disease, even if you have it, so you may need to have another test later. People treated with appropriate antibiotics in the early stages of Lyme disease usually recover rapidly and completely. The antibiotics most commonly used to treat Lyme disease include doxycycline, amoxicillin, or cefuroxime axetil. Early diagnosis and proper antibiotic treatment of Lyme disease can help prevent you from having a more severe reaction.

Aug. 14, 2025 | Did you know that dogs can get Lyme disease, too? The typical symptoms in dogs include swollen joints, fever, and loss of appetite. There are ways you can reduce your dog’s risk for tick bites and Lyme disease, which also reduces the risk of infection for you because there is less chance of an infected tick crawling from your dog onto you and then biting you. First, regularly check your dog for ticks and avoid allowing them to roam in tick-infested areas. You should also treat your dog year-round tick products. There are several FDA-approved products that treat and control tick infestations on dogs and cats. A couple of tick products are also approved for dogs to specifically prevent infections with the bacteria that cause Lyme disease by killing the ticks before they can spread the bacteria. Lyme disease vaccines are available for dogs, but not for cats. Talk to your veterinarian to see if vaccination is appropriate for your dog.

Aug. 14, 2025 | To avoid being exposed to Lyme disease, stay away from wooded, brushy and grassy areas, especially between April and September. Wear light-colored clothing so that you can see any ticks that get on you and treat your clothing and gear with products containing 0.5% permethrin. Cat owners should be very careful using these products as they are highly toxic to cats. Apply insect repellents on uncovered skin, and ensure the products are registered with the Environmental Protection Agency. Wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts, and shoes that cover the entire foot. Tuck your pants into your socks or shoes and tuck your shirts into your pants. Walk in the center of trails to avoid brush and grass and remove your clothing after being outdoors and wash and dry them at high temperatures. And always check yourself, your children and your pets daily for ticks and carefully remove any you might find with fine-tipped tweezers.