Lyme Disease May Be a Link to Sudden Aggression Issues

Note: Please check with your veterinarian about all health-related
issues!

Reported by Betsy Sommers
Peppertree Rescue -- Albany, NY
http://www.peppertree.org

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.

Betsy Sommers
Peppertree Rescue -- Albany, NY
http://www.peppertree.org

Posted on SHARE Yahoo group Jun 1, 2004