Lyme Disease and Tick Paralysis in Dogs:
What a Tick Bite Can Do

More than one disease

Ticks are among the nastiest parasites a dog meets. Lyme disease is the one everyone has heard of, and tick paralysis is a common result of a bite. But a tick can also transmit Rocky Mountain spotted fever, ehrlichiosis or anaplasmosis, and a single tick may carry more than one of them at once, which complicates the risk for your dog.¹

So the idea of casually pulling off a tick you've found and moving on should be discarded. We recommend an immediate visit to your vet, to be sure. Lyme itself is caused by a bacterium carried by blacklegged (deer) ticks; tick paralysis is different, a reaction to a toxin in the saliva of certain ticks while they feed. Weakness starts in the back legs and climbs, and most dogs recover within days once the tick is found and removed.²

The signs are quiet at first

Early symptoms may be non-existent, or barely there. Vague at best. A dog with Lyme may not show anything for weeks or months after the bite; when signs come, they are usually a lameness that shifts from leg to leg, fever, swollen joints, low energy and a poor appetite. In a smaller number of dogs the kidneys are affected, and that form is serious.³

You don't want to wait until it's too late to get things checked out, because these issues can be very difficult to resolve once they've settled in. It's mostly up to immune function. That is the part a family can do something about.

Where Nzymes can help

Since this is likely to be a long and serious struggle, where symptoms may be as severe as partial paralysis, we suggest a full-on approach: feed the immune system from every side at once. That is not to say you should overlook whatever help your vet can give; many of the families we work with do both, and step down gradually as the dog improves.

The Core FoundationSee the Core Foundation →Sprouted Granules in the bowl and Antioxidant Treats by hand: the live-food enzymes and antioxidants the immune system runs on. Where every tick-borne case starts.

Ox-E DropsFor immune assistance: a few drops a day to support healthy pH and oxygen balance from within. Bac-Pak PlusTo restore, repair and protect the beneficial bacteria in the gut, where so much of immune function lives.

Not sure whether what the vet found is Lyme, a co-infection, or something else entirely? Book a free consultation and tell us what you're seeing. Diet is the first thing we'll go over; our recommended foods guide shows what to look for.

One dog who came back

Bohdi, a Border Collie in Winnipeg, arrived with Stage 4 Lyme disease and an enlarged heart. Three vets had called him the worst case they'd seen and sent him home to live out his last days. Brenda Johnson, one of our own consultants, took him in anyway, put him on Nzymes and a program of her own, and three months later his Lyme bloodwork came back negative. Six years on he was still running miles a day. Read Bohdi's story →