Discussion: OrienteeringPet & lyme

I know that a lot of us take our dogs orienteering with us at local events and some even bring them to our A events to watch. I would like to share with all our pet lovers with orienteering dogs the experience we just went through with our dog, Katie. Early fall we noticed that Katie wasn't getting up and down off our furniture, steps etc. as well as she had been. I figured that she was getting older and that her hid legs were starting to develop arthrisis. Then she started to yip if we would touch her hid legs or backside and she was not eating as well either. Then her bestest buddy, Corinne came home which usually had Katie going wild with excitement and there was no exictment this time and Corinne noticed the changes in Katie as well. Cornne was only home for a very short period of time and the next day Katie started yipping no matter where we tocuhed her and that it when I called the vet for an appt. It turned out that Katie has lyme diease and had lost almost 5 lbs in a matter of weeks. The vet gave her a shot of anitbotics and sent her home with some pain pills and 21 days of antibotics. Now over a week later our fun loving favorite dog is back and doing really well. So if you have had your dog out in the woods and they start to act strange don't wait to long to take them to the vet. as the test results are immediate and your dog can start the treatment right away. We never saw a deer tick on her or any kind of bull's eye either.

Thanks for the story; I've just started running with my 6 month old puppy in tick-infested woods. My previous two dogs both tested positive for Lyme, but never had any symptoms, which made me wonder if there are a lot of false positives. But with symptoms like your dog had: act fast!

We removed our 4 month old puppy's first tick a few weeks ago. Ziggy and I often visit the woods together. Even with all the false positives, should I still pay for the test?

yes, you are correct about acting fast. Also I forgot to mention that we live in DVOA land which is a very big Lyme diease area. A number of our club members have had lyme as had my husband. That adds to the need to act fast too.

Lyme has been very prevalent in animals around here recently. Two horses at my trainer's barn are being treated right now (50 pills a dose!) I pulled about 6 ticks off of my horse's legs after an hour trail ride in October. The animals can't tell us what's wrong so it's important to watch for physical and personality changes

As much as I'm sorry for your dog's recent poor health I'm amazed that you even take them to orienteering events. Here in Australia the rule is NO DOGS.

"In keeping with our policies and because of the requirements of many landholders, we do not allow smoking, dogs or the lighting of fires at our events."

Imagine what would happen to our ability to access this land if a dog got loose and harassed or killed livestock or native animals at one of our events. Can't believe there is not a similar policy in your country.

Many US orienteering venues are public parks or lands where dogs are already allowed. So the rules don't change just for our activity. There are some places where you can't bring them, but not a whole lot. (Certain camps & preserves, etc) We held a local meet once that almost had more dogs than people.

I got a new puppy in October and she is having a blast orienteering. If I bring the kids and we're walking the course, the dog comes; if I'm running solo, no dog. Yes, I do bag the poo-poo.

Deer ticks are everywhere in DVOA land! I can't imagine someone in my clan not getting Lyme sooner or later.

Yes, at our local events dogs are very plentiful. Our dog goes with my husband, who runs and jogs the course but he is not a speed racer by no means. Katie is a beagle/pit bull mix and loves to run and can run a green course without any problems when feeling 100%. Like it was stated earlier most of our local, county and state parks where a good deal of our orienteering happens has no rules against dogs and we clean up as well if necessary.

Agreed that for local parks this rule doesn't apply. Ours relates to National Parks, State forests, farming land and private property.

What about smoking at bush (forest) events? Do you see much of that in the US or is it banned like here. Seems you have just as many terrible fires over there (well in California at least) as we do. Seems less of a problem as I don't know any orienteers that actually smoke! Maybe we could do a poll on that one.

Smoking is extremely rare among US and Canadian orienteers. When we get groups of students, you sometimes see a parent or family member smoking, but generally not actual orienteers. I have seen a few event announcements spceify "no smoking", but the problem is so rare that the possibility probably doesn't even occur to most event organizers here.

Very few parks in the U.S. ban dogs entirely. Many require a short leash, some as short as 5 feet (about1,6 meter). But I have never seen a ranger or police officer measuring a leash and I doubt that it would be enforced except in extremely flagrant violation, such as if a person was bitten.

With regards to the smoking comments I actually started a new thread.

As for dogs I have to admit that I'm not particualry pleased to see any dog when I'm running/jogging no matter where I am.

They seem to have a natural tendancy to chase moving objects, especially humans. Even when they are required to be on a leash you often see the owner carrying the leash and the dog roaming free. When you run in the vicinity it is usually the case that the dog runs at you while the owner futiley calls its name or utters the often used but also often wrong statement...."it's alright, he wont hurt you" as he nips at your heels.

Obviously there are dog owners that do the right thing but there are many that don't. (I suspect as orienteers you might be in the good group)

On one particular occassion I had a dog bitting my arm and when I yelled at the owner to get it off and they simply told the dog "don't bite him or you'll catch something".

Susequently if I see a dog approaching me I generally "firmly" tell the owner to get it away from me no matter how friendly the dismeaner of the dog looks. While this may upset some of them I prefer this to being bitten again. Hey you may know what your dog is like...I DON'T and my trust in dog owners and their animals is forever lost!

I've run forever and have had to deal with those same bad dog-owners (as opposed to owners of bad dogs). This year I became a first-time dog owner and now have some better insight concerning dogs and the outdoors. I'm even tempted to bring my puppy on an O course - which would be against our club's policy. However, even though I'm my dog's boss, I'm still surprised by what my dog might do (or not do) while out in the woods.

leepback, trust your gut - not us dog owners.