All 4 Siblings Develop the Same Disease-Then They Test the Dog

For Lyme Disease Awareness Month in May, one woman revisited her family‘s long battle with the illness-and highlighted an irony that still makes them laugh years later: the family dog was diagnosed faster than any of them.

Makalea, known on Instagram as @heymakalea, has spent years raising awareness about Lyme disease after going a decade without an accurate diagnosis. She wasn’t the only one searching for answers. Her three younger siblings were also struggling with unexplained symptoms for years.

She told Newsweek via email that she remembers pulling ticks off herself, but didn’t think to mention it to doctors at the time because she never got a bull’s-eye rash, and neither did her siblings. Instead, she had “intense joint pain” as a teenager-one of the symptoms associated with Lyme disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

What happened next would later become a running joke within the family. While Makalea and her siblings spent years searching for answers, their dog, Molly, was diagnosed with Lyme disease almost immediately after developing a bull’s-eye rash around a tick bite. In a throwback Instagram video she posted on May 31, Makalea joked about the dog receiving a faster diagnosis than any of the humans.

After spotting the rash, Makalea’s mother took Molly to the veterinarian, where the dog was quickly diagnosed and treated with antibiotics.

The diagnosis came roughly a decade before Makalea and her siblings finally discovered the cause of their own health problems, despite her belief that they were likely exposed around the same time as Molly.

While Molly recovered quickly and returned to her normal self, Makalea spent years moving from doctor to doctor without a clear explanation for her symptoms. She was finally diagnosed in early 2020, and her three siblings received diagnoses in the years that followed.

Between the four of them, doctors identified not only Lyme disease but also several co-infections, including Bartonella, Babesia and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

By comparison, Molly’s case was relatively straightforward. She lived a healthy life after treatment and died at age 16.

The Missing Rash That Changed Everything

Looking back, Makalea believes a common misunderstanding about Lyme disease contributed to years of missed opportunities for diagnosis.

“It turns out, it’s a myth that Lyme disease always means you get a bull’s-eye rash,” she said.

Because she never developed the characteristic rash, Makalea said she didn’t realize her tick bites could be relevant. None of her siblings experienced a bull’s-eye rash either.

Her message to others is simple: the absence of a rash does not necessarily rule out Lyme disease. According to the CDC, symptoms can also include fever, chills, fatigue, headaches and swollen lymph nodes.

Today, Makalea estimates she is about 90 percent recovered after years of treatment. While each of her siblings had a different experience with the illness, she said her focus now is rebuilding a life after spending much of her 20s battling debilitating pain.

“If I had caught Lyme early, my life could've been so different,” Makalea said.

“So I hope sharing our story helps others avoid that path.”

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Rebecca Flood and James Debens.

2026 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.

This story was originally published June 22, 2026 at 9:55 AM.