I'm Dr. Clayton Greenway with health
healthcareforpets.com. I wanted to talk
about ticks in general, I think it's a big
deal and we're seeing a big surge in
ticks and also the disease that ticks
carry called Lyme disease. Here in
Toronto, Canada this is becoming a big
problem and quite frankly over 13 years
that I've practiced I've seen more ticks
in the last year and a half than I have
in the decade before it so it's a real
problem and Health Canada is putting out
alerts all the time about the increase
in Lyme disease across our country. So
this may be occurring in areas where you
live as well and you're going to want to
talk to your veterinarian about the risk
to your pets about ticks and lyme
disease but here's the first thing. Ticks
are little parasites that can live in
groups, they're usually in tall grasses
and fields where your dog may run
through. They will get onto the skin in
the fur, they'll crawl around and they'll
embed their head into the skin to
have a blood meal off of your dog.
This occurs relatively rapidly within 24
hours and then you'll usually find them
somewhere where the vessels are
superficial, maybe around the face or the
ears. If you're in that type of area,
you always want to look for ticks. If you
know ticks are in your area, look for them
every day, at least once a day, because
when ticks are embedded in your dog
it takes them about 24 hours or more to
transmit Lyme disease to your dog.
So you want to make sure you're removing
those ticks before they have the
chance to do that. If a tick has been on your
dog for more than 24 hours, you're gonna
want to test for lyme disease.
The first thing to know is that the test
for lyme disease does not come back
positive until about 30 days after it's
contracted so you can't test for it
right away. You're gonna have to wait
about a month before that test could
actually tell you that your dog has lyme
disease.
The other thing is is that they're
different species of ticks and some
carry Lyme disease and some can't. Here in
Toronto, Canada we're seeing an increase
in the number of ticks that can carry Lyme
disease, we're also seeing an increase in
the amount of Lyme disease in those ticks.
It's making it a big problem so this is
quite common here and it's important to
address. Lyme disease in dogs can be a
problem.
First of all ninety percent of dogs will
actually not have symptoms of Lyme
disease and they'll never have a problem
even though their lyme positive but the
ones that do have lyme and become
clinical or have a problem with it, it
can be very serious. It can show up as
many things and it may confuse the
average veterinarian because we often
don't think of that as the first thing
to look for. You can usually see it as
general sickness and fever, enlarged
lymph nodes and these symptoms can fit a
lot of other diseases so before we think
a lyme disease.
We're starting to do a battery of tests
for the more common issues but it can go
so far as to cause problems with their
joints and even their kidney's.
This can be a huge problem and impact
your dog's health. So the last point to
make is about preventing ticks and there's a
couple ways to do this. One is with
monthly medication and you can talk to
your veterinarian about that. Again the
cost of it and giving your dog a
medication, you want to make sure it's
worth it as far as risk of exposure to
ticks. You can talk to your veterinarian or
other dog owners in your area to know
how likely ticks are. The medication works
extremely well and there are different
kinds
so you'll talk to your veterinarian
about that but some of them are great at
even preventing ticks from getting on your
dog. You want to keep in mind about the
areas where they get them the tall
grasses and thinking about avoiding
those areas or maybe even staying on the
path or leashing your dog when you're
walking through those areas to prevent
ticks. A final point I'm going to make is
ticks, because they carry Lyme disease, if
people get them it can be a disastrous
disease for you. Humans really have a
hard time managing Lyme disease. It's
difficult to find and diagnose and it's
really difficult to treat and could
cause lots of problems throughout your
body. So I really encourage you if you're
in a tick positive area, that you check
yourself every day and make sure that
you don't find any ticks. To tell you
honestly, I go out to the grandparents
with my three kids they go running
around and everyday I do a tick check
and I look those kids up and down to
make sure they don't have a tick and
that's how seriously I take it because
it's an extremely dangerous disease and
it's on the rise. We tell you all these
things because we care about your pet we
care about you here at healthcareforpets.com.