We all love warm weather…but so do those little critters of the eight-legged crawly variety! Yes, I’m talking about ticks, which are a topic you should be informed about, both for the sake of your human family and your four-legged family.
Here’s what The Farm’s vet tech, John David Tucker, has to say on the subject:
With such a warm start to this spring, ticks have also had a jump start. This could mean that we will have a long and plentiful tick season. With the ability to carry many diseases to our pets, we at The Farm recommend that all pets be on a monthly tick preventative that kills ticks before they have a chance to spread disease. Your pet’s veterinarian will be able to discuss with you the best tick prevention program for your loved ones. Please make it a priority this spring and summer to have your pets on a tick preventative so they can play outside happy and tick-free!
You and your pets are both at risk for tick-borne diseases, including Lyme’s disease. The best defense is prevention. Visit the Tick Encounter Resource Center Website to learn about all the things you can do to protect yourself and your pets and minimize the risks. Additionally, some of the things you thought you knew about ticks are actually not true.
For example, did you know that ticks don’t actually jump or fall from trees? Instead, they crawl up from the ground and attach themselves to animals ranging from mice to deer to your cats and dogs as well as humans. Also, according to the TERC, “For most tick-borne diseases, you have at least 24 hours to find and remove a feeding tick before it transmits an infection.”
The site also has information on the best way to remove a tick (which does not include burning it with a cigarette butt), and how to identify different kinds of ticks (which can be important, because only deer ticks transmit Lyme’s disease). Expand the chart to the right to find out what the most common ticks in our area look like at all stages of life >>.
Now, what about tick prevention for your pets? Not all flea preventatives also kill ticks. You can talk to your vet about preventatives to find one that works best for you. TERC’s website has a chart of tick killers/preventatives and exactly what they do. If you use the popular preventative Comfortis, you should know that it only protects against fleas, not ticks.
Here at The Farm we protect against ticks in two ways:
- Every year we spray the property regularly to limit your pets’ exposure to ticks. On March 27th the nature trail and every part of the property that is likely to be a haven for ticks was sprayed, and will be re-sprayed in four weeks.
- All staff members have been advised of the risks of ticks and always have an eye out for these nasty little hitchhikers any time they handle a dog. We always remove ticks immediately if we find any.
Now that you are armed with all this knowledge, we at The Farm hope you will go forth and enjoy the spring and summer with your pets (or while your pets are boarding here), free of worry about ticks!