Can you believe that Spring finally seems to be making its' appearance?? Yayy!
Unfortunately, the disappearance of the snow also means the appearance of those darn TICKS!! Is your dog protected??
In addition to having a huge 'gross out' factor, ticks, and more specifically deer ticks, are carriers of Lyme Disease and a second tick-borne disease called Anaplasmosis. Lyme disease is an emerging concern in Manitoba and we are now finding more dogs testing positive for Lyme on our multi-component heartworm tests than are testing positive for heartworm. We are doing a great job with our heartworm preventatives but we have lots of room for improvement with prevention of our tick-borne diseases.
Lyme disease prevention comes in 2 main forms:
1. Prevent the ticks from attaching to your dog.
2. Vaccination.
We have 3 options for tick control that we currently recommend:
1. Revolution: Usually considered as a heartworm prevention (which it is!), started early in the season (mid-April to early May) Revolution provides quite good protection against ticks.
2. Preventic collars: These new-age veterinary exclusive collars work much better than tick collars of the past. One collar applied properly should provide 90 days (ie. a whole season) of tick coverage. Simple and effective....
3. Advantix: Another spot-on topical product that seems to work well against ticks...Cost effective and easy to apply.
Well...that's about it for the spring update....It has been a busy season for me...Been raising a litter of 6 busy chocolate labradors since early February. There are still 2 gorgeous females available...They are now 8 weeks old and ready for their new homes. Please call or e-mail the clinic if you'd like more details. I'll attach a few photos to this posting...if I can figure out how! :<)
Enjoy the nice weather!
Dr. Carolyn
