Positive tests for tick-borne illness in N.S. dogs up sharply, says vet

The number of dogs testing positive for tick-borne illnesses in Nova Scotia has nearly doubled this year, says aBedford veterinarian.

Jeff Goodall, the owner and a veterinarian at Sunnyview Animal Care, said the problems go beyond Lyme disease. Anaplasmosis is also a concern.

He saiddogs have been testing positive for tick-borne illnesses throughout the winter.

"They're definitely out earlier this year," he said. "We had people reporting ticks on their dogs in January."

Goodall said he usually recommends that people begin tick prevention fordogs in March, but he began recommending it as early as February this year.

"February is just unheard of as a time to start tick prevention, really," said Goodall.

He said most of the positive cases resulted because pet owners didn't test their dogs last year.

"Five to some say 10 per cent of dogs who are positive for Lyme will develop osteoarthritis prematurely, or possibly kidney disease," said Goodall.

He saidthe sooner pet owners remove ticks from their dogs, the sooner they can begin antibiotic therapy and reduce the likelihood of those diseases.

Increase in ticks this year

Preliminary data from the Lloyd Tick Lab at Mount Allison University in Sackville N.B., shows ticks in Nova Scotia have increased this year.

Vett Lloyd, a professor at the lab,saidfemale ticks were able to get blood meals much later into the year because of the mild weather.

She says Nova Scotia has two kinds of ticks. The American dog tickis often harmless, but the blacklegged tick can carry Lyme disease.

"Unfortunately, if a female tick gets a blood meal, that means that she can probably go through and lay roughly 3,000 eggs, and this time of year, they're hatching out into hungry little baby ticks," said Lloyd.

"Mostly, those baby ticks are finding mice and so forth. But come later in the spring or next fall, they'll be bigger and looking for bigger snacks."

She said usuallyticks crawl into the leaf litter when there is snow. The snow covers them and keeps them out of the way.

But they were out feeding well into winter this year.

"We were getting ticks into January, which we've never had before," said Lloyd. "There are hotspots and warm spots. There are no cold spots in Nova Scotia."

Testing this year shows a 50 per cent infection of Lyme disease in some adult ticks, says Laura Ferguson, a biologist at Acadia University who studies ticks.

She also even the cold snap was easy on the ticks because they could have crawled under the snow where it was much milder.

Lloyd said checking for ticks should be routine, like brushing teeth.

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