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IF you haven't already done so, get your dogs on their seasonal tick prevention

Good advice, and we just had an "experience" with Ottawa public health that might have been simpler.

We lost are little Tommy two days ago, he was approaching 15, we rescued him almost 10 years ago. Heart of gold. When we rescued him from a puppy mill he had heart worm, and was in serious decline they were going to put him down instead of treat. So we treated him and he made it through. Transitioned from afraid of everyone and everything to everyones friend with lots of doggy friends in the neighbourhood. My wife home cooked organic meals for him and we were able to spoil him for 10 great years. He loved to go paddle boarding at the lake with my wife. One of those little guys that the moment he understood what you wanted he would just do it. He could count to two because I would give him two slices of banana from my cereal bowl every morning and if I tried to give him just one, he wasn't buying it, two he would wag his tale and be happy.

Tommy lost his hearing about a year ago and then one eye and then about a week ago the other. While trying to figure out the house with no eyesight he managed to have a fall and hurt his leg / back and was in serious pain. At one point when we were trying to move him he snapped at the air and nipped my wifes thumb. We made the mistake of mentioning this when filling out the form for euthanasia. Ottawa public health would not allow the vet to proceed and stated that he must be quarantined for 10 days because he might have rabies. These are the same people that were fining solo joggers in the park for violating the Covid restrictions. It took a couple of days before Ottawa public health relented and Tommy suffered more than he should have. We miss the little guy.
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slow-poke said:
Degen said:
Just remember ticks also bite you too. Protect yourself.

I've personally gone through Lyme treatment (7-1/2 months of high dose antibiotics in 2006) so as the saying goes, been there done that ain't doing that again.
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That sucks.
We've got a giggity billion ticks here in Saskatchewan but thankfully not much for Lyme disease yet. No more than 2 cases the last several years and all travel related. Mosquito borne encephalitis is a bigger risk here.
I'll take ticks over mosquitos any day.
 
Question is are the vets saying you pets and livestock getting Lyme? If so, so are people.

Lyme testing has a high degree of false negatives in Canada. Generally it is misdiagnosed as a lot of other ailments. My story is to long to post.

Want to learn, see www.canlyme.com
 
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Degen said:
Question is are the vets saying you pets and livestock getting Lyme? If so, so are people.

Lyme testing has a high degree of false negatives in Canada. Generally it is misdiagnosed as a lot of other ailments. My story is to long to post.

Want to learn, see www.canlyme.com
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I think this false negative issue is a nasty one. So is the whole matter of awareness. Most people who know about Lyme see a dog tick and panic. But worse than that, a study I saw recently highlighted the lack of awareness even among physicians.

I kill maybe 50 dog ticks a year. They seem to like my fur. Usually I feel them crawling through it. But once a year or so, I get bit. It's almost always a dog tick. Only once did I get bitten by a deer tick. What an ordeal.

First I called the tick control center. They tell me that's its vitally important that I get the tick to them within an hour so they could do an ID on it.

I told them it's a deer tick. They say you can't be sure of that. I tell them oh yes I can. Anyway, they insist. So I go there, she looks at it and says, yup it's a deer tick. They take the tick to send for testing and tell me I'll get the results within 60 days....

Wtf. It's urgent I get them the tick within the hour but then they take 60 days to test it!

So I ask what I should do in the meantime. They tell me to see my doctor. So I make an appointment to see the doctor in a week. (ya, that fits with the urgency too.....). He prescribes one - just one - pill. Which I take. Why only one pill? Who ever heard of such a thing?

Anyway, two months later the tick test comes back negative.

Totally stupid.
 
Doggggboy said:
That sucks.
We've got a giggity billion ticks here in Saskatchewan but thankfully not much for Lyme disease yet. No more than 2 cases the last several years and all travel related. Mosquito borne encephalitis is a bigger risk here.
I'll take ticks over mosquitos any day.
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Besides a love of our pets, tick prevention for them is tick prevention for humans.

Lyme disease is endemic where I am. Dogs brought a tick into the house that bit my wife leading to hysterics.

If they dont bring back the vaccine for it soon I may start taking tick prevention meds and I hate liver flavour
 
Susquatch said:
I think this false negative issue is a nasty one. So is the whole matter of awareness. Most people who know about Lyme see a dog tick and panic. But worse than that, a study I saw recently highlighted the lack of awareness even among physicians.

I kill maybe 50 dog ticks a year. They seem to like my fur. Usually I feel them crawling through it. But once a year or so, I get bit. It's almost always a dog tick. Only once did I get bitten by a deer tick. What an ordeal.

First I called the tick control center. They tell me that's its vitally important that I get the tick to them within an hour so they could do an ID on it.

I told them it's a deer tick. They say you can't be sure of that. I tell them oh yes I can. Anyway, they insist. So I go there, she looks at it and says, yup it's a deer tick. They take the tick to send for testing and tell me I'll get the results within 60 days....

Wtf. It's urgent I get them the tick within the hour but then they take 60 days to test it!

So I ask what I should do in the meantime. They tell me to see my doctor. So I make an appointment to see the doctor in a week. (ya, that fits with the urgency too.....). He prescribes one - just one - pill. Which I take. Why only one pill? Who ever heard of such a thing?

Anyway, two months later the tick test comes back negative.

Totally stupid.
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BTW Black Legged Deer Tick is the most common vector, but any tic and a whole lot of other nasties can spread it. FYI less than 30% get a bullseye rash.

Caught early about 30 days of antibotics and you are good, caught late it is a lot longer and have lifetime after effects.

I'll be honest I got luck.

For those that live in the city it is just as common there as it is in the woods and fields. Animals are everywhere so are tics.

Safe removal.....straw and string.....google it.
 
Last October 18th wife woke with a tick embedded in her. I used tweezers to remove it... only takes a little skill to do it right, but do it wrong and you squeeze tick and force it to expel guts out its mouth. Bad.

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I left that tick to slowly suffocate in a jar, but it survived days until I got out the hammer. I thought a single tick was nasty looking until someone posted this

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TorontoBuilder said:
I thought a single tick was nasty looking until someone posted this
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Holy CRAP!

I'd have another stroke if those were on me or my wife or one of the grandkids.

I've seen chiggers that bad and even bird fleas. But never more than two or three ticks.
 
Those look pretty small for ticks. Ours are always at least the size of half a match head. I thought I saw a video once showing how ticks get their first blood meal on a rodent, then grow and move on to larger mammals.
 
Susquatch said:
I think I'll stick with a tick key. I get so many ticks here to be able to say with total complete confidence that these babies work. Free at most veterinarians, cheap on amazon.

Tick Key Tick Remover https://a.co/d/gDkD9Dl
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This tool is nice for dogs, but useless on the small ticks and you risk ripping the body of a well fastened tick off leaving the head in your body just before you empty its guts into your blood stream. Tweezers are a no no, as you generally squeeze their guts into you blood stream as you grab them.

While this video is ok it misses the straw which allows you to get the string down lower as it compresses to skin around the ticks neck, and slowly chock the tick and get it to back out by itself without releasing its stomach content (lyme bearing fluid) into you.

Think string (thread) around straw, straw over tick, slide string down under straw and tighten. Extremely gently apply press and let the tick pull itself out. This aside from novacan injection is the best and safest method.
 
TorontoBuilder said:
those are just hatched seed ticks... and two mature ticks
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That makes sense TB. I've read that a female tick lays thousands of eggs. The newly hatched ticks are always found in one place where ever those eggs were laid. So I could see how someone could easily end up covered in them. I've never seen a tick nymph myself though.

Doggggboy said:
I thought I saw a video once showing how ticks get their first blood meal on a rodent, then grow and move on to larger mammals.
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This is my understanding as well. According to a biologist I know (my daughters husbands brother) who has spent his whole adult life studying ticks and Lyme disease, deer ticks are hatched without the Lyme bacteria and get it from the mice they get their first blood meal from.
 
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