While most people consider the Robin a harbinger of spring, people who live in Saskatchewan know that another sign of the season is the emergence of ticks. This year, they have appeared earlier than they normally do, and so our normal May or June warnings about ticks are also coming early.
Ticks are a Problem
- Ticks are a problem for one reason: they have the capacity to spread disease.
- They are most infamous for spreading for Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.
- lyme disease is very uncommon in Saskatchewan and there are no known cases of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
Avoiding Ticks
- Short of staying inside until the cold weather returns, efforts to avoid ticks can be expected to return some results, but you need to accept that you will have some ticks on you, as will your dog.
- Some of the most common tips for avoiding ticks are to wear good shoes and socks, and long pants when you are walking near tall grasses, especially near water.
- Tuck your pants into your socks to make sure the tick don’t crawl up the insides on your pants.
- Wear light-colored clothes so that the ticks can be easily spotted and picked off.
- Use repellant that contains DEET or Picaridin on both your clothes and your skin. Be sure to wash it off thoroughly when you come indoors.
- if you put DEET on your dog or cat they could lick it off and become sick.
- When you come in from outside, do a thorough tick check on yourself and any pets and children you have taken outside.
- There are oral medicines to help repel ticks from your dog, ask your Martensville Animal Hospital vet about these helpful medicines.
Read what to do if you have a tick embedded in your skin, or find on your dog in our next blog. If you have more questions about your dog and ticks, call Martensville Veterinary Hospital.