Lyme Disease in Dogs

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Permalink Reply by Karina Rivas McKee on March 19, 2009 at 1:46pm

My neighbor just found a tick on her son's earlobe last weekend. A day later, I found the smallest brown tick I've ever seen crawling along the fur of my dog. Is this season expected to be a bad one? We haven't even walked the trails around our neighborhood yet, this one came from my own back yard!!!

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Permalink Reply by VIP Boarding Kennel on March 19, 2009 at 4:32pm

The tick that you describe crawling on your dog sounds like a deer tick. The Deer tick is the primary carrier of Lyme Disease. If your dog has not been vaccinated for Lyme Disease I would strongly advise you to get that done this spring as well as being sure to use a topical repelent such as Frontline monthly. I have not heard any predictions regarding the severity of the ticks this spring but in this area there are alot of ticks regardless of the weather. Don't forget that any type of tick can be brought into the yard on wild life such as squirrels and racoons.

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Permalink Reply by Zoe Trafford on March 20, 2009 at 11:19am

I started using Damminix tick tubes in my yard (www.ticktubes.com) a couple of years ago, and they really seem work. It is a tick-targeted pesticide, so you don't have to do any potentially dangerous spraying or anything. We have a lot of Lyme disease in my area, and you can't be too careful.

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Permalink Reply by VIP Boarding Kennel on March 20, 2009 at 12:12pm

Thank you for your input. While I do believe that it would be a wonderful thing to be able to rid your yard of these nasty parasites I do need to remind everyone that the active chemical found in these tick tubes (permethrin) has long been known to be highly toxic to cats. Permethrin is a neurotoxin which is how it works on ticks. It basically paralyzes them until death occurs. Permethrin has the same effect on cats. Cats exposed to this chemical will suffer from tremors, seizures and very likely death. All of this can happen in rapid succession and without prompt medical attention they have a high probability of death. Unfortuantely for owners this can be a very costly visit to the vet requiring days of hospitalization. I have attached a link to Wikipedia for further information on this chemical (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permethrin)

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Brady on April 6, 2009 at 3:43pm

Thanks for the reminder on the feline's sensitivity to permethrin. It is extremely dangerous to use permethrin flea/tick treatment intended for dogs - on cats. The great thing about Tick Tubes by Damminix is that when placed on your property as directed, the cotton is not accessible to cats and is only treated with 7% permethrin, unlike spot treatments like Advantix which are 45% permethrin.

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Permalink Reply by VIP Boarding Kennel on April 8, 2009 at 10:47am

Just an update on recent statistics. I just read a report on NBC4.com about the increase in reported cases of Lyme Disease in our area. Apparently Maryland and DC have shown large increases in the number of reported cases in 2006-2007. Loudoun County accounted for half of all the reported cases for the State of Virginia.

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Permalink Reply by VIP Boarding Kennel on April 8, 2009 at 10:48am

Jennifer Brady said:

Thanks for the reminder on the feline's sensitivity to permethrin. It is extremely dangerous to use permethrin flea/tick treatment intended for dogs - on cats. The great thing about Tick Tubes by Damminix is that when placed on your property as directed, the cotton is not accessible to cats and is only treated with 7% permethrin, unlike spot treatments like Advantix which are 45% permethrin.

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Permalink Reply by VIP Boarding Kennel on April 8, 2009 at 10:52am

Thank you for the information on Advantix. I have actually heard very bad stories from owners of cats and dogs that had their cats get very sick just from rubbing up against the dog that had Advantix applied to it. Please be very careful in selecting your Flea/Tick preventative if you have both dogs and cats. Permethrin is a very toxic chemical to cats and extreme caution should be used with this chemical anywhere cats may be involved.

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