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A Martensville veterinary clinic is talking ticks and tick safety after posting a picture showing dozens of ticks that had been removed from a small dog earlier this week.
Kate Dean, a veterinary technician, told CKOM Morning Show host Mark Loshack that the 7.7-pound dog was recently brought into the clinic by its owners.
Read more:
- Ticks surging in Saskatchewan means watching for tick-borne disease
- Lyme disease-carrying ticks increasing in Saskatchewan
- Tick season is here for many parts of Saskatchewan
“We were able to remove the ticks from, you know, the really sensitive areas around eyes and ears and nose, all of that, and then get that pet treated with some medication to get any of the other ticks off,” she said.
While staff at the clinic didn’t officially count the number of ticks on the dog, Dean told Loshack there were “hundreds.”
Tick populations are surging in Saskatchewan right now, according to Dr. Janet Sperling, an entomologist and president of the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation.
She said during the month of June, wood ticks are the most common species humans will encounter. Ticks that transmit Lyme disease are found less frequently in Saskatchewan than Ontario or Quebec, but they’re still an issue.
“Wood ticks are more likely to give you something like rickettsia or tularemia. There are other diseases, but they’re all treated with the same antibiotic,” Sperling said.
“But there’s this idea that the wood tick does not transmit Lyme disease. It doesn’t transmit it as often as the other tick, but there are examples of people who have removed a wood tick and test positive for Lyme disease,” she said, in a recent interview on The Evan Bray Show.
Dean said there are options for pet owners who want to try and keep ticks away from their animals, including oral medications available by prescription that are effective for as long as three months.
“There’s also some topical options that are just sort of an oil that’s squeezed onto the back of their neck and soaks in through their skin,” she said.
Dean cautioned that some of the topical medications that are safe for dogs are very toxic to cats, so owners of multiple pets should be careful about their selections. She said prescription topical medications for cats are also available from veterinarians.
Both dogs and cats can be tested for Lyme disease and other tick-born illnesses as well, Dean added.
