How to Prevent Tick Diseases

Earlier this week we cautioned about the growing prevalence of tick-borne diseases such as Lyme Disease. And we pointed out how tricky it is for pet parents to know if their toy poodles are infected by these insidious illnesses. A blood test at the vet's office provides the quickest and most accurate confirmation if you have suspicions that things are just not right with your pet. Caught in time, tick diseases, including Lyme, anaplasmosis, and Ehrlichiois are usually eliminated by inexpensive antibiotic treatment.

That said, you've heard the proverb: prevention is the best medicine. That's no less true for tick-borne illnesses. First, a few words on ticks and how they do their damage.

Tick Life Cycle

The life cycle of a deer tick is a complicated, three-stage process. During one stage, the larval stage, the tick is no larger than the dot above this "i." This makes a tick particularly hard to see, especially on a toy poodle with dark hair or skin.

During their life cycle, ticks are hosted by small rodents such as mice, voles, and chipmunks. The diseases carried by ticks do not seem to harm the rodents. But when those ticks later attach to and feed upon the blood of a larger mammal such as deer or dogs or humans, a serious, if not life-threatening infection can ensue. It is not unusual to suffer from a co-infection; that is, to be infected with two tick-borne diseases at one time. Not fun.

At-Large Prevention

Understanding this, you can see that there are several steps you can take to prevent ticks from entering your home:

• Check yourself, your clothing, and your pet when you come in from outdoors.
  
• Eliminate, to the best of your ability, places where mice nest near your home.
  
• Have your yard sprayed professionally with permethrin, a pesticide that kills deer ticks but doesn't hurt mice.
  
• Treat the clothing you use for gardening or yard work with a permethrin soak like that used by the military.
  
• Apply tick-repellant sprays or creams to your skin.
• Use Damminix (R) Tick Tubes to reduce tick populations in your yard.
  

Closer to Home

You can also prevent tick-borne bacteria or parasites from affecting your pet in several ways:

• Have your vet immunize your toy poodle against Lyme Disease. The immunization does not protect against other tick-borne diseases but protecting your pet from Lyme Disease is worth the expense.
  
• Use Frontline or another flea/tick control on your pet year round.
  
• Be especially vigilant that you don't become a fomite, a transporter of ticks into your home.
  

Chalk It Up

We have learned by sad experience that, despite using every other precaution, we need to use Frontline Plus all year round, even here in Rhode Island where we are now in the deep of winter. As you read in our last blog, our toy poodle Chris is being treated for anaplasmosis.

If you would like more information on tick-borne illnesses or the products we mentioned in this blog, please visit our Ticks and Tick Diseases page at Cape Rose Toy Poodles.

Until next time,

Dibs Darwin, Spokespoodle
Cape Rose Toy Poodles