I remember growing up here in Nova Scotia and never seeing a tick. We spent our summers walking through the long grass, woods, beaches and sidewalks and never came across a single one. Fast forward 20+ years, and it is well known if you go for a hike in our beautiful province, it’s likely you might acquire a small friend on your skin on your walk back.
Thankfully there are so many products available to us to be able to prevent ticks from being able to transmit diseases to our canine and feline friends. I know that some people think “Well, my dog has such short hair that I’ll be able to see them and pull them off right away” and choose not to use a prevention treatment. Between the Pomeranians, to Shepherds and Poodles, there is just no way you’d be able to find a teeny tiny tick hiding in the fur behind their ears or legs. There is a lot of research out currently in regards to ticks and tick-borne diseases. They have the potential to carry Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Anaplasmosis and many more illnesses. I do not want to take the risk in having that happen with my pets. Prevention is always the best medicine!
At work one day there was a rep that came to chat with our clinic (In Alberta) about tick prevention, how and when to use it and the need for it in this day and age. There was a map that had red areas where ticks are migrating to each year, which was becoming more and more red the further east I was looking on our map of Canada. Ticks only need it to be 4 degrees Celsius to be active, so treating nearly year-round is a must! I remember looking around the room at my fellow employees, and they were all giving me the eyes of “you better treat your dogs if you’re moving there this summer.”
I did choose to treat my dogs with Bravecto for a couple of reasons. The main reason is that Bravecto treats and protects for three months. That in itself is a bonus; not having to remember to treat them every single month is nice. I will say, the chews are quite large, and look intimidating at first. They are, however, the easiest thing to give because they must taste amazing! They are gobbled up in 0.5 seconds every three months. With this particular product, the ticks are still able to attach to your pet, but they are unable to transmit diseases due to dying before 24 hours of attachment. I will also say, once the tick is dead, they are much less intimidating to remove because they are so small and dried up!
Now that I am back on the east coast permanently, I have had to do my fair share of tick removing, which is a new adventure for me; not only in my workplace but at home on my own dogs as well. It started not long after crossing our second border into Manitoba. One walk in the tall grass at the border crossing, we had ticks crawling on our skin and even in our truck! It was that very moment that I was extremely thankful for pre-dosing both dogs with their Bravecto before hitting the road. I spent the next two days of our truck drive across the country sifting through our Bernese Mountain dogs luscious hair coat looking for dried upticks to rid. Having the peace of mind that our dogs are protected from these little bugs goes a long way in the warm summer months and one less thing to worry about on your outdoors adventures!
If you have any questions, please give us a call.
Written by: Cara Reyno, RVT