Tick-borne diseases might be avoided with common

By Abby Bird CONTRIBUTOR

Tick borne diseases are fairly common in most environments and it is especially evident here in the South. Whether dog ticks or deer ticks, they are in pine straw, leaves and anywhere you walk that may be wooded or even near the beach.

Home grown methods that are homeopathic or natural don’t seem to do an adequate job in our area at preventing our dogs from getting infected. They don’t seem to be powerful enough to keep these little bacteria-carrying parasites off.

There are all sorts of veterinarian-recommended pesticide type medications that do an adequate job at helping to keep the ticks from infecting our dogs, but alas, even though their efficacy is very high, they don’t always do the trick.

The fact is that most “preventives” don’t prevent the tick from biting. Most people with dogs use the once-a-month pill method or liquid topicals or collars. And yet I know dozens of dog owners who have reported that even though their dog is on a reputable tick treatment regularly, their dog has tested positive for anaplasmosis or other tick diseases.

Tick titers can be run through bloodwork and can be run yearly to see if your dog is infected. Treatments are fairly simple, usually a course of antibiotics such as Doxycycline.

Common symptoms to look for are mostly muscle and joint soreness and lameness, lethargy, fever, dehydration, vomiting, diarrhea, or loss of appetite. The varieties of tickborne diseases include lyme, ehrlichiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and others.

Keep your lawn areas cut short and treat the lawn or other areas your dogs are exposed to. There are regular pesticides which, if used, you should keep your dogs off the areas treated for 48 hours. There are also natural ones that are not perfect but certainly make the areas less hospitable for ticks.

Personally, I use products from a company called Wondercide. In addition to yard spray, they also make a spray that can be used on your dog. This is not meant to be the definitive preventive as other, more potent, applications are but in addition.

If you know you will be walking your dog in a wooded area, using a topical spray to deter the ticks from being attracted to the dog is a good idea. Also, when you see a tick on your dog, the key is to remove it immediately whether imbedded or not.

The theory behind the vet-recommended methods is that the products will work on the dog prior to the tick imbedding in the skin, or at least before the tick can inject its bacteria into the dog. Unfortunately, some of the ticks did not get that memo about the time frame and the dog gets infected anyway!

Check your dog regularly and if the tick is imbedded, make sure you remove the head of the parasite.

Abby Bird is owner of Alphadog Training Academy. AlphadogTrainingAcademy@ gmail.com

Bluffton American Legion, Post 205, in conjunction with the Bluffton Fire Department held a flag burning ceremony on Flag Day, June 14. Old, tattered flags were collected during the year and were retired during an official ceremony. Anyone wishing to discard their old, worn or damaged American flags may drop them off at any of the five Bluffton fire stations.