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By Matt Rennels - ONLYforPETLOVERS Illinois

Pet parents love their furry friends, but so do ticks, and with the amount of cases of Lyme disease increasing at an epidemic rate, owners need to take precautionary measures to keep their loved ones safe.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, since Lyme disease became nationally significant in 1991, the annual number of reported cases in humans has more than doubled, with a great emphasis in the Northeast and Great Lakes regions.

One state that has experienced a high amount of cases is Rhode Island, where Dr. Thomas Mather, director of the University of Rhode Island’s Center for Vector-Borne Disease, said the incident rate in humans statewide is 100 percent more than the national average, and in some counties is even 10,000 percent more than the average.

Mather has spent the past several warm weather seasons leading workshops along with other Center experts in high tick-risk areas demonstrating tick control and tick bite prevention strategies.

"It’s definitely an extending epidemic," Mather said, stating that cases are extending beyond the Northeast. "The impact is quite severe."

When contracted, signs of Lyme disease in dogs are hard to detect and may not appear until several months after infection. Symptoms include recurrent arthritis/lameness that lasts three to four days, loss of appetite, depression, reluctance to move or a stiff, painful gait, swollen joints that are warm to the touch, pain in the legs or throughout the body, and fever, fatigue and swollen lymph nodes. Cases vary from mild to severe for canines, and in extreme cases can even cause kidney failure.

The disease is most commonly transmitted by the black-legged tick, also known as the deer tick, and though many believe problematic areas to be confined to brushy, coniferous regions, Mather said there isn’t much brush in the suburban areas of Rhode Island where the disease isn’t rampant. According to Mather, the ticks are actually coming from the grass.

People’s yards are an essential part of his organization’s three-part outreach message. "Protect yourself, protect your yard and protect your pets," said Mather.

He also strongly urges pet parents to purchase topical yard products such as Advantix and Frontline, which contain permethrin, a tick-killing toxin. Mather also warns pet parents that just because it is the winter months they still may not be safe

"The ticks are there, (frozen in the ground), they’re just waiting, we had a few cases just last week," he said, as the weather in Rhode Island reached into the 60’s. "Unless you know you’re going to have consistently cold weather, you shouldn’t stop (yard) treatment."

According to dogsandticks.com, owners should check their dogs for ticks every day, especially during tick season, which is spring, summer and fall, or year-round in warmer climates.

"Brush your fingers through their fur, applying enough pressure to feel any small bumps. If you do feel a bump, pull the fur apart to identify it," the Web site indicated. "An embedded tick will vary in size, from a pinhead to a grape. Ticks are usually black or dark brown. Depending on the size and location of the tick, its legs may also be visible. Ticks need to be embedded for 24-48 hours to spread infections."

To help people identify ticks, the University of Rhode Island’s Center for Vector-Borne Disease Web site, www.tickencounter.org, has a tick identifier page, which Mather said has garnered much positive feedback. The site also provides tick prevention tips and a Lyme disease map.

There has been much speculation about the cause of the Lyme disease epidemic, and though many scientists believe that it has been caused by warmer winters, Mather doesn’t necessarily agree. He believes white-tailed deer are the culprits.

The numbers of white-tailed deer are increasing, and each can carry an overwhelming amount of Lyme disease pathogens. Mather calculates that if a deer carries five engorged ticks, which, he said, is a modest number, for 60 days that translates into 450,000 larvae, since each can produce 1,500 eggs a day.

He said that with new suburban cities expanding into nature, those deer have nowhere to go, and can result in rapidly increasing disease numbers.

"People often forget about that element, I think," he said.

Author's Resource:

Matt Rennels is a correspondent out of Illinois for Only For Pet Lovers. Check out our site to view the rest of our articles and register for our online community for pet lovers like yourself. To keep up to date on what's going on in the pet world, visit our site and check out the pet news section.

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