Spring is Coming!

Our first blog post comes conveniently right at the end of March. Although deworming is important all-year-round (especially with young kids in the house), it becomes especially important along with tick/flea prevention in the summer months. Tick season is April to October, and spring is knocking at our doors.

So long as we have seen you in the last year and your pet is healthy enough to receive them, we can prescribe dewormers and flea/tick prevention products for your pets. Most of these products come in tubules and are applied to the animal’s skin once monthly, however this year we have a new flea/tick product that is an oral chew and lasts for 12 weeks. Although there are MANY to chose from, for some examples you can check out Zoetis website to learn about the once monthly Revolution and Merck’s website about the 12-week Bravecto.

Last summer we saw an increase in the number of ticks at the clinic. Certain species of tick carry the bacteria (Borrelia type) that causes Lyme disease. Even though eastern Canada, Manitoba and some areas of British Columbia are the areas where the risk of Lyme disease is higher, pets and humans in all of Canada are at risk for coming in contact with ticks that carry Lyme disease. Areas that were once considered low-risk are quickly becoming higher risk areas as the ticks establish local populations.

Tick prevention products work by either killing the ticks once they contact your pet’s skin or once they bite your dog. Please feel free to call us for any more information, or to have a doctor prescribe your pet dewormers/tick prevention products.

You can read more about ticks and Lyme disease on the Government of Canada’s Public Health Agency’s website. It is targeted towards human health/medicine but can be generalized to pets.