Tick season is upon us

This February's weather has been warmer than a typical winter and with that some pesky bugs are making an earlier than usual appearance.

West Kelowna veterinarian Dr. Moshe Oz is urging pet owners of the Okanagan to consider protecting their furry family from ticks as soon as possible.

“Usually we start the tick season around April but I think with the winter being so mild, it is getting warming faster. We have already had people in Peachland telling us they have seen a few ticks and their dogs had a few ticks on them,” explains Dr. Oz. “So it is little bit of earlier than normal season.”

Ticks search for warmth and often move from high grass and low bushes on to wild animals, humans, dogs and cats. They find a warm spot and burrow into the skin to suck blood.

Oz says ticks can cause many issues in our pets including tick paralysis, Lyme disease, irritation and local infections.

He says pet owners should keep a watchful eye for the annoying bugs.

“Check for the ticks on the dogs pads, behind the ears, inside the ears, around the tail area. This is usually where the ticks jump and start to suck the blood,” says Oz. “Usually ticks are extremely small, but the females jump on the dog and suck the blood and they become huge.”

With tick presence in mind he says it is time to take action.

“You can go to your vet and ask for tick prevention and tick control,” says Oz. “There are lots of different options out there. There are pills, spot on treatments that last a month and of course if you suspect there is a tick on your dog come in and we will remove the tick safely.”

Oz says there is often confusion among dog owners that tick prevention also prevents Lyme disease, but he says that is not the case.

This is because most of the tick medications work by killing the tick after it drinks the blood. This process still leaves the dog vulnerable to Lyme disease.

“For the tick to reach the blood vessel and grow it has to put saliva in the dog and burrow a hole to reach a blood vessel. If that tick has Lyme disease, the saliva will contain the disease. Not all ticks have it, but it is out there,” notes Oz.

He says Lyme disease is hard to diagnose and expensive to treat so they recommend dogs get vaccinated against Lyme disease.

The most common tick in the Okanagan is the Rocky Mountain Wood Tick (pictured on the left).

According to the Ministry of Agriculture this tick lives in the interior dry belt from the United States border north as far as Williams Lake and eastward into Alberta. It is not found west of the Coast Range mountains.

They says about 20 species of tick live in the province in varying shapes, colours and sizes.