Pet Care
August 3, 2006

Ticks Threaten You and Your Dog

By: Dr. Marty Becker

If you're like most pet owners, you probably consider ticks a gross and uncomfortable nuisance for your dog. Ticks are all that and more: These tenacious bloodsuckers can increase both your pooch's risk and your own risk of contracting a serious disease.

Exposure to tick-transported diseases can occur in almost any location where ticks are found, and not just during the spring and summer. Most ticks are highly active throughout the fall as well. Different types of ticks carry different disease-causing organisms, and it's possible for your dog to be bitten by multiple ticks or by one tick capable of transmitting more than one disease.

While the best-known tick-related danger is Lyme disease, several others can be just as harmful and cause a wide range of similar signs or no obvious signs at all. This range of symptoms means these conditions cannot be accurately diagnosed without a trip to the veterinarian.

Fortunately, veterinarians will soon be able to screen dogs for Lyme and two other tick-borne diseases, canine ehrlichiosis and canine anaplasmosis, using a new in-clinic blood test called SNAP^® 4Dx^® developed by IDEXX Laboratories.

The test simultaneously screens for heartworm disease.

Routine screening can help detect tick-borne diseases early to make treatment or further diagnoses, if necessary, as quick and effective as possible. Talk to your veterinarian to see if testing for these diseases is appropriate.

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