Dog owners are picking ticks already this season as vets urge precaution

Jack Sutton · CBC News

· Posted: May 10, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

Pet owners successful the London country are already seeing signs of ticks connected their animals with veterinarians cautioning to not hold preventative treatment against the perchance unsafe insect.

Glencoe canine proprietor Liette Fadden said she's been picking disconnected betwixt 5 to 10 ticks aft each locomotion successful caller days. 

"We've ever had them, but I'd accidental successful the past mates years it's been worse," Fadden said. 

Blacklegged ticks, besides known arsenic cervid ticks, dispersed a bacteria that tin origin Lyme Disease successful animals and people. They've been connected the emergence successful Canada since 2009, and are good established successful Ontario. 

Londoner Bipin Dhinsa has 2 German Shepherds and a Chihuahua, and said he's besides recovered ticks connected his dogs this spring. So far, nary of person been the blacklegged variety.

"I went retired connected a hike successful Meadowlily and I had similar 10 of them connected maine conscionable from a 10 infinitesimal hike," Dhinsa said. "For our pets, the American Dog tick is the taxon we volition find astir often, arsenic dogs are their main big species."

Dhinsa is besides an entomologist, an insect expert, who notes that ticks tin beryllium recovered everyplace successful the region. But for anyone walking a dog, oregon retired successful nature, helium said the hazard is elevated, some for the idiosyncratic and the pet. 

"The astir communal areas, though, to find ticks are adjacent the edges of footpaths wherever the writer oregon different plants are longer," Dhinsa said. 

Check your dog, experts say

Animal experts accidental prevention comes successful 2 forms - checking the canine implicit for ticks and preventative medication.

Finding and removing the ticks with a brace of tweezers wrong 24 hours is critical, explained Laurie Ristmae, enforcement manager astatine the East Village Animal Hospital. 

"Grab it close down by your pet's tegument and pluck it out," Ristmae said. 

"Don't crook it, don't usage immoderate benignant of 'old school' things similar putting Vaseline connected them…don't use anything," she instructed. "Pluck them consecutive out, enactment them successful a sealed Ziplock bag." 

Unfortunately, Ristmae said outright avoiding ticks is beauteous overmuch impossible, and astatine her clinic, the fig of dogs investigating affirmative for Lyme has increased. 

Unlike humans whose symptoms see fever, chills and rashes that look circular oregon tin lucifer a bull's-eye, diagnosing Lyme Disease successful an animals is simply a batch harder. It takes a humor test, but symptoms tin include stiffness and sore joints. 

"I hate to dependable dramatic, but it truly is rather probable that if you person a canine and you're walking them, they're going to travel into interaction with ticks," Ristmae said. "So, you request to talk to your veterinarian astir getting connected immoderate benignant of tick protection." 

Ristmae explained that medications are disposable from your veterinarian that volition termination ticks portion they feed, but earlier they tin walk connected the bacteria which origin disease. 

"It is expensive," Ristmae admitted, referring to veterinary care. "I get that, everybody gets that. But determination are a batch of fantastic products with a batch of information and probe down them that tin assistance you forestall a illness oregon a diagnosis for your canine that volition beryllium a batch much costly to dainty than it is to prevent."