Our pup is just getting over a case of Anaplasmosis that she picked up from a deer tick while we were in Northern Wisconsin. She takes meds that kill ticks and flees when they latch-on AND had a bandana sprayed with permethrin on at the time. Even with those precautions and trying best we could to keep her out of tall grass she still picked one up. Our local DNR said that ticks throughout the northern Midwest are the worst they've ever seen and over 75% of those they tested are showing positive for Lyme disease. We also have record Anaplasmosis detections here in the state as well. We can thank the extremes in weather we've been having. Yay, climate change!

Anyway, be vigilant. Our pup was pretty sick for over a week and carried a fever of 104 for the first few days. Humans can get it too.

I'm so sorry Rukia got sick but glad you discovered it and got her treated quickly. I don't find this year any worse than others, it's always an issue from March-November. I did however find it significantly increased when I went to Missouri hiking a few weeks ago. I was the only one of 6 of us that brought home over a dozen, no one else had even 1! They love me!

I pick up ticks daily while I'm working and we do a head to toe check every day. Same goes for my dog, Nugget, she brings home at least 6 a day and all my boarders and daily hike dogs. The only real way to prevent disease is to get them off before they can get engorged. It's a real pain with a golden retriever and all that fur! It takes 12-24 hours for you to get infected. I absolutely despise the little buggers and wish I could eliminate them from my life!

Hugs to your little baby and thanks for the reminder to be vigilant!

Glad your pup is on the mend Trail_Mystic!

Thanks for the well wishes Ana and Oldbroad. Yeah, glad the symptoms were so pronounced, lethargy, not taking food, high fever. No fun for the pup, but we caught it within 3 days of being back and the vet started her on antibiotics even though it didn't show up in the blood tests at that time (it did show 2 weeks later which is the way it works). I didn't know how bad the ticks were up there until I stopped at a friends place who lives in the area full time. He illustrated by trolling a plushy through the tall grass on the side of his yard and it came back covered in deer ticks *shiver* That's terrifying to me being that I don't have much of an immune system, so thought I'd let the crew know, just in case.

I've seen Nugget come up with a face full of tiny ticks when she sticks her head in rotting logs chasing chipmunks. We have a lot of very old woods with oak trees 100+ years old that are just full of fallen trees that are haven for them with the thick forest duff. It's definitely not for the squeamish to get them all off her. Since she sleeps with me I have to be sure I get them all. I'm always afraid of catching Lyme or other diseases from them and mosquitos which also love me. It's that Type O blood I have!

Hope you and your SO are doing well. We miss you around here!

Tick checks are on our checklist Trail_Mystic and we are both happy Rukia is on the mend.

Take care!

Glad the pup's okay.

We are apparently in B.C's high-risk area for ticks and Lyme disease. I haven't been walking in the woods this year -- too much packing and other assorted freak-outs -- so I've been safe, but the woods around my house are crawling with deer and presumably ticks as well.

This year in Connecticut we too have more ticks then normal. Did you know Lyme disease got its name from Lyme, Connecticut, where the full spectrum of illness was first described in 1975. Connecticut conducted a laboratory-based program of surveillance for Lyme disease from July 1984 to March 1986.

Gerry

Hope your pup is feeling better, Trail, Tics are the worst! We try to be very careful both with the animals and us as we do a lot of yard (pasture) work. But as careful as ya can be sometimes it's not enough... super glad you caught it as soon as you did.. love and hugs to your dog.

Ticks have been no worse than usual here, but that just means they are really bad as always - especially with the milder and milder winters. In addition to administering generic Frontline to the dogs and cats, I have another secret weapon - chickens. They keep the yard clean of ticks and other assorted nasties. The chicken poop is worth it!

Thanks for all the well wishes for our Pup! She's definitely doing better physically, but is having to learn how to "dog" again after being pretty sedate for about a month due to the meds and her lack of eating. She's always been very sensitive and hyper aware of what goes on around here. It will take her another few weeks of long walks I think to bring her back to her version of "normal".

Drac, that's cool about the chickens eating ticks. They just approved limited, "minor livestock" (up to 8 chickens and 4 goats depending on lot size) again in our neighborhood. For some reason they stopped allowing them in the village proper around 10 years ago. This is really silly considering we're bordered by farms all the way around, and about every month, one of the cattle farmers moves his heard from their lower to the upper pasture directly through town, right up main street. I mean c'mon, what's a few chickens and goats compared to a hundred or so head of cattle.

Chickens are the best! Hope she is back to her normal self ASAP!