Lyme Disease and Teal, By Dr. Barb O'Neill
I would like to share with everyone the latest on the ever-changing information about Lyme Disease because of Teal. Teal was a 4 year old Black lab from the Lansdowne area, dearly loved my her owners over the last 2-3 years. We have seen many many cases of Lyme disease, both clinical (showing signs of sickness) and subclinical. Lyme is a very slowly multiplying bacteria so takes months often to show. By the time Teal was showing signs, it had migrated to her kidney's - a fatal blow. We could not save her. So now I am passionate about prevention, prevention, prevention. The best we can do is 3 things together.
#1 - Vaccinate yearly and do not be late (best done in early spring)!
#2 Repel the ticks (they're creepy!) With Advantix or a Preventic collar, other new products are on the way! #3. Be vigilant, pick off any ticks BY THE HEAD. Squeezing them makes them vomit up bacteria! Tick twisters work great.
Another piece of recent information is the fact that we should be repelling ticks every month of the year that there is no snow. The nymph forms like to bite in June, July and August and also transit the disease.
In Teals memory I do my very best to warn every dog owner about the severity of Lyme disease.