Lyme Disease Month - Tick Disease Prevention

May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month; and while people may have heard of the disease, they may not know how victims get Lyme Disease or even that their pets can get Lyme Disease. Let's have the tick-talk.

Lyme Disease affects over 300,000 individuals each year. The disease is spread from infected ticks that latch-on to warm-blooded mammals such as white-tailed deer, people, dogs and cats. Anyone can get Lyme Disease or other tick-borne illnesses! While not all ticks carry Lyme, there are other tick-borne illnesses including Anaplasmosis; Babesiosis; Powassan Disease; Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever; and even a red meat allergy.

There are over 900 tick species in the United States; but we usually only hear about a few including the Eastern Black-Legged Tick and the American Dog Tick. These types of ticks are aggressive and attack both humans and pets. 

There is not a cure for Lyme Disease; but the disease is treatable if detected early on. Those bit by ticks will have up to 48 hours to remove the tick with a tick removal tool to reduce the chance of Lyme Disease infection. 

This May, spread the word about tick disease prevention and learn how to effectively remove a tick from dogs, cats and people.