You may think the risk of your pet getting Lyme disease ends when the weather starts to cool, but by Autumn, adult ticks have had more time to become infected with disease-causing bacteria. It has been reported that in some areas, up to 50% of ticks can be infected with diseases such as Lyme, compared with only 20% in the summer. It is important you know that its not only pets that are susceptible to getting Lyme disease from a tick bite.  A human cannot catch Lyme Disease from an infected pet, but if a tick bites your pet and then bites you, you can then become infected. That is why eliminating ticks from your pet and your environment is so important.

They say prevention is the best medicine.  That is certainly true when it comes to Lyme disease.  The best way to prevent getting infected is to avoid ticks on your pet and in your environment. “You need to repel them, and also kill them”, states Dr. Goldberg, the owner of EZ Vet Urgent Care Pet Clinics.  To do this Dr. Goldberg recommends  Bravecto, an oral chewable that kills fleas and ticks for up to 12-weeks.  Bravecto kills 4 different tick species: Kills Ixodes scapularis (black-legged tick), Dermacentor variabilis (American dog tick), and Rhipicephalus sanguineus(brown dog tick) for 12 weeks, and Amblyomma americanum(lone star tick) for 8 weeks​.  Dr. Goldberg also recommends getting your pet tested for Lyme disease as well as administering the Lyme vaccine once a year.