As an owner of a dog who loves being outdoors playing in the grass and in the woods… and as a mother of 2 very active boys who also love being outdoors and playing down in the woods, we have all had to become very familiar with ticks. A few years ago we moved to Greenhill where we live on approximately 20 acres of land. Our home is surrounded by open fields which are bordered by woods.
We started getting Sydney her annual Lyme vaccine before we moved to the country and continue that as a yearly precaution. As ticks become more prevalent, so goes Lyme disease. In the early springtime, she starts her flea and ticks medication and we continue to treat her until Christmas time (depending on fall and winter temperatures). However, we still check Sydney daily for ticks, just in case one may have attached. We use a Tick Twister to remove any ticks that we do find, however, we have been lucky these past few years and have not found many on her.
Why? Because Tick Preventatives WORK!
As we now know, ticks are everywhere. We have seen them crawling on the back door of our house and along the pool edge. My boys now know what ticks look like and are very patient at having “tick checks” done on them too. They are great at letting us know if there is one on them and we use the same tick twister to remove it. This tool is great, we have one in the house and in our camper as we camp a lot in the spring, summer and into the fall.
The boys also enjoy dirt biking on our property, on a trail we made for them. Last summer they came in from dirt biking, about an hour after they had changed their clothes I found 2 ticks crawling up the wall above their laundry basket. Obviously, they were on their clothes; thankfully they weren’t on them!
Daily checks are ESSENTIAL not only for your pets but for everyone in your family. Help your pets by protecting them with a monthly or a 3-month flea and tick preventative to help your family stay Tick Free this season!
Written by Wendy Jensen
