April 16, 2011

An article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that there is evidence of deer ticks living and reproducing in Milwaukee County.  (See below).  The first deer tick was brought in to our hospital on April 1st this year.  We are not seeing more lyme disease in dogs than usual.  The ticks are being found, most notably, along the bluffs by Lake Michigan and along the Milwaukee River corridor Mequon to Milwaukee.  It is important to note that less than half of deer ticks carry lyme disease and other tick species do not carry it at all.

The symptoms you might see is a lamness or limping.  The sort caused by lyme disease is very strikingly painful and it usually affects more than one leg.  Often a fever is also associated with it.  While we can test for lyme disease, a test won't detect the disease for several weeks after exposure to an infected tick.  We recommend that you bring the tick to us so we can identify it.  Treatment of lyme disease should be discussed with our doctors.

The most important defense is good preventative - we recommend using Frontline monthly from April 1 to November 1.  Currently we have two specials buy 3 Frontline and get 1 dose free or buy 6 Frontline and get 2 doses free.

If you have any questions, please call us at 414/962-8040.