The Northeast and ticks!

[City Guy997S]

Do the ticks come from simply walking the dog on a sidewalk/street or is this more of a rural issue like letting the dog wander the back 40 acres?

Short hair like a Doberman (black) would it be hard/easy to find a tick?

[Cato the Elder]

Originally Posted by City Guy997S

Do the ticks come from simply walking the dog on a sidewalk/street or is this more of a rural issue like letting the dog wander the back 40 acres?

Short hair like a Doberman (black) would it be hard/easy to find a tick?

Studies have shown that ticks are closely tied with the deer population. I believe CT has the biggest tick problem in the country which probably means they have a huge deer population. They've tried out all sorts of remedies and controlling the deer population has been the only economical long term solution.

Ticks don't jump like fleas so host mammals need to brush by grasses, leaves, etc. with waiting ticks. You should not have a problem in urban areas. Most of our property is in a natural state but it's hemmed in by water and roads in such a way that we have zero deer sightings. However, we are not too far from a stretch of the Assabet River that has a sizable deer population along its banks; a moose was even spotted not too long ago. We do have some ticks but it's not out of control. I'm guessing that small mammals coming from the Assabet banks are bringing them since deer cannot easily get to us.

When I come back from maintaining our trails out back, I have found a couple ticks but they're easy to spot near the hem of my pants. We started looking after each time we go out because we found what we thought was play-doh or a grain of rice on our cat's shoulder. It ended up being an engorged tick that one of us must have brought inside since our cats don't go out - quite nasty. My son once had a tick in his hair from a visit to a farm where he played with a large, mangy old dog. It must have been a desperate or discombobulated tick as they usually prefer hairier mammals, all things equal.

[bbekity]

If it's not ticks I am worried about, it's skidding out on black ice or falling and breaking a leg like my husband did last year!
So ticks aren't a problem closer to the city? I don't live by the woods, no deer near our home and I don't take my dogs out on trails or anywhere where other dogs go. Just by our house. We don't have high grasses..just regular lawn that gets mowed every week. I wish I could get the owner to spray for ticks.

[smotz]

We live in SE Mass have lots of woods, deer, mice and a cat that sneaks out. I got lyme last year, but fortunatley I got the bulls eye and detected it in phase 1. It was knocked out knocked out with a short 3-4 week dose of antibiotics and currently have no symptoms.

I can't tell you how many deer ticks we have taken off of our cat- usually several each time it goes out May through October and sometimes it brings a couple in during the winter! One day it seemed to have hit a nest and we found 30-40 on him! Front line has not worked on this cat for whatever reason as it did for other cats. The collar worked pretty well for a while, but the cat got sick. (any suggestions?)

Just be careful that if you do get Lyme and are diagnosed from symptoms, that you do an extended dose of anibiotics. You may find that there are two camps of doctors on the subjects of tests and doses. Many experts say that the disease goes in cycles and you need an extended dose if the disease has spread. Don't just go for the standard dose if you have had it a while.