10/08/2026
🔬📈 The neat part about technology today is that you can quickly run data on most topics you want to find out. However, the data we found as we ran this was quite concerning for tick borne disease rates in our area! While it is better than many other regions in Pennsylvania, it is alarming to see that, in our community pet population, 1 in 7 dogs on average (1 in 6 mature adults > 4 years of age) have a positive result for one of the three common tick borne diseases (Anaplasma, Lyme, Ehrlichia) per test run. That is far too many!
🍁🍂 As we enter into the fall and winter seasons, this is especially important to remember as these tick borne diseases have now become adapted to the colder temperatures, actually excreting anti-freeze to their tick hosts to be able to survive the cold temperatures to have a better chance to spread disease. Talk about survival of the fittest and darwinism evolution! Did you know that ticks are also not like bee or insects? Instead of hibernating, they actually can return to normal daily activities as soon as temperatures rise above freezing (and even lower temperatures if they are carrying a tick borne disease) within hours. For this reason, we unfortunately see tick borne diseases many times during the winter months and this is why it is so important to now continue tick prevention year round. As ticks have evolved and developed resistance to the previously commonly used topicals, the oral pharmaceutical preventatives are the most effective.
🩸🐾 If tick borne diseases are caught too late, the disease can leave lasting damage. Many tick borne infections cause chronic auto-immune, kidney, and joint disease. This is why we always recommend yearly screening to catch infection before secondary damage starts and better treatment success. If you happen to find an attached tick on your pet or yourself, the best and quickest way to act is to save it and send it in to the local lab via the directions on www.ticklab.org. This is a free service by Pennsylvania that analyzes the submitted tick to see if it is carrying any disease and will send you a report to notify your or your pet's provider for prompt action to minimize infection risk.
