Dodger gets ticked off!

The results are in and I am a pretty happy dog!! I picked 8 winners in the municipal election and my Buddy Dave only picked 5 – so as per our agreement I am off to the Aspen Pet Spa on Main street for a shampoo and trim – Heaven!

Dave was shocked at some of the choices people made. I saw him shaking his head as the results came in live on countylive.ca.  He was impressed by the technology and for once was not complaining about where his tax dollar went. When we went for our walk the next day he kept saying “I can’t believe that Mertens won by such a large margin – did everyone in Wellington vote for him?” – “And Paul Johnson – what happened to him?” Both of us will miss Richard Parks – he was a good councillor – but maybe the public were suspicious about him responding to a dog’s blog. Sorry buddy!

Me & Tricia from Pet Valu

Anyway we had some excitement of our own this week. My Buddy Dave took me on a road trip to Kitchener to visit his daughter and the grandkids. Now you have to know this – his daughter is not too keen on me – which I find hard to believe because I am really lovable. But Dave says its because I shed about a 1/2 bale of hair a day, and I dig up her garden and I’m so big I sometimes knock the kids down with my tail wagging. But I really ended up in the dog house this weekend. The kids were playing on the floor with me when the daughter discovered two small grapes on the floor beside us. Only problem was they weren’t grapes. Turns out these grapes had legs and were crawling. The daughter freaked when Dave told her they were ticks.

Dave gave me a good rub down and found two more on me. Even thought he killed all the ticks I ended up sleeping in the garage. My buddy is good at taking them off with a Tic Key. This neat little device stays on my collar and was recommended by Tricia Daley at Pet Valu – my favorite pet store in Picton. For a while he used a tic remover that looks like a small crowbar but sometimes it hurt like a bitch (sorry mom) when he twisted the ticks out with that little device. The Tic Key works a lot better and doesn’t cause any bleeding. Thanks Tricia.

Anyway when we got home we had a long talk with my favorite vet Steve James at the Prince Edward Animal Hospital. He gave Dave a medication for me called K9 Advantix that will kill the ticks when they latch on. Steve told us that ticks are becoming more common in our area as they have been moving north from the US of A because of climate change. In fact the Public Health Agency of Canada has identified an established colony of black legged ticks in the Prince Edward Point National Wildlife area. Dave and I have never been walking there but he is certain that I picked up the little buggers on our walk through the trails at Sandbanks provincial park. Too bad because I love running there.

I was pretty happy when Dr Steve told Dave that the ticks don’t lay eggs on the host (that would make me a little crazy and definitely keep me from a Christmas invite to Kitchener BOL!! ). They lay lots of eggs but only on the ground. Now the big problem with ticks is that they carry diseases – especially Lyme’s disease which is really nasty and can cause long term health problems. The good news according to Dr. Steve is that only about 10% of the ticks carry the disease and dogs tend to have antibodies that protect themselves so that if they get the disease the symptoms are mild. Mostly in dogs there is a mild fever and stiffness that can be treated by antibiotics. The news for humans is not as good as Lyme disease, which is often mistaken for rheumatoid arthritis, is harder to treat and the problem can last for years.

Dr. Steve says there are incidents of Lyme disease in the County but people should not be too fearful. He says it is important to remove the ticks within the first 48 hours as there is less chance of transmission of the disease.

My Buddy Dave is becoming an expert at spotting the ticks on me. I love it because he gives me a big rub down after we come back from our walk. He really concentrates on my ears and neck which are the areas Dr. Steve says that dogs get the most incidents of ticks. These nasty boys are really small when they first grab you, but they can feed on a dog or person for up to four days and by then they are huge. Big enough to scare the hell out Dave’s daughter – what a Halloween surprise that was!!