Cochranites taking their pets out for walks to dog parks in town should make sure they are extra vigilant when it comes to ticks. Lauren Hoines, manager or Pet Life, said last week one of her regular customers came in to show the ticks he found on him and his dog. "He came in and he was kind of holding something between his forefinger and thumb and the first thing he asked me was 'do you have a lighter,' Hoines said. "He just kind of opened (his fingers) a fraction and I could see that there was tick in his fingers wriggling around. So we grabbed a piece of duct tape and stuck it to that," Hoines said. The customer said he had only been in Cochrane dog parks recently. He pulled three off of himself and several off his dog. None, as far as he knows, have embedded. Hoines quickly took to Facebook to spread the word to warn others of the prominence of ticks this time of year. "Quite a few people don't realize we have them in town or that they're as bad as they are this year," Hoines said. Libby Fulton, a veterinarian at ArrowHead Veterinary Centre, said the best tactic if you find a tick on your pet is to remove it as quickly as possible, being careful to remove the head piece as well. "They definitely should bring them in to us," she said. "We will submit them to the Alberta tick surveillance program. It identifies the type of tick that it is and whether it's a risk tick for carrying Lyme disease." However, Fulton warns that owners should seek medication for their pets before taking them to a dog park or hiking this time of year. "Dogs should absolutely be on tick prevention - there are some very, very good products out now," she said. Fulton added that even if your dog is on a preventative medication, owners should still check their dogs fur for ticks because though the tick might not latch on to the dog, they may still be brought into the house and put humans at risk. "I think there's an increase in significant concern locally and in Western Canada for Lyme disease and it's really valid. Probably about one in five ticks that we've submitted in the last previous years has been the black-legged tick which is the species that carries Lyme disease so I think we need to be very ,very, very aware of that. It's a risk for them (dogs) and it's a risk for us," Fulton said. Taking the tick off as quickly as possible helps since most of the time ticks will latch on for 24 to 48 hours during which time they can bite. There isn't usually a risk of a human being bit by a tick when removing it from a dog, but Libby suggests immediately placing it in a sealed container or baggy.
