If your pet spends lots of time outdoors, a tick check should be part of your daily routine. While dogs and cats cannot directly transmit Lyme disease to people, a tick may enter your home on your pet’s back and move on to bite a human. Refer to Ottawa Public Health information on ticks and Lyme disease.
To help reduce the chances of your pet carrying a tick that may transmit Lyme disease:
Talk to your veterinarian about ways to protect your pet from ticks. There are many topical products that can help repel or kill ticks, and for dogs there is a vaccine.
Check your pet daily for ticks, especially if it spends time in wooded or overgrown areas.
Remove any ticks right away and dispose:
- Use fine-pointed tweezers.
- Grasp the tick’s head as close to the skin as possible and pull slowly until the
tick is removed. Do not twist or rotate the tick. Do not use a match, lotion or
anything else on the tick. - Wash the bite site with soap and water.
- Dispose of a live tick by flushing it down the toilet, or placing it in a sealed
bag/container and disposing it with your household garbage. - When your pet is examined by a veterinarian, ask for a thorough tick check.
