Protecting Pets

Alerting all animal lovers! With warm weather comes more opportunity for your furry friends to roam the outdoors, making it all the more important for pet owners to guard their pets from fleas, ticks and Lyme disease.

Dr. Byron Blagburn, Parasitologist at the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine credits a number of factors with the rise in risk to pets at this time of year.

"The increase of prevalence of ticks is based on climate changes, temperature, rainfall, number of wildlife...furry creatures that ticks feed on. And as those increase, so do ticks, and as ticks increase, so does the risk of Lyme disease," says Dr. Blagburn.

It is important to see the prevalence of parasites in your community by visiting petsandparasites.org or capcvet.org, because contracting Lyme disease can cause serious health consequences.

Dr. Christopher Carpenter, Executive Director of the Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC), warns against ignoring the symptoms because, while the onset of Lyme disease can appear innocent, leaving the disease untreated can lead to serious complications.

"Even though Lyme disease presents itself initially as a latency, it can lead to inflammation, and infection of internal organs like the kidneys, and eventually death, and that's why we recommend pet owners put their pets on protection," says Dr. Carpenter.

And man's best friend is not the only one at risk.

"Our cats are exposed to parasites, both external parasites and internal parasites, and so cats, as members of the family, deserve care also," says Dr. Blagburn.

So how can conscientious pet-owners become more informed about which parasites pose a threat close to home?

"There are so many parasites to keep up on, we recommend everyone visit petsandparasites.org where we have, not only articles on the different parasites, but also we have maps -- prevalence maps -- where you can see the activity in your county and track it by month because parasites, although we don't want to believe it, are active in our community," says Dr. Carpenter

So check out petsandparasites.org or capcvet.org for more information because, as Dr. Carpenter says, "Protecting our pets isn't just a good thing for their health, it's a good thing for your family's health."

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