Ticked Off About Too Many Ticks?

It's been a good year for ticks.

And that means it's a bad year for those concerned about the health impact to both people and animals, including potential cases of Lyme disease.

These issues will be discussed tonight at Tick Talk!, a program to be held from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Agnes Varis Auditorum at Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.

Dr. Sam Telford, investigator in the school's Division of Infectious Diseases, and Dr. Mike Stone, a small animal clinician at the Cummings School, have agreed to provide a short program (15 minutes each) and panel discussion to be filmed for public access television.

The school's hope is that the program will serve as a resource not only for the Grafton area but for others who may wish to re-broadcast the session.

Tick sightings are on the rise, as unseasonably warm weather has more of us outside and is causing ticks to get active.

Westborough Board of Health Director Paul McNulty said that the danger is not usually with the larger ticks, but it is more commonly associated with the smaller deer ticks.

“They are about the size of a period at the end of a sentence,” he said, adding that the animal population is a natural carrier for ticks. “They are all over the area because animals are all over the area, especially the deer.”  

Laurie Klein, DVM, of said that ticks can jump from twigs and leaves onto a host, such as a dog, without the pet having to brush against the ticks. “They then hook onto the fur,” she said.

Klein said that ticks are not completely gone in the winter months. They become dormant, but they can get active if a few warm days go by.

The main concern with ticks is Lyme disease. McNulty said that a tick would have to latch onto the body for about 24 hours before transmitting an infection. He said that symptoms are vague and include things like fever, aching joints, numbness or chills. “The symptoms are not clear cut,” he said.

Klein said ticks are a special concern for animals because they can carry "plenty of infection," including Lyme disease, anaplasma and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. She recommended that pet owners remove the ticks and seek treatment for an animal that has a fever, vomiting, limping or any other unusual behavior following an incident involving a tick bite.

McNulty said that ticks can be found in all areas of town. “You don’t need to be in the woods. You can just be around the house and find ticks.”