Northern Ontario veterinarian expecting longer, more active tick season
Deer ticks are being found as early as March and as late as December as climate warms
A northern Ontario veterinarian is warning that this is starting out to be a bad year for the ticks that carry Lyme disease.
Black-legged or deer ticks used to be rare in the northeast, but they have been moving into the region in recent years with warming temperatures.
Dr. Darren Stinson from the Chelmsford Animal Hospital in Greater Sudbury says about 9,000 dogs in Ontario have tested positive for Lyme disease this year, already about half of what it was for all of 2024.
"They're quite bad. They're far worse, so far, than last year. And we're not even half way through the tick season," he said.
"So I suspect that these numbers are going to be quite, quite high come November-December."
Stinson says only 5 per cent of dogs who contract Lyme disease get sick, but it's still a good idea to get your pet vaccinated.
"We're recommending treatment right into almost December, because the temperature data for Sudbury last year, we had three solid weeks in the middle of November that were all above four degrees Celsius," he said, noting the temperature when ticks become active.
"We've got to treat later with global warming and we have to start earlier too. We were pulling ticks off dogs the first week of March this year."
Public Health Ontario says 165 people in the province have already tested positive for Lyme disease this year.
Stinson says data from last year shows that the deer tick hotspots in the northeast included the Algoma district, Manitoulin Island, as well as the North Bay area.