Mild winter brings another early arrival: Ticks

Iowa's unusual stretch of warm weather resulted in an early start to the tick season.

The Iowa Department of Public Health said warm weather in late winter and early spring has led to earlier than normal tick activity and start to the tick-borne disease season.

"Usually we start hearing about ticks in May or June," said Heidi Peck of Linn County Public Health.

The unwanted pests are out in full force.

"My grandfather has already found a tick on his dog," said Carissa Lala of Marion.

The Edgewood Animal Hospital has been keeping busy treating and helping prevent ticks on pets. "We are seeing a lot more animals coming in with ticks or people finding ticks on mostly dogs but sometimes cat. We are talking about these things earlier than we normally do," said Dr. Leigh Ennen, a veterinarian at Edgewood Animal Hospital.

On Wednesday, the animal hospital sent home 3-year-old Rocky home. He is a dog who now limps because of Lyme disease.

"It's not as serious of an infection like it is in people, but it still merits checking out," said Ennen.

Public Health officials said they're dealing with the same problem. "We've had some people call and actually bring in their ticks to tell us they have gotten bitten by a tick," said Peck.

Typically, ticks are in high grass, but can also be found on trees and wild animals.

"The juvenile stages of ticks pick smaller animals like mice or squirrels or rabbits, and most everybody have those in their yard," said Ennin.

"It's a good idea to check your children and animals for ticks when they come in," added Peck.

Experts said ticks like the scalp and folded areas of the skin, like your armpits, or behind your knees. Tucking your pants into your socks, wearing long sleeves, and a hat can all help prevent the unwanted bite and unwanted disease.

"Over the last several years we have seen growing number of cases, and it is important with Lyme disease to get to your health care provider quickly," said Peck.

Despite many different suggestions on removing ticks, experts say all you need is a pair of tweezers. You want to make sure you get as close to the skin as possible, as well as the mouth of the tick. Then pull directly up. Don't squeeze too hard, because you want the entire tick out in one pull. If the tick is on an animal, Ennen said you can apply a little bit of rubbing alcohol first. This is not needed on a human.

If you pull the entire tick out and would like to identify what type of tick it is, you can send it to Iowa State University. More information about that can be found at this link:

http://www.ent.iastate.edu/medent/ticks_IA . If you would like more information about tick prevention and treatment you can go here:

http://www.idph.state.ia.us/IdphNews/Reader.aspx?id=3817EE5E-CA2A-471A-8205-D61CDC413E49