by Tom Keer
The seaside woodcock cover lay at the bottom of the lowlands and right below the dunes where the mooncussers walked. Coastal regions get more rain than snow, and that moisture is why the woodcock – those original shorebirds – were searching here for worms. Ticks liked the moisture, too, and that’s the challenge of running dogs on spring woodcock. Those several weeks of training pay big dividends come fall, but they can come with a cost – Lyme disease. I’m proud of the fact that not a single one of my dogs has ever contracted Lyme disease and, even though more than one has drilled into my hide, I’ve pulled them before they could leave their telltale bull’s eye rash behind.
Ticks Aren’t a New Thing
Tick-borne diseases aren’t a recent phenomenon. In fact, they’ve been around for a very long time. What’s changed is their widespread visibility with their increase in modern times thanks to a double barrel of deforestation and human population increase. Recent studies from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, 38 miles west of Lyme, Connecticut from whence Lyme Disease got its name, includes a genome sequencing tool that helps scientists trace the history of tick diseases. Some of those results show that Lyme disease has been in North America for over 60,000 years. That ticks are showing up in regions that haven’t seen them before is one problem. The fact that they’re not just carried by whitetail deer, which lends their name to another pest – the deer tick – is another.
Scientists know now that ticks climb aboard a wide variety of hosts. Rodents and mammals like field mice or rabbits carry them as do birds like wild turkey, pheasant or ruffed grouse. Ticks show up in new regions when they hitch a ride with a migratory bird. If gun dogs gather ticks in an upland cover, then it’s easy to see how they’ll head south on the back of a migrating woodcock. In fact, while running dogs in South Carolina, I pulled one off of my arm.
Barbara Han, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, says that “to predict and monitor species that could spread tick-borne diseases to people, we first need to know which traits make certain animals good pathogen hosts. The research team developed a model that identified with 80% accuracy birds known to spread Lyme to ticks and revealed 21 species that should be prioritized for surveillance.” Birds with higher risks include thrushes and perching birds, but Han’s study also identified game birds as hosts. Any bird that primarily eats seeds and forages on the ground can come in contact with questing ticks.
While ticks are impacting many animals, they’re especially decimating moose populations in certain regions. According to the Appalachian Mountain Club, a whopping, “70% of moose calves in west-central Maine and northern New Hampshire died of emaciation by winter tick infestation. On average, each animal hosted 47,371 ticks.” Due to their size difference, adult bulls and cows can carry up to double – if not triple – that amount. As our gun dogs run in those same woods, the rapid rise of ticks can harm our setters, Labs, springers and shorthairs.
Tick-Born Disease: An Uncurable Gift
In many regions, the main tick focus is on the transmission of Lyme disease, which is an illness that can be managed, but not cured. Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria called Borrelia Burgdorferi that’s carried in the gut of a variety of different species of ticks. A tick bite transfers the germ to the host’s blood stream a day or two after an infected tick starts to feed. Symptoms usually present quickly and in a straightforward manner. Initial issues resemble those of the flu or COVID-19: fever, chills, fatigue, muscle and joint pain, headaches and swollen lymph glands. The skin frequently breaks out in a red rash and a bull’s eye ring surrounds the area of the bite. Because tickborne diseases are emerging, not all cases are properly diagnosed. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests that 30,000 cases of Lyme disease are reported annually, they believe that many cases are not properly diagnosed. In fact, that the number may be closer to over 300,000 issues annually.
In researching the 30,000 patients, the CDC concluded that 95% of the cases occurred in 14 states largely in the Northeast and Midwest. Those states are Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin. If you hunt in those states, then the odds are you’re well aware of ticks. But don’t think you’re immune (pun intended) if your home state isn’t listed above. The Journal of Medical Entomology, which studies diseases that stem from insects, found ticks carrying Lyme disease in nearly half of all counties in the U.S. As ticks appear in new regions, the reported number of cases are expected to increase.
Beyond Just Lyme: Regional Differences
Research ecologist Howard Ginsberg has been studying the metabolism, behavior and life cycle of black-legged ticks with colleagues at the University of Rhode Island and Michigan State University. Ginsberg’s study concluded that high humidity creates healthy tick populations while several consecutive days of low humidity kills them off. In dry regions, ticks find moisture in leaf litter. “In the North, when you walk through the woods you’re walking right through tick habitat,” said Ginsberg, the leader of the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center’s field station in Kingston, Rhode Island. “In warmer, drier regions where ticks are in leaf litter, you’re walking on top of the habitat. We think that is a crucial difference. If the climate gets warmer and drier in border zones like the Mid Atlantic, Lyme disease may eventually become less common there,” Ginsberg said. “For example, in the Chesapeake Bay region, we might see natural selection pressure on northern ticks to behave more like southern ticks and stay under cover, so we could get less Lyme disease.” Controlled burns that rejuvenate primary growth reduce the amounts of leaf litter and reduce the tick’s environment.
Dog Days of Disease
As if ticks logging frequent flier miles to spread disease isn’t enough, many regions have variations of their own. Dr. Johnny Meyers, DVM, and the owner of the Animal Wellness Center in Paducah, Kentucky, says it’s important to keep your dogs as tick free as you can.
“The issue is that preseason training and hunting occurs during the tick’s most active period of the year,” he said. “Lyme disease used to be easy to identify through symptoms. Traditional blood tests were PCR, ELISA, Western Blot and joint fluid analysis. More recently the C-6 test and the Quantitative C6 test (QC6) detects a protein unique to the Borrelia bacteria and are highly effective. But the issue my colleagues and I are seeing is that the organisms are adapting to different circumstances and environments. While a gun dog may carry Lyme disease from a tick bite, they’re presenting signs of other diseases. That makes the diagnosis more difficult.”
Meyers says you might just call all of the tick-borne diseases “the great pretender.” He says that gun dogs first show signs of “fever, joint pain, intermittent lameness and inflammation of blood vessels. But gun dogs can be tough, so handlers must be vigilant. Visit your vet if you’re in doubt, for early detection is helpful for disease avoidance. We all want to avoid bigger problems such as internal bleeding, auto-immune issues and spleen or kidney disease. Those also aren’t easily noticed.”
Prevention
Meyers says avoidance is the best way to handle tick-borne diseases. “Test your gun dogs once a year,” he said. “Have your vet conduct a tick screening that looks specifically for the C-6 antibodies. Pre-training or pre-hunt prevention is important. There are a number of excellent medicines that veterinarians prescribe that help keep dogs safe from a tick bite. If you’re training or hunting in an area with high concentrations of ticks, you may want to add a collar to your routine or even use a permethrin-based spray. If you’re really concerned about ticks, then give your dog a post-hunt bath with a flea and tick shampoo. Oftentimes you’ll see dead ticks go down the drain and they’re ones that you missed during a tick check and comb out.”
While you’re taking care of your dog, Meyers says to take care of yourself. “Handlers and hunters can reduce tick contacts by wearing light-colored clothing, by tucking pants into socks before pulling on your boots, and by doing a tick check after walking through tall grasses. Ticks like warm, moist areas so they’re frequently found behind the ears, along a hairline and in the groin or armpits. Wearing clothing treated with permethrin helps, and since they’re sometimes tough to spot you can kill ticks by tossing your training or hunting clothes into a drier and tumble them for 10 minutes on a hot setting.”
If you train and hunt a lot, the odds are good that your gun dog will contract a disease. “The problem with tick-borne illnesses is that they never really go away,” Meyers said. “Doxycycline commonly is prescribed by veterinarians. Treatments are daily for around a month. In most instances, you’ll see an improvement in your dog. That said, there’s no telling that it won’t return.”
Regional Nuances
As if ticks traveling across the country on the back of a bird isn’t enough, each region has a variation of their own. There are several regional tick species.
American Dog Tick
Range: Throughout North America
Preferred Habitat: Forest edges with little to no tree cover such as grassy fields and scrubland.
Active Time: Year-round with peak times of April through August. Females lay up to 4,000 eggs and deposit them in leaf litter.
Diseases Transmitted: Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Tularemia.
Brown Dog Tick
Range: The most common tick is found worldwide with concentrations in warm regions.
Preferred Habitat: Heavy vegetation, tall grasses and landscaped areas. Brown dog ticks can live indoors for their entire life span, making kennel infestations common.
Active Time: Year-round with peak times between April and September. Females lay up to 7,000 eggs two times a year.
Diseases Transmitted: Rocky Mountain spotted fever
Lone Star Tick
Range: Eastern, Southeastern and South-Central regions, from Maine to West Texas. The adult female has a white dot or a “lone star” on her back.
Preferred Habitat: Woodlands with dense undergrowth, particularly those around animal loafing/resting areas.
Active Time: April through late August
Diseases Transmitted: Heartland virus disease andSTARI, which is Southern Tick-Associated Rash Illness. All symptoms associated with Lyme disease are present, but the Lone Star Tick doesn’t transmit Lyme disease.
Gulf Coast Tick
Range: Atlantic coast through Gulf of Mexico.
Preferred Habitat: Coastal uplands and grass prairies
Active Time: April through September
Diseases Transmitted: A spotted fever variant.
Rocky Mountain Wood Tick
Range: U.S. Rocky Mountain states, Pacific Northwest and southwestern Canada
Preferred Habitat: Shrublands, lightly wooded areas, open grasslands and trails at subalpine elevations.
Active Time: April through October
Diseases Transmitted: Colorado tick fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
Black-Legged Tick
Range: Most folks say they don’t know this tick when they actually do – hey just call it a Deer Tick. Its range is in the eastern half of the country as well as in the north-central area.
Preferred Habitat: Wooded and brushy areas. Favors areas with higher levels of humidity.
Active Time: March through September.
Diseases Transmitted: Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis, Ehrlichiosis, Lyme disease, Borrelia Miyamotoi disease and Powassan virus disease.
Western Blacklegged Tick
Range: Mostly Pacific Coast in California, Oregon and Washington.
Preferred Habitat: Forested and grassland habitats and scrub-shrub areas, especially those near water.
Active Time: April through October
Diseases Transmitted: Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis and Lyme disease.
Ticks need moisture to propagate, so they’re out for most of the year. When they’re young, they feed aggressively. Take care of your gun dogs before and after your runs. And take care of yourself, too. When it comes to combating the diseases transmitted by these blood suckers, an ounce of prevention is worth it – especially ‘cause there’s no cure.
