The driving forces behind parasitic trends
The group discusses possible causes behind the steadily growing endemic regions for Lyme disease and other vector-borne diseases
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Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: What do you think of these driving forces around these trends? You know, we’re seeing a lot of increase in population. We know pet adoption was at an all-time high in the past couple of years. So, what's attributing to some of these factors?
Katina Carter, DVM: I think that but I also this is the good end of veterinary medicine is I think we are doing more, we're learning more, I think that we're doing better client education. Obviously, we still have more to do. But I think because of that, where we're finding more out, I think.
Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Yeah, I think we're doing a lot more testing different types of tests, right?
Bill Carter, DVM: Yeah, we've got the antigen tests, now. You know, so many of those, were just doing the float, you know, no sugar, no centrifuge. You know, now we've got that combined. And that study, really kind of showed that different methods...sometimes you'll catch it on a centrifuge, sugar, sugar float. Sometimes you'll catch it on an antigen. Sometimes you'll catch it on both. Yeah, so I think testing like, you know...
Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Right. And, you know, Kara, you love to be active with your fur baby and everything. And so, this has to probably be part of your decision-making process and where you choose to take Nestle to, because we're here at the Jersey Shore too. So those of you that may not know to we are in a tick infested area, too. And there's other parasites that you're talking about. So what comes to your mind when you think of like, Where can I take him where can be safe?
Kara Johnson: It's tough, but I mean, it's definitely I'm picking and choosing. I used to take him to a certain park that I would walk through, and there was always a lot of deer. And we were finding so many ticks and you know, a lot of dog poop that people would just leave, because that's a new thing. Nobody really likes to pick up after their dog; people just leave it on the ground. So, it really makes me nervous to go kind of anywhere that I know, another dog has been, which is sad. I don't go to the beaches often anymore because he can really pick up things anywhere. So, we're kind of keep him more sheltered where I know, we've been before, where we take him to other people's houses that I know really well. So it stinks because we like to travel. We go to vacation every year with him, and we bring him, but I do avoid the beach there too. So, it's tough. I try to stay away from stranger dogs and places that I don't know, sadly.
Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Yeah. It's a great point that you bring it up, too, because we're all pet parents. And it's one of those things like if we know that we have friends that are compliant that are actually that we know they're administering, you know, good parasitic protection, both externally internally, vaccinated, those kinds of things. I mean, there's a lot of factors that go through our minds to one thing is behavior. But the other thing is like to make sure that...
Bill Carter, DVM: One thing that was interesting from that study I read, going back to feeling safe, is most of those dogs that tested positive. They also questioned the owners if they were on intestinal parasite prevention. And the ones that were those weren't the ones that were getting all the positives. You know, there was obviously a much higher correlation in the dogs that were not on preventatives, and also having that parasite burden, which I thought was pretty interesting from you know, that study, as far as it had some things on treatment. But I liked that they had those questionnaires. They didn't specifically ask which products. So, who knows what they mean? They could...some owners could have meant diatomaceous earth for all we know. I've heard that before. So, but, you know, I thought that was good. But at the same time, you know, you've got 30% of people going...1 in 3 people's animals are not on prevention at the dog park. One in 3. Because like they said, 70% were on it. So yeah...
Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: That's alarming, especially in 2022. So, and to your point, continue to like...we are educating as veterinary professionals, but it sounds like we still have a ways to go to get there so we can get full compliance. Listen to this. So, this is the Lyme forecast, too. This is from CAPC, the geographic prevalence of Lyme disease continues to expand southward and westward, which is interesting because it used to be more of a northeast thing. And they're saying a lot more of the education is happening more so because they know that we're in more of an endemic area, but increases [in] Eastern Kentucky, northeast Tennessee, Western Michigan, Ohio, hotspot regions in northern and western lower Michigan, southern [and] northeast Chicago region. So, a lot of areas that we haven't seen before that are becoming more prevalent.
Katina Carter, DVM: Yeah. And also, a couple years ago, I had read a study. Now granted it was just one study. I don't know sample size or anything. They were talking about the biggest tick growth was actually along the Canadian border. So, they're really adapting to colder weather as well so now we can see them year-round says they don't mind the damp and the south and they don't mind the north either.
Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Yeah. Well, that's a great segue to what we're going to be talking about in our next segment to where we're going to be talking about 360 parasitic protection, all around, too. So that way we take care of all of our fur babies both on the inside and out and ultimately take care of our clients, including us, too, so we'll see you on the other side of this break.
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