Tick-borne diseases cause serious illness in dogs. A comprehensive prevention strategy combines product choices, environmental management, and surveillance.
Tick-borne diseases cause significant suffering that is entirely preventable with consistent, appropriate prevention. The range expansion of tick vectors means that areas previously considered low-risk now have substantial tick populations. Failing to update prevention strategies to reflect changed geographic risk creates avoidable welfare problems. Dogs in newly endemic areas, whose owners have not adopted prevention, are vulnerable to diseases that were not historically a concern in their location.