Lyme disease risk from dogs 'higher than thought' (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Michelle Roberts
Health reporter, BBC News

Ticks that can transmit Lyme disease may be more prevalent in the UK than realised, say researchers who have found out how many dogs harbour them.

Experts have suspected for some time that the UK has a growing problem with these tiny pests - rates of the disease have been creeping up in recent years.

In 2010 there were 953 reported cases in England and Wales.

Now, after doing random checks on over 3,500 dogs, Bristol University experts suspects the problem is even bigger.

Of the 3,534 pet dogs inspected at veterinary clinics in the UK between March and October 2009, 14.9% had ticks.
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16706942

[MineralMan]

1. Lyme disease can be nasty.

I've curtailed my brush-bashing outings during the worst of tick season.

[handmade34]

2. a tick cost me $600. last fall

ugh! I hike in the woods a lot and am very careful... but while working in Massachusetts last fall I discovered a tick embedded in my hip and knew he had been there for a couple of days... couldn't get him all the way out and ended up in the ER (being a Sunday AM) and it cost $600 just to have the Doc finish taking him out and full dose of medicine (risk of LYME is high after infected tick has been attached for 48 hours) I will be even more careful in the future

[Warpy]

3. My Lyme was considerably cheaper

because I'd removed the tick and noticed the bullseye rash and the 103 fever and found a storefront doc who treated it appropriately, with three weeks of antibiotics.

Lyme is nasty as hell. I was "lucky" that I got so sick with it. Some people don't know they have it until it invades their brains and/or hearts.

The original article states things very poorly: it's not the dogs who transmit Lyme, it's the ticks that ride the doggy trolley and transfer themselves to the dog's owner.