The weather outside is warming up and the ticks are out in full force. With lots of people and their dogs enjoying the outdoors, it's important to take preventative measures to help your dog and now cat from catching Lyme disease.

"Three years ago we got two products. One is called Nexgard and the other is called Brevecto. They're oral beef flavoured chews," said small animal vet at the Winkler Veterinary Clinic Gina Bowen. "You give it like a treat to your dog. The Nexgard lasts for a month, and the Brevecto lasts for three months and they are awesome."

Bowen noted a tick will bite usually within an hour after making contact with your dog. She added with the use of either of the two products it should kill the tick within an hour or two of it biting your dog. There are two types of ticks that we can find in southern Manitoba, one of which is the carrier for Lyme Disease. There are the wood ticks and deer ticks.

"Wood ticks are mostly just gross. People don't like seeing them, they get full of blood, fall off, get squished, and usually don't cause any problems," said Bowen. "Deer Ticks are the ones that carry Lyme Disease. They are very tiny and you are almost never going to see them. Once a Deer Tick latches on it takes them about twenty-four hours to transfer the bacteria, which is Lyme Disease, to the dog."

The Nexgard pill will cost you around $17 and the Brevecto option will run you about $40 but will last three times as long.

"Dogs are actually quite fortunate because about 95% of dogs who are exposed to Lyme Disease won't get sick by it. We know that they've been exposed because on our heartworm test that we do every other year also tests for exposure to Lyme Disease. We know they are getting exposed to it, but aren't showing any clinical signs," said Bowen.

Some of the symptoms of Lyme Disease are fever, a dog experiencing lame joints, they are very stiff, don't want to eat, and seem very depressed. Bowen stated it can all happen rather quickly.

She went on to say that Brevecto recently came out with a cat tick medication, which can last for up to twelve weeks.

"We are just starting to use it. It's a topical one," said Bowen. "I would say don't pick up the topical tick or flea medication anywhere else except the vet clinic. You can't use dog topical flea/tick medication on your cats, it's very toxic. Now we have a topical cat flea/tick medication available at the clinic."

Bowen explained Cat's may be better at cleaning themselves than dogs, which will reduce the number of ticks they're going to get, but they still have the chance of having one attach to them just like a dog.

The price for the Cat Brevecto is between $30-$40 according to Bowen.