Ticks and Lyme on Cape Ann: the season, the checks, the daycare policy

On Cape Ann the tick year begins when the ground thaws in April and runs into November, and it does not end cleanly. The CDC's guidance is that blacklegged ticks, the species that carries Lyme disease in the Northeast, are most active in the warmer months and that the adults can be out on any day the temperature is above freezing. A January thaw walk through Ravenswood Park is not a tick-free walk. Two peaks matter for dog owners: the poppy-seed nymphs of May, June and July, which are the hardest to spot, and the adults of October and November, which climb higher on the vegetation and onto taller dogs.

Where ticks live matters as much as when. The CDC describes tick habitat as grassy, brushy and wooded areas and leaf litter, which on Cape Ann means the trail edges of Dogtown Common, the stone walls and fern beds of Ravenswood, the brush at Goose Cove and the beach grass above the tide line at Wingaersheek and Good Harbor. Open sand, wet granite and a mown lawn carry far less risk. The Gloucester Dog Park at Stage Fort is fenced turf and gravel; the woods behind it are not.

The AVMA's parasite guidance is that there are many tick preventives, from monthly chewables to collars and topical products, and that the right one depends on the dog, the household and the other animals in it. We do not recommend a brand and we do not sell one. The season's tail is the point to raise with your vet: a preventive that stops in September misses the October and November adults, which on Cape Ann are exactly the ticks that ride home from a fall hike.

The Lyme vaccine for dogs exists, and it is a conversation for the exam room. Massachusetts sits in the CDC's high-incidence region for Lyme, and a dog that hikes Dogtown Common weekly is a different case from a dog that walks Main Street on a leash. Neither the vaccine nor a preventive replaces the hands-on check, because ticks carry more than Lyme and no product stops every bite.

Dogtown Common and Ravenswood Park each have a page with the trail rules and leash expectations; read them alongside this one before a spring hike. The how-to on a tick check after Dogtown Common turns the routine above into a habit, and the how-to on removing a tick covers the tweezers step by step. Leptospirosis has its own page because puddles and wildlife ask a different question of a wet-season dog.

If you are new to the area, the moving to Cape Ann page collects licenses, vets and beach dates in one place. For a dog that is suddenly unwell at night, Massachusetts Veterinary Referral Hospital in Woburn runs a 24-hour emergency service; keep its number in your phone next to your own vet's, and call before you drive.