Tick season does not end with summer. On Vancouver Island the western blacklegged tick prefers cool, damp conditions, so adult activity climbs again through autumn and continues into mild winters. Stopping prevention in September leaves your dog or cat exposed during a high risk stretch. Keep protection running year round and check your pet after every walk.
Why September is the worst month to stop tick prevention
Most owners file ticks alongside mosquitoes and wasps: a hot weather nuisance that fades when the evenings cool off. That instinct is reasonable for a lot of pests. It is backwards for the tick species that matters most on Vancouver Island.
The western blacklegged tick is a cool weather specialist. Heat and dry air are its enemy, because a questing tick sitting on a grass stem loses moisture fast. Through a dry Nanaimo August, tick activity is actually suppressed. Then the rain returns, the humidity climbs, the leaf litter stays damp under the canopy, and adult ticks come back out in force.
Our coastal winters rarely deliver the sustained deep freeze that shuts parasites down elsewhere in Canada. A wet, above freezing January afternoon in Harewood is perfectly workable weather for an adult tick. So instead of one summer peak, think of two waves: a spring and early summer wave, and a second one that starts as the fall rain arrives and carries on through a mild winter. September is the month the second wave begins, which is exactly why it is the wrong month to let prevention lapse.
Where pets in Harewood actually pick ticks up
Ticks do not jump, fly or drop from trees. They quest: a tick climbs to the tip of a grass blade or a low shrub, holds its front legs out, and waits for something warm to brush past. Everything about local risk follows from that one behaviour.
The high contact zones are predictable:
- Unmown tall grass, especially the strip where a mowed edge meets rough ground
- Brushy trail margins, where the path meets salal, blackberry and second growth
- Damp leaf litter and the shaded understory that holds moisture all autumn
- Overgrown lane edges, greenbelt strips and vacant lots close to home
That describes a great deal of the walking around the Harewood and University District neighbourhoods. The loop trails at Colliery Dam Park, the forested paths at Morrell Nature Sanctuary and the shoreline route at Westwood Lake all have exactly the brushy, shaded edges that ticks favour, and so do the ordinary cut throughs and back lanes closer to Eighth Street. The risky moment is rarely the middle of a wide gravel path. It is the second your dog noses into the undergrowth to investigate something.
Outdoor and indoor outdoor cats collect ticks the same way, usually around the head, neck and ears, since that is what goes into the gap in the hedge first. Cats groom thoroughly, which removes some ticks and hides others, so a hands on check is still worth doing.
What a tick looks like once it is on your pet
An unfed adult tick is roughly sesame seed sized, flat and dark. After feeding it swells into a smooth grey or tan lump that can reach the size of a small bean, at which point most people find it by touch rather than sight. It is commonly mistaken for a skin tag, a scab or a wart until you look closely and see legs.
Favourite attachment sites are the warm, thin skinned, hard to groom places: inside and along the edge of the ears, under the collar, around the eyelids and lips, the armpits, the groin, between the toes, and the base of the tail.
A firm red bump often remains at the site for a while after a tick is gone, which is a local reaction rather than a sign that something was left behind. What is worth an appointment is a spot that stays hot, swollen, painful, or keeps discharging days later, or an area your pet will not stop chewing. Persistent skin reactions are the sort of thing our dermatology appointments are for, and our guide to hot spots on dogs and cats covers how quickly an irritated patch can escalate.
Tick removal: the principles that matter, and what never to do
The goal of removal is simple to state: get the whole tick off promptly, without crushing it or provoking it. Correct removal is a bit boring. A fine tipped tick tool or fine tipped tweezers goes as close to the skin as possible, gripping the tick itself rather than the swollen body, and comes away with steady, even traction straight out. No twisting scramble, no yanking, no squeezing the abdomen.
The traditional folk methods all fail on the same logic. Burning a tick with a match, smothering it with petroleum jelly, painting it with nail polish or dousing it in essential oils are all attempts to make the tick let go on its own. What they actually do is irritate it while it is still attached and lengthen the time it spends there. Skip every one of them.
It is entirely reasonable to skip the home attempt altogether and let us take it off. Please do call rather than persist if:
- The tick is in the ear canal, on an eyelid, on the lip margin or wedged between the toes
- Your pet will not hold still, or handling that area hurts
- Part of the tick has broken off in the skin
- There are several ticks, or you are simply not confident
This is a short visit, not an imposition, and our same day urgent care slots exist for exactly this kind of small, time sensitive problem during open hours. Whoever removes it, keep the tick. Seal it in a small container or a zip bag and write down the date and where you had been walking. Wash your hands afterward and do not crush a tick between your fingers.
Lyme disease, and why the signs can arrive months later
Lyme disease is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, carried on Vancouver Island by that same western blacklegged tick. The infection rate in local ticks is low, and the great majority of dogs that are exposed never become unwell. It is worth understanding anyway, because the timing of this illness defeats a lot of owners.
Signs do not follow the bite. They typically surface weeks to months afterward, long past the point where anyone connects a limp in December to a walk in October. Signs that warrant an exam include:
- Shifting leg lameness, where a limp appears in one leg, eases, then shows up in a different leg days later
- Joints that look swollen or feel warm, or a dog that flinches when a leg is handled
- Fever, lethargy, or a dog that seems stiff and reluctant to get up
- Loss of appetite and general dullness with no obvious cause
- Enlarged lymph nodes, often the ones behind the knee or under the jaw
Kidney involvement is far less common but more serious, so increased drinking and urination, vomiting or puffiness around the face and legs should be assessed promptly. Cats rarely develop clinical Lyme disease, though they certainly still pick ticks up.
Notice how unspecific most of that list is. Lethargy, stiffness, a poor appetite and reluctance to exercise are the same signs that open the door on a number of unrelated conditions, including heart disease in dogs and cats. That overlap is exactly why a vague off colour pet earns an exam rather than a wait and see week at home. Telling us about a tick does not close the question, it just gives us one more thread to pull.
Because the lag is so long, the single most useful thing you can hand us is a date. Tell the team your dog had an attached tick after a walk near Colliery Dam in October and that context shapes the whole workup. Blood testing through our in house diagnostics can be discussed when exposure and clinical signs line up, and your veterinarian will explain what a given result does and does not tell you.
The sixty second check after every walk
Tick checks are done with your hands, not your eyes, and they take about a minute. Work in good light, ideally before your pet settles onto the sofa.
- Run your fingertips slowly over the whole body, feeling for any small bump the size of a seed or a bean
- Go carefully around the ears, inside the flap and along the margins
- Slide a finger under the collar and harness straps
- Check the face, the lips and the eyelids, then the armpits, chest and groin
- Spread the toes and check between the pads, then the tail base and underneath the tail
- Use a fine toothed comb on thick or double coats, and check your own clothing and the leash too
Same day checking is the point. Transmission of tick borne bacteria generally requires many hours of attachment rather than minutes, so finding a tick the evening of the walk rather than three days later genuinely changes the odds.
Prevention is the part you control
Products vary a great deal by species, weight, coat and lifestyle, and some tick products made for dogs are seriously toxic to cats, so never split or share a preventive between pets. Which one suits your pet is a discussion for your veterinary team, not a shelf decision.
What matters just as much is the calendar. A missed October dose is a gap in the middle of the adult tick wave, and a preventive stopped for the winter on Vancouver Island is a preventive stopped during weather that ticks are perfectly comfortable in. Running year round parasite prevention removes the guesswork. For dogs whose routine involves a lot of trail time, the lifestyle based vaccine conversation is also worth having, and our first year puppy guide sets out how those decisions get made.
Frequently asked questions
Do ticks die off once the weather cools in Nanaimo?
No, and for the western blacklegged tick the cool, wet months are among its more active periods. Cold, damp conditions suit it far better than hot, dry ones, and Nanaimo winters rarely stay frozen long enough to interrupt it. Treat autumn and winter as active tick season rather than a break from it.
Should I keep my dog on tick prevention through the winter?
Year round prevention is widely recommended on Vancouver Island because of the mild coastal climate. Seasonal gaps assume a hard winter that we do not reliably get here. Your veterinarian will weigh your dog’s walking routine, travel plans and health history at their next wellness visit and recommend an approach that fits.
How long does a tick need to be attached to pass on Lyme disease?
Transmission generally needs a prolonged attachment measured in many hours, not a brief contact, which is why prompt removal matters so much. That is not a guarantee, and no owner can accurately judge how long a tick has been feeding. Check after every walk and take off anything you find the same day.
Should I bring the tick to my appointment?
Yes, please do. Seal it in a small container or bag, note the date it was found and where your pet had been, and bring it along. Species and life stage inform how your veterinarian thinks about risk, and that written date becomes valuable later if signs appear weeks or months down the line.
Can cats get Lyme disease, and do they need tick prevention?
Cats pick up ticks readily but very seldom develop clinical Lyme disease. Prevention still matters for them, both for their own comfort and because ticks travel indoors on an outdoor cat. Use only a product prescribed for cats, since several dog tick preventives can cause severe illness in cats.
Booking a fall parasite check in Harewood
Autumn is the right moment to review whether your pet’s protection actually covers the months ahead. Bring your questions, or a tick in a bag, to a wellness and preventive care visit at Harewood Pet Hospital, or reach the team on +1 (250) 268-3133 to talk through a plan built around where your dog or cat actually walks.
Published by the team at Harewood Pet Hospital.
This article is educational in nature and is not a replacement for hands-on assessment, diagnosis or treatment of your own pet by a veterinarian. For an urgent concern, please telephone Harewood Pet Hospital during open hours, or use the nearest 24 hour emergency veterinary hospital outside those hours.
Harewood Pet Hospital
Unit 2, 508 Eighth Street, Nanaimo, BC, V9R 1B2, Canada
Phone: +1 (250) 268-3133
Hours: Monday to Friday: 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM
Saturday and Sunday: Closed
Statutory Holidays: Closed