DR. DOLITTLER: You can’t catch pets’ tick diseases

Two weeks ago, Sunday’s Action Line ran a question about ticks and the diseases they carry. The following day marked one of the busiest I’d had in a while. As a direct result of this informative piece, I attended to three healthy patients and fielded six frantic phone calls. Everyone wanted their pets tested for tick-borne diseases.

Action Line’s response to a dog owner concerned about ticks and the diseases they might spread yielded a flurry of excellent information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Unfortunately, many readers inferred that their dog might pose a serious risk to their families’ health. Read more