West Porters Lake man finds Lyme disease-carrying tick

A pet owner in West Porters Lake, N.S., has posted a warning on Facebook to friends and family: the tick he found on his cat, Ashes, tested positive for Lyme disease.

Chris Conrad found the tick on the cat's neck last fall. He safely removed it. 

"I used surgical clamps and dish detergent to suffocate it," Conrad said. "It released simply when I did that. If you remove it improperly it can actually force the toxin into the skin."

Conrad took the tick to his veterinarian, who sent it to Dalhousie University for testing. He recently got the lab results confirming the tick had Lyme disease, which can cause serious health problems for people and dogs.

Conrad learned cats aren't as susceptible, but he still wanted to spread the word.  

"Obviously with the cats it's not as critical, but I do have nephews and my brother has bulldogs, as does my father, so I do want to make sure that was something they knew about," Conrad said.

West Porters Lake is just outside the boundary of the Halifax "hot spot" on the provincial map for Lyme disease.  

But Conrad wasn't surprised by his discovery, given the number of deer in the area. Deer don't carry Lyme disease, but they carry the ticks that carry the disease.