Your pets, especially dogs
and cats, are easy targets and fair game for ticks whenever they go outside in
areas endemic for ticks, which nowadays means just about anywhere. The woodlands, high grass and brushy
areas, all those places your pets like to romp, can harbor scores of ticks.
Although the summer months
are especially bad for ticks, your pets can be bitten just about any time of
the year. The types of ticks
likely to bite your pets include deer ticks, American dog ticks, brown dog ticks
and Lone Star ticks. The diseases
these ticks can infect your pets with include Lyme disease, babesiosis,
ehrlichiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and tick paralysis. While ticks make a meal of your pet’s
blood, they will stay attached on your pet anywhere from a few days to a week’s
time. Once fully engorged, they then
drop off your pet and use the blood meal to grow/molt to their next stage of
development, or reproduce making thousands of eggs.
After having been outside, if
your pets become infested with ticks, they may itch themselves, and chew on
their feet and lower extremities where ticks are likely to first come in
contact with them. Once on your
pets, ticks will generally move towards your pets’ ears, particularly the
inside, and the area around their eyes, because here the skin is the thinnest
and the easiest to attach to.
Once bitten by a tick and
infected with one or more tick-borne diseases, your pet can experience a
variety of symptoms which you should be on the alert for. These can initially include loss of
appetite, fever, behavioral changes, and lethargy. If left untreated, these symptoms can regress to
irreversible conditions such as lameness, anorexia, cardiac issues, blindness, and
crippling joint arthritis. If
caught early however, antibiotics can be very beneficial in treating your pets.
You must be very careful when
removing a tick from your pet. You
should wear latex gloves to prevent getting the tick’s saliva on you, and becoming
infected with a disease yourself. Using
pointed tweezers, you should grasp the tick as close to the pet’s skin as
possible and steadily pull the tick straight out as you would a splinter. Once the tick is removed, you should
disinfect the pet’s skin area with a disinfectant such as rubbing alcohol, remove
and dispose of the gloves, and wash your hands thoroughly. Do not try to remove the tick with
Vaseline, a lit match, nail polish, etc., as these methods may cause the tick
to regurgitate disease organisms back into your pet.
What can you do to prevent
your pets from getting bitten by ticks?
You can keep them indoors, especially cats. However, if you are walking your pets outside, you can try to
stay out of tick infested regions like woodlands, high grasses, and brushy
areas. Lawns, where the grass is
cut short and exposed to sunlight, represent low risk areas for exposure to ticks. And of course, walking your pets on
paved sidewalks or gravel and wood chip pathways also represents good practice,
as these low humidity areas which ticks do not like, are considered very low
risk.
Additionally, there are tick
preventive products you can put on your pets such as monthly liquid spot-on
treatments, shampoo rinses, sprays, tick collars, etc. which you should consult
with your veterinarian on before using.
Some of these products are not safe to use on cats and young
puppies. There is also a Lyme
disease prevention vaccine available for dogs which, if you live in a tick
endemic area, you should seriously consider using on the advice of your
veterinarian.
Pets can bring ticks into your
home from outside. So being
careful where you walk your pets, checking them daily for ticks, and using tick
prevention measures will help you protect your pets, as well as yourselves and
family members, from tick-borne diseases.
You are also well advised to keep your outdoor pets off your beds and
couches so they do not transfer their ticks to you.