Dog parasites – a real nightmare. Every owner knows about it: brushing, grooming, and visually controlling the coat of their four-legged friend is a healthy routine, ensuring that your puppy is not the victim of a parasite attack. In particular, with the advent of autumn and the cooler season, attacks by one pest in particular are certainly more frequent: ticks.
When the temperature starts to drop, we can do more walking in parks or in the countryside without our four-legged friend suffering too much from the heat. But… the danger is always lurking: as long as our puppy comes into contact with these parasites in an infested area such as bushy grass where the ticks are present.
How can you tell when your dog has been attacked? The dog has very precise symptoms: localised and insistent itching, hair loss, swelling and, sometimes, small reddish infections.
The dog tick: what is it, and how does it attack?
What do dog ticks look like? At first, they look like small white balls. In fact, the dog tick – which proliferates when the season becomes wetter and arachnids proliferate, is a distant relative of the spider – with a massive mouth apparatus called a beak: it is almost like a pincer and attacks the skin of the dog by injuring it.
The tick sucks the blood with the beak, swelling, finding nourishment, and thus becoming an increasingly large white ball. The consequences of ticks are imaginable: skin and blood infections.
How to remove ticks from dogs
Premise: a good pesticide can make a difference, protecting your four-legged friend from the dangers of any parasite. However, if the tick is there, it should be removed immediately: it will be enough, quite simply, to detach it from the dog’s coat without any aggressive chemical or detergent.But be careful: it’s better to use a pair of gloves to prevent possible infection from spreading, making sure you remove the beak completely, which when remaining stuck in the skin could give rise to very painful inflammation.
Probably the best method to remove ticks from dogs is to sprinkle some fat on the insect, such as butter or margarine. If its position is close to the dog’s muzzle, we can cover it with gauze: the tick, sucking fat, will swell until it no longer adheres to the skin, and it will let go without running the risk of leaving small leg fragments in your dog´s skin.
Do ticks attack humans? An old belief
They usually don´t: ticks attacking dogs, from the scientific name Rhipicephalus sanguineus, focus almost exclusively on canids and other mammals such as cows, for example, causing the so-called “Lyme disease”, dangerous for the dog, but harmless to humans.
In any case, it is always advisable to protect your best friend from being attacked by this really resistant parasite, so that it does not infest kennels and dwellings.
Anti-tick treatment for dogs: the best methods
Collar, sprays, drops to apply to the animal´s skin, and in its favourite places, such as kennels and dog huts: the most widespread anti-tick methods can protect our best friends for up to 3 weeks, allowing both dog and owner to enjoy excursions and walks safely.
Does your Fido also like to run away? Tick attacks can be even worst without preventive measures. Carefully checking it every time it returns from its adventures can be a great method to prevent unpleasant consequences.
If you want to know where your dog has just been, when it returns with fleas, ticks and sandflies, you can fit it with a good GPS collar for dogs: Kippy Vita has a tracking system with a GPS and an Activity Monitor that will allow you to monitor your dog´s every move; because loving it means protecting it, even when it´s out of your sight.