How To Protect My Dog From Ticks

Each year as the warm weather approaches, dog owners should be increasingly apprehensive about those gluttonous, disease-carrying “Rhipicephalus Sanquineus”. The big question of How to Protect My Dog from, Ticks should be foremost on a dog owner’s mind. This dangerous parasite can infect man with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, cause paralysis, and even kill dogs and puppies.

The topic of ticks is very often brought up as a flea and tick combo. While these are both health hazards for your dog, the treatment for the eradication of each of these parasites is very different.

Ticks and Dogs, a Brief History

Referred to by most everyone as “ticks”, these parasites are blamed for carrying the micro-organism that caused the death of so many British war dogs in Singapore several decades ago. And during the Vietnam war, more than 300 U.S. war dogs had died mysteriously from tropical canine hemorrhagic syndrome, and canine hemorrhagic fever. Intensive studies resulted in the finger of guilt pointing directly at the ordinary tick.

Ticks – One of the Hardier Parasistes

Although there are several different species of ticks (wood tick, brown dog tick, etc.), a tick by any other name is still a tick. Because of resistance to insecticides, the tick is one of the most difficult external parasites to control.

The Tick Life Cycle

The female tick will lay up to five thousand eggs in protected hollows in the ground, the crevices of a kennel, baseboard, or under the carpeting in the home. Eggs are never deposited upon the host animal. After twenty to thirty days have elapsed, the eggs hatch and become larvae. The larvae then seek out a host dog, gorge themselves on his blood, then drop off again to hide.

Six to twenty-three days later, the larvae molt and become eight-legged nymphs. The nymphs obtain another blood meal from a dog, drop off again and go into hiding. Twelve to twenty-nine days later, the nymph tick molts and becomes an adult. As an adult, it once more seeks the dog, engorges blood, and mates.

From the time the eggs hatch – and before the tick becomes an adult – it returns to the host dog more than once to feed on the canine’s blood. Once hatched however, a tick can live in a house for up to two years without needing a host dog to feed on.

How Ticks Find Dogs

In some rural areas, ticks can be transported from their nesting site by various vermin, such as mice and rats. As mice and rats are very mobile, they can spread the ticks over a large area, most probably giving these ticks a feed along the way. Once these larvae have had their fill, they will drop off and continue with their development to the 8 legged nymph stage. This is when they will most likely find a dog host.

Out of doors, ticks climb onto branches and into foliage to await the arrival of a dog host. A dog napping under a bush, or walking within jumping distance of the tick is all that is needed to provide the parasite with a host. In the home, ticks will emerge from beneath rugs and carpeting, climb walls, table and chairs, and even up as high as wall pictures, to await the passing of a dog. They may even have to wait up to six months, but a tick can instantly sense the approach of a dog and jump on it as it passes.

We all know that some dogs like to dig in their yard space. This is the perfect scenario for a tick and dog to come into contact. Dogs will be curious about the smell coming from a tick nest and dig to see what it is.

What Happens When Ticks Land On a Dog

Once on a dog, a female tick buries her head beneath the skin tissues, extends her barbed “tongue” and is then clamped on tight. Once the head and barbed probe are beneath the skin, no amount of shaking or scratching by the dog will cause the tick to dislodge.

The tick then feasts upon the dog’s blood in this manner until she bloats to about the size of a pea. The male tick (brown, and a fraction of her size) then mates with the female. When she has received her fill of blood from the dog, she withdraws her barbed probe, and drops off of the host dog. She’ll then crawl into tiny crevices between sofa cushions and carpeting to lay her thousands of eggs.

Home or Kennel Infestations – Big Problem

Once a home or kennel is infested, eradication is no simple process, any more than ridding a dog of the parasite is a simple process. A single tick found on a dog necessitates immediate and zealous efforts at all stages of its life cycle.

Tick Removal

Removing a tick – or ticks – from a dog can be done by the owner, providing the tick has not attached itself to the inner ear, on the eyelid, or some other inaccessible place that would require anesthesia. And because the tick’s probe is barbed (similar to a fish hook), brushing or combing by the dog owner may rid ticks that haven’t yet “locked on”, but does nothing for those that are already attached.

The dog’s hair should be pulled back from around the tick for the benefit of full exposure. A few drops of iodine or rubbing alcohol can then be applied directly on the tick. This will momentarily shock the parasite, and in some cases, cause it to loosen its probe.

Using a pair of tweezers, and getting as close to the skin line as possible, the tick can be pulled out with a slight twisting motion so that the head is not severed and allowed to remain embedded in the dog’s skin. If that should occur, secondary infection could result. It is always wise to reapply iodine, alcohol, or other antiseptic to the puncture once the tick is removed. If the tick’s head remains beneath the dog’s skin, applications of hydrogen peroxide can be helpful.

What Next, After the Tick Has Been Removed

Once the dog is free of ticks, complacency on the part of the dog owner usually results in reinfestation. It should be remembered that if the dog picked up a tick, he may well have picked up larvae from four or five thousand recently hatched eggs. Dousing with a tick powder or other acaracide would be beneficial here, but if the larvae have dropped off in your home or yard, removing the original tick is only the beginning of the battle.

Ticks Have Honed Their Survival Instincts

Ticks are amazingly efficient at surviving almost any attack. The rate of propagation and resistance to insecticides is phenomenal to say the least. In heated kennels and homes, ticks breed all year round. When the weather is cold, they’ll withdraw to cracks and crevices to await warmer times.

Tick Treatment in The Home

Since it takes twenty to thirty days for eggs to hatch, an infested home should be treated at ten-day intervals, at least four times, then once a month for two or three months. Sprays and insecticides used should be marked as a acaracide. Other insecticides appear to have little-to-no effect.

Usually it is only necessary to spray as high as two or three feet from the floor up the walls (unless tick infestation is heavy). If the family dog is accustomed to sleeping on the sofa or in overstuffed chairs, spraying should include those areas, paying particular attention to cushions as well as the edges of rugs and baseboards.

Where Are Ticks Most Prevalent

To man, the tick represents the disease known as Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Originally, it was thought that the disease was restricted to the region of the Rocky Mountains – thus its name. However, it is not regional at all, and may be acquired over a considerable portion of the United States, east and west, and even in Canada. (The tick is also responsible for “rabbit fever” in rodents, which is transmissible to man.)

Different Types of Ticks

In the southern portion of the United States, as well as in France and Africa, there is an intestinal protozoan parasite – Babesia – which attacks blood cells in a dog and causes extreme anemia. This protozoan is spread from dog to dog by ticks. Heavy infestation of ticks upon a dog can cause an extreme loss of blood, anemia, paralysis, and even death.

What to Do to Protect Your Dog And Your Home From Ticks

Flea and tick collars are available commercially for small dogs as well as the larger breeds. Be aware that these flea and tick collars might eventually cause the tick to die, much damage and infestation can be done in the interim. Veterinarians can also prescribe tablets, which, when given to a dog, ensure that any tick that bites the dog will die.

Yard Protection

There are a number of tick treatments for your yard. Bear in mind that these treatments will take some time, depending on what stage that tick life cycle is at and how the ticks are finding their way to your property. Do your research and find a treatment that best suits your circumstances.

The consequences of tick infestation should dictate the importance of tick control in homes and kennels. The approach of warmer weather signals the approach of Rhipicephalus Sanquineus. Now if THAT sounds like a blood-sucking monster from a science fiction movie, you’re partially right. Blood sucking monster? Yes! Science fiction? No way!