How To Keep Your Dog Tick Free

Having a pet dog a wonderful experience, but it carries with it a responsibility of keeping your pet tick free; you need to not only prevent ticks, but also remove the ticks that breed on your pet. Ticks can cause serious illnesses and even death of the pet.

Ticks hatch in large numbers in spring and summer and climb on to grasses and other vegetations. Their sticky shells help them to get attached to passing animals. They climb down the hair and get attached to the skin and start sucking blood from the animal and drop off only when they are finally engorged. They also pass various microorganisms to the pet dogs.

It is well said that prevention is better than cure. Prevent ticks by:

It is best to keep your pets free of ticks both for his sake and yours. During the tick season from April to September take care to limit your pet’s exposure to tick infested areas that include tall grasses and dense vegetation.

Ensure that you examine your pet dog daily for ticks during the tick season; this is especially necessary if your dog has been romping about in a tick infested area. The most favorite hiding places for ticks is behind the ears and around the eyes.

Ensure that you use a tick preventive during the spring and summer months; these preventives are available in the market and kill not only ticks but fleas also. If you are unaware of an effective product then go in for a vet’s recommendation. Apply the product on a monthly basis to the skin at the back of the dog’s neck.

In case you cannot prevent ticks from infesting your pet take steps to remove the ticks.        

You would need a pair of tweezers and gloves when you remove ticks. Using a pair of tweezers to grasp the head of the tick where it attaches to the skin; you could then use fingers of your gloved hand to remove the tick.

Ensure that you pull the tick gently and steadily; being too quick could leave a part of the tick’s mouth behind that could cause an infection. By this process the tick’s mouth will release its grasp and will come out cleanly.

Take precautions to never remove or crush a tick with bare hands or fingers. Doing this could expose you to the risk of Lyme disease or one of the other tick-borne diseases.

Next kill the tick by placing it in alcohol and disinfect the dog’s bitten area with a disinfectant. It is very necessary to be extremely careful if it is around the pet dog’s eyes.

Take a re-sealable plastic bag and save the dead tick, making sure to label the date when the tick was found. This would serve as a record if the dog fell ill and you had to identify the specie of tick that bit it.

Be prompt to take your pet dog to the vet if he falls ill; prompt diagnosis and appropriate treatment can cure most of the tick-borne diseases. A delay would mean that the tick-borne organisms are allowed to gain a foothold; it could cause serious illnesses and even death.

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