Vet Neil Phillips with dogs Daisy, left, and Inca, right.
Advice from an island vet
By Neil A Phillips MRCVS, veterinary surgeon at Pet Doctors Animal Hospital, Newport
At this time of year, we may start to see ticks on our pets.
There are two classes of ticks — hard and soft. It is the hard tick we are most likely to encounter here on the Island.
When female ticks are breeding, they need to attach onto a warm-blooded host to take a blood meal before laying their eggs. They climb up vegetation and wait for a passing host to attach to and bury their mouthparts beneath the skin to feed.
Ticks are tiny and therefore difficult to see. Once on the host, the tick will pierce the skin and attach itself and can stay there sucking blood. Their bite can cause a nasty local reaction.
They most commonly attach around the ears and between the toes of cats and dogs and after a few days can swell to the size of a fingernail.
Adult ticks may live for up to three years, during which time the female can lay between 2,000 and 3,000 eggs.
Ticks’ eggs take two to seven weeks to hatch and it is the larvae and nymph phases that will attach and feed on hosts such as cats, dogs and even humans for anything from three to 12 days. While off the hosts, ticks like to infest woodland and grassland areas covered with small bushes and shrubs, making Island downland an ideal habitat.
Ticks can also carry and transmit Lyme disease, a serious disease which can be transmitted to both dogs and humans. Symptoms of the disease include fatigue and flu, through to long-term arthritis and kidney failure.
Do not try and pull ticks off, as you will almost certainly leave the mouthparts in the skin and risk an abscess forming.
Preventative prescription-only medications are effective against ticks. Your veterinary surgeon will be able to advise the most suitable one and veterinary nurses will be able to show you how to correctly remove a tick, using a purpose designed tick remover.
Be vigilant and prepared, so your pets can enjoy a tick-free 2010.