Canine Ticks – What Every Dog Owner Should Know

November 6, 2008 by Richard Cross

Run your hand across your dog’s body. Try to feel the surface beneath his fur. Run your hand slowly. Try searching for small lumps the size of a large mole. Find anything? Chances are, they’re large, bloodsucking canine ticks that may have leached a lot of blood and nutrients from your beloved pet.

Indeed, canine ticks may look harmless at first. But as soon as they attach themselves on your dog’s skin and a full blown infestation occurs, serious health problems may follow suit.

Canine Tick Avoidance, Not Canine Tick Prevention

Ticks aren’t insects. They don’t infest households, hence, there are no preventive measures that can be undertaken to repel these parasites. Like common opportunistic bloodsuckers, canine ticks live outdoors, using special heat-sensing functions to pinpoint warm-blooded mammals. Once their targets are found, they drop down on them to cling to their skin, sucking away in relative invisibility.

Though there is no such thing as dog tick prevention, there is such a thing as canine tick avoidance. Basically, if you don’t want your dog to be a victim of these mite-like parasites, then you have to avoid bringing your dog to places known as hotspots for canine ticks. These places include areas with tall grasses and woodlands immediately after the rainy season. These are known breeding grounds for canine ticks because of the moisture they manage to retain.

The Real Danger Of Canine Ticks

If you’d discover some canine ticks on your dog’s skin – especially the ticks that have frighteningly ballooned into the size an air pellet – you’d immediately ask if such is painful for your dog.

It isn’t.

The dog may feel some irritation, but in general, he won’t feel the blood being sucked out of his system.

However, though canine ticks are generally harmless, this doesn’t mean that they pose zero danger for our beloved dogs. The truth of the matter is that some canine ticks may carry diseases that they can introduce to your dog’s system. This is the real danger of canine ticks. Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted fever are just some of the potentially fatal illnesses that can be caused by canine ticks.

Some dog owners may also find it alarming that canine ticks can feed on humans as well. In most cases, dogs with canine ticks are likely to have owners with canine ticks too.

Getting Rid Of Canine Ticks

When it comes to eliminating canine ticks, nothing is surer than the old fashioned way: manually finding them, manually pulling them out, and manually squishing them into oblivion.

You will find mature canine ticks hard to pull out of your dog. Your dog may even show signs of pain whenever these parasites are pulled off his skin.

Temporary remedies like topical lotions and shampoos can help your dog avoid a canine tick infestation. However, most of these products only provide short-term protection – the most of which is merely 30 days – and they are not known to cure canine tick infestation that is already in progress.