Grantham pet expert reveals how pet owners can deal with ticks

Do you know how to deal with ticks on your dog or cat, writes Grantham pet expert Sara Barnes of Who Lets Your Dogs Out?

Earlier this month I had to remove my first tick of the year from a customers dog. Now it’s no ones fault that the dog picked up a passenger, and being able to quickly and effectively deal with it ensures that there is no risk to the dogs health in the short or long term.

The recent mix of warm and wet weather has been the perfect combination to wake them up and for them to start hitching rides with our furry friends.

If you search how to remove a tick you may end up with some very strange solutions, such as using alcohol to make it release its bite, Vaseline to suffocate it and some other rather strange solutions.

The easiest solution is to us a tick removal tool or fork to force the tick to release its grip and remove the whole thing, as leaving the head attached can cause more toxin to be released into the pet.

This could lead to Lymes disease, bacterial infections or abscesses. If you are in anyway concerned contact your vets for more advice.

To use the tick removal tool/fork, simply slide it under the head of the tick, so it is flat against the pets body and twist it in one direction and gently lift. You should be able to see the ticks legs moving as you lift it away.

Not all ticks will appear as white, some will be darker in colour as they suck more the blood.

Research from the Royal Veterinary College, which looked at vet records from more than 900,000 dogs in the UK, showed that new designer cross breeds are all at higher risk of tick infestation because of their poodle heritage.

The highest infestation rates were found to be in Cavapoos, with 5.19% of dogs diagnosed over a five year period.

The advice from Dr Dan O’Neill, lead author of the study was for owners to check their dogs regularly and to maybe keep their dogs coats short, as this might help with identifying the ticks.

Tick removal forks/tools are relatively cheap to buy and small enough to be easily stored in car or pet first aid kits or even in your wallet/purse.

So what are you waiting for there are plenty of online tutorials on how to use them and if in doubt you can always ask your friendly pet care professional.