Information on Dog Ticks

Picture of an American Dog Tick:

Photo ©2000 Jim Kalisch, UNL Entomology - Family Ixodidae

Dog Ticks and Information

Information on Ticks

Ticks on dogs and puppies are unsightly, painful, and sometimes very dangerous. These blood sucking insects feed on all vertebrates but are particularly kin to dogs and cats as they tend to enjoy the same places your pets do. They can be found infesting your lawn and garden, particularly bushes and shrubs

Quick Tips on Ticks: Always make sure ticks you find and remove are dead before you dispose of them. A good way to kill them is to stomp the life out of them. Most importantly, keep a close eye on your dog for the next few days to make sure he or she doesn't get sick!

where your pets pass through. Besides biting your animals, they can transmit diseases - the most popular of which being Lyme disease. Other diseases such as Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Typhus, Rickettsial Pox, Tularemia and others exist that you should watch for. Generally, these different diseases are unique to different ticks which carry causal organisms of these such diseases and can be confined to certain regional areas. Check with your Vet to find out more.

Other health threats involved with the bites of ticks is a condition known as Tick Paralysis and occurs during the feeding process of the tick. This process involves the ingestion of blood from its host - moving through the intestines of the tick where the different bacteria’s such as Lyme Disease may be present - then to be regurgitated back in to the hosts body. Tick Paralysis isn't fully understood but develops gradually throughout the feeding and can result in death if not removed and treated. It is important to provide quick treatment with any kind of tick bite, human or animal, in order to stop any process that may yet to have occurred. If you do have a bite occurrence, save the tick in case anything develops so that it may be presented for testing.

Photo of Ticks in an Engorged State:

Photo ©2000 Jim Kalisch, UNL Entomology - Family Ixodidae

Identifying Ticks

Ticks are usually easily identifiable and are recognized as flat and round attached at the head to the skin of your dog. They will latch on just about anywhere they can without discrimination so it is important to look everywhere on your dog, even around the eyes and under and inside their ears. There are two kinds of ticks to look out for - hard ticks and soft ticks.

Photo of a Deer Tick:

Photo ©2005 Scott Bauer

Hard Ticks have spiracular plates which surround their respiratory system. Their capitulum (their head) is visible at the top of their scutum (the shell that makes up their body.) When feeding, their abdomen begins to enlarge to become bloated - be careful not to press to hard as you don't want to burst this open. Soft Ticks similar but have a softer surface - and usually are a bit smaller.

The most common tick to look out for is Brown Dog Ticks as they virtually only prefer North American Dogs. Sometimes they are found on cats and horses but these cases show that there is usually an infested dog nearby. Adult male Brown Dog Ticks are about 1/8 inch long and flat, brown in color, and have divots throughout the shell. Females differ in appearance first off by their enlarged size when feeding as males don't usually engorge themselves the same way. Lastly, the other more common tick is the American Dog Tick as these too prefer only North American species of the canine.

Tick Life Cycle

Ticks go thru 4 stages in life from egg to larva, from larva to nymph, and nymph to adult. Females can lay over 10,000 eggs but don't usually deposit them on their host animal. Once the eggs are deposited, they will hatch anywhere between two weeks and 3 months. Once larvae, they are already dangerous as they are essentially immature adults - they have only four legs vs. eight of an adult and still need a host animal to feed on. Once fed, they mature to the Nymph stage with eight legs but are not mature enough to mate. Only when they molt to adults are they able to.
Tick Life Habits

Ticks have adapted to living long periods of time without food as it can be difficult for them to get to their host. They will lye in wait in the grass and bushes sometimes climbing higher for a better chance of making contact. They can detect vibrations of an animal walking through and are also able to use their modified scent to detect the carbon dioxide and odors of a mammal’s breath. Once detected, they reach out hoping to latch onto a meal. Other times, if high enough, they will wait for one to pass under and simply let go in hopes of landing on its host.

How to Remove a Tick

When removing a tick it helps to understand the nature of its feeding process and how it works to transmit disease. In most ticks, it can take 12 - 24 hours from the time it attaches itself to regurgitate the bacteria back into the host.

"The best way to remove a tick, Use tweezers, not your fingers, petroleum jelly or a match. Simply place the tweezers level with the skin, squeeze, then rock it with a firm grip while pulling straight up. Be sure not to compress the belly of the tick as you could facilitate a regurgitation of it's contents which could spell a disease."

Always check you and your pets every 6 - 12 hours for ticks when in the outdoors. Removing ticks using petroleum jelly or similar products are somewhat effective but not at all effective at stopping the process of disease transmission - as the tick still has enough oxygen to finish its feeding. Burning or cutting it could just spread more fluids and thus dangerous organisms and is not recommended.

The best way to correctly remove a tick is to use tweezers. Clamp onto the ticks head as close to the surface of the skin as you can. Simply pull away slowly perhaps rocking it back and forth a bit to loosen it's grip. They use special excretions to adhere better to the host and have mouthparts that are specially adapted for grip. Be careful pulling as you can remove the body from the head leaving its head in the wound. If this does occur, pick the most available part and gentle pull the rest of it out.