Ugh - I've never had them on dogs, but I've taken my cats to the vets to have them removed - too squeamish to do it myself. One fell off onto my bed once - in panic, I hurled it into next door's garden, I realise I should have killed the beast now. BUT, I got one myself in Scotland. I was sat in the bath, wondering why I couldn't wash what i thought was a birch seed off my thigh, I managed to scrub it off and examined it - EEK! It was a tick! Not engorged - I'd never seen a tiny one like this.
I should have said this earlier, in case it's not too late - here we are asked to take them to our Vet to be identified as to type to see if they are the ones that carry Lyme Disease. OUr Vet would at least like to know how many people find so they can add it to their "tick counter." More every year.
If I'm out walking and see one walking across Snowie's fur, I pull their legs off cos they're too tiny to squish or even break in half with my nails. If engorged, then I squish between a tissue. I feel sorry for most creatures, but less so ticks due to what they can do to my dog. Poor critters, also need to fight to survive.
It must be a terrible life to be a Tick, hope they can choose to be something else in the next life!!
I'm reading this, almost chuckling to myself... We have loads of ticks, it's not even funny. Last year I, myself, got bitten SIX TIMES by ticks and had to remove them or have OH do it. I took countless ticks off Poppy - I just get them between my fingers as close to the skin as possible, and twist them off. Gross things. This spring is a lot cooler than last year, and Poppy is wearing the Scalibor collar, and so far she hasn't picked up a single tick. Last year we used bravecto - - she still picked up ticks and I had to remove at least 20 engorged ones.
When I grew up in Tennessee, we were always picking ticks off dogs. In fact the common larger ticks (about 1/8" across) are called dog ticks. If we went to the vet for them, we would have been there almost every day. They got us to, but not nearly as much as the dogs. A few years ago we stopped in a rest area in Eastern Nebraska that had brick picnic shelters. As we are eating I noticed several ticks on my socks, and then we start to see them everywhere. The young ticks apparently like stone cliff faces and the brick was a good substitute. We left in a hurry and my wife and I were picking ticks off each other for an hour. Actually we found a couple days later. Tilly got only a few. They seemed to prefer us to the dogs. I talked to the Nebraska Hwy Maintenance Dept about the rest area, and they said the maintenance workers would get them on their arms when riding with their arm out the window. Some references say they can jump, others say they can't. I've never seen on jump, but after being attacked by them at the rest area, I don't know. I do know they drop out of trees because I've seen that happen. Fortunately they are very uncommon in the part of Pacific NW we live in. I can't remember the last time I saw a tick on one of our dogs here. FWIW, dog ticks are considerably larger than the deer tick that spreads Lyme disease. That makes them much easier to spot. I think deer ticks go after dogs too, but I've never seen them.
We've just taken the first tick off Charlie - so both dogs now dosed with Frontline combi, which I do not think is as effective as Advantix, but Charlie is sick with Advantix - and the ticks here are not too bad so Frontline seems to do ok, just seems not as long lasting. It is still very necessary to have some protection though. I'm super surprised people say they don't have ticks on dogs!
It is a pleasant surprise. We just don't seem to have many here. We treated both dogs with either Frontline or Advantix before we went back to Missouri last year, because both fleas and ticks are a problem there. I don't know why our dogs don't get fleas here, but they don't and the vet always checks for flea debris when they are in. Ticks are problematic here. There are ticks in the valley, but apparently not many, and we don't seem to get into them. FWIW we also don't have poisonous snakes or poison oak in the North end of the Willamette Valley, or the West side of the North Oregon Cascades. Coast Range and the Southern Oregon Cascades have Poison Oak and the Central and Eastern part also have Rattle Snakes.
We have lots of ticks here due to the high deer population, although I haven't seen any YET. I have never had one but David and Thomas get bitten several times a year and they have to be removed Last year David had a very nasty one with a huge red ring around it the size of a saucer even though he covers up, wears his wellies even during the summer months. I wonder why they attach to some people and not others x
I heard it's something to do with blood type. Me, my mum and my sister all have the same blood type and we've never had nits or been bitten by a mosquito. My OH on holiday is always covered in bites and gets really mad that I'm not Then I saw something on embarrassing bodies and they said they don't like certain blood types so stay away!
We have quite literally deer on our doorstep, so ticks. I have been bitten, and contracted lymes disease. I wear my muckboots tucked into trousers even in high summer now.
Finn had one in his groin last year. I hadn't seen it for it was there full size. Around it there was a huge hump. I removed the tick fully and called our vet for advise. We had to have a close eye on the spot and on Finn. Not only in near future but also in the time to come... I cleaned it twice a day, the hump was gone and Finn didn't get sick, so I guess we were lucky!
... or like Kate (Beanwood) I just have to learn to be sensible and tuck my trousers into boots when doing training or seminars in long grass...
Nothing stops the little blighters, David tucks his trousers into his boots even in the summer and he still gets bitten. I think they must drop into his boots and work their way up to attach themselves x
