Hello Tom
How does a dog get ticks?
and how would one treat that ?
Thank you
Hi George, sorry about the delay in answering your question.
The Australian paralysis Ticks have in fact quite an involved life cycle.
Tick eggs are deposited by the adult female in dry leaf litter, under scaly bark or dense foliage at end of branches. This occurs during late November to early February.
When the eggs have hatched after about one month, the emerging Larva, also know as seed ticks, climb to the end of branches or long grass and attach themselves to any passing host that brushes against the foliage.
The Larva are extremely small and can only just be seen by the naked eye being less than half the size of a flea.
There they will feed for up to a week before dropping off and after about a month of growing, moult to then emerge as Nymphs. These are extremely active and again climb branches or grass so that they may again attach themselves to a passing host.
At this stage they are about six times the size of the seed ticks and again feed for about a week before dropping off, moulting again after about a month and emerging as either an adult male or female tick. At this stage they look more like a small spider.
It is the mature female tick that does the damage by injecting toxins into the body of the host. The adult female ticks generally stay on the host engorging on blood for up to three weeks depending on the weather, and generally start injecting toxins after three to four days.
The engorged female then drops to the ground, lays her eggs, and the whole cycle starts again.
The male tick does not attach itself to a host to feed but moves about the host looking for females to fertilise.
The most effective way to protect greyhounds from being infested by ticks at any stage of their life cycle, is to first of all to keep grass in the yards cut short, and to have mesh fences around the yards with any plant foliage being kept well away from the yards, and not allowing dogs near bushes or plants while emptying out.
This will limit the opportunities for ticks to attach themselves to the dogs in the first place.
Regularly checking all greyhounds on the property for ticks (twice weekly), particularly in areas where they may hide such as behind the ears, on the inside upper surface of the legs and between the toes.
The use of a product such as Frontline Plus is an essential part of keeping dogs free of ticks particularly during the humid months, but should not be totally relied upon and dogs should still be checked on a regular basis.
For any greyhound that appears to have been affected by the paralysis toxins of a tick you should of course seek urgent Veterinary treatment.
Cheers,
Tom