Health importance

In the case of many hard ticks on a host, we may have tick paralysis.

They transmit Lyme disease or Lyme borreliosis, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, honey fever, and other diseases.

Their removal from the host's skin creates a wound that can be an entry point for bacteria and other microbes that can cause serious complications.

Soft ticks can transmit dengue fever and Q fever to humans.

The tick and the dog

Ticks usually prefer areas of the animal's body that are covered by thin skin and have a lot of blood supply. Such areas include the area around the mouth, behind or inside the ears, above the eyes, in the armpits, etc., although they can suck blood from any area of the body.

Ticks initially cause annoyance and discomfort to the dog, who in its attempt to get rid of them, scratches and bites itself.

This discomfort can sometimes manifest itself as irritability and anorexia.

The most common diseases in Greece transmitted by ticks are Piroplasmosis and Ehrlichia.

Treatment

First aid

The most ideal breeding conditions for ticks are spring and autumn (15-20?C), so those are also the most dangerous seasons for pets to get sick.

To remove a tick from an animal's skin, it is important to understand the mechanism by which the tick sucks blood.

Before it can drink the blood, the tick must produce saliva to dilute it. Thus, through its saliva, it can transfer pathogenic microorganisms into the animal's body.

So when we squeeze the tick with our hand, what we are essentially doing is stressing the tick, increasing the chances that it will "spit out" the meal it has consumed and its contaminated saliva along with it.

It is preferable to remove the tick with our hand or with blunt tweezers, grasping it as close to the skin as possible, by the head and not by its body.

Pull the tick slowly and perpendicular to the skin.

We do not make sudden movements or twist the tweezers to remove it, because this can cause the head or other parts of the tick to detach from its body, which remain in the skin, resulting in the development of pyogenic microbes that often lead to serious infections.

It is preferable to ask our veterinarian to show us how to do it safely.

After removing the tick, we must clean the area to which it was attached with an antiseptic.

Special tweezers suitable for catching even the smallest ticks can be purchased at pet shops.

Prevention

We regularly check ourselves, our children, and then our animals. We remove any ticks we find.

In nature and in places with animals, we are careful about our contact with tall grass and bushes that are often full of ticks.

We wear light-colored clothes to see insects and tuck our pants into our socks.

We wear insect repellent leashes on our animals. Many times they are very effective.

We reduce populations in our yard by cleaning, controlling native vegetation, and pruning our plants. We remove trash.

We fight mice and repel strays and other animals.

We turn to the Veterinarian for proper hygiene in animal husbandry, prevention and treatment.

We use insecticides to control ticks outdoors, especially where our animal nests.

We make sure that there are no cracks and crevices in the walls and floors, in which ticks nest.

Insecticide application

Spraying with a suitable insecticide-acaricide in the surrounding area of buildings where stray dogs may frequent will remove ticks from their hiding places and kill them. Also, with its residual effect, it will protect the area from new infections.

In the case of a pet dog, insecticide applications, either preventively or suppressively, once the presence of ticks has been determined, should be focused on the dog's house, the surrounding area, and generally on the places frequented by our animal.