The Tick
Most of us find ticks totally disgusting pests and never want to see one on our pets or ourselves. They are a dangerous health threat to pets and people so it is important to do all we can to keep ticks off our pets and ourselves. The tick has developed several survival strategies that make it difficult to eradicate this menace.

Ticks have the ability to go into a hold mode if conditions are not favorable for them. When conditions improve, they resume their activities. The tick life span is usually measured in years.

Life Cycle
In developing from egg to adult, ticks go through several stages of growth. Each of these stages takes place on different host animals. Ticks produce large amounts of eggs and these eggs are laid in the environment. One tick has been documented to have laid 22,000 eggs in one egg-laying session.

The eggs hatch in the environment. The larvae (“seed ticks”) that hatch disperse into vegetation. There they wait for a host. After feeding on the host, the larvae drop off, find shelter and molt into nymphal ticks. The nymphs seek a host, have a blood meal on the host, drop off and molt into adult ticks. The adult tick finds a host, has a blood meal, drops off and lays eggs in the environment which completes the life cycle. The hosts used by one tick as it develops can be the same species or different species.

The life span of a tick can be 3 years or longer.

Why Tick Prevention is Important
The tick life cycle makes eradication of the tick from the environment extremely unlikely. Ticks are widely dispersed in the vegetation of their environment so trying to eliminate them there would cause widespread contamination with pesticides. The ticks’ long life span and ability to go into a hold mode allows them to remain viable in their environment for months or years after control treatments have been used. It is important to make our pets unsuitable hosts for ticks.

Ticks are second only to mosquitoes as vectors of life-threatening or debilitating diseases to both animals and humans in most of the world. In the Midwest, ticks are vectors for diseases, such as, Lyme Disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Erlichiosis and Babesia. These diseases can be fatal for both you and your pet. And there are other diseases that are being investigated that may be linked to tick bites.

Transmission occurs when the tick feeds on a host (either a wild animal or our pet) that is carrying the disease pathogen. When that tick attaches to a new host for its next blood meal, it transmits the pathogen to the new host. After feeding the tick drops off and when it feeds again, it transmits the pathogen to yet another host. At the same time, any other host that the tick has infected has become another new source for disease transmission. Thus a reservoir of infection has been created and the cycle of disease transmission continues.

There are other serious problems that can happen when your pet has ticks. Because ticks can consume up to 5 ml of blood at one feeding, a pet with many ticks or a small or debilitated pet can develop fatal anemia. Anemia can also cause your pet to have decreased immunity leading to other illnesses. The saliva injected into a pet (or human) can cause tick paralysis which may lead to death. Tick bites can also cause allergic reactions.

The goal of tick prevention is to stop the transmission of disease from ticks to our pets and ourselves. At this time, it is thought that the tick must be attached to its host for 48 hours to infect the host with disease. Prevention is aimed at killing the tick on the pet within 48 hours of contact.

We recommend year round flea and tick prevention. Ticks, as read above, are very hardy and have several survival strategies. We have had pets come into the clinic that have acquired ticks even in the middle of winter. Therefore, because of the dangers ticks pose to both our pets and ourselves, prevention is best done year round.

Ticks take refuge in such places as tall grass, brush piles, weeds along fences and building, and woodpiles. If your pet has access to these areas, continued reinfestation by ticks is likely.

To Remove a Tick
In order to protect yourself wear gloves when possible when removing a tick from your pet. You should consider the tick to be a possible carrier of disease pathogens.

Grasp the tick as closely to the skin as possible and use a gentle, steady, pulling motion to remove it. (Once a tick has attached to the skin, the use of vaseline, fingernail polish, kerosene or a hot match will not dislodge it.) Clean the area with an antiseptic. If the head remains in your pet, watch the area for infection. Generally there is not problem. Areas where any tick has been removed may develop a small lump that will take awhile to go away.

Wash hands thoroughly after handling any tick.