Comb her through with a metal comb. You'll see or feel them esp after a couple of days as they get bigger.


FWIW, the Frontline plus only works on ticks FOR TWO WEEKS. It says on the packet I have here that you should apply it every two weeks during the paralysis tick season, which extends 'From Spring to Autumn but may be year round in some localised areas. Ask your vet for advice and tick seasonality.'
It also states 'Use of this product does not guarantee prevention of tick paralysis because ticks are not killed immediately after attachment. Daily searching of dogs is necessary to minimise the risk of tick paralysis. Daily searching of dogs should continue throughout the paralysis tick season'....

HTH

As lesleyM pointed out, heartworm is also an important one to cover against. For those like me, who have a dog that seems to be able to read minds when it comes to giving a tablet and clamps shut, you can go to your local vet and have them injected for heartworm it costs $70 and lasts for 12 months.

Excellent information, Robyn, thank you. Are paralysis ticks more prevalent in one part of Oz than others? Or one type of habitat? Our GSD is long-haired and white so not sure how easy it would be to spot ticks. He's never had one yet, but that's no guarantee, of course.

Any advice you can give would be appreciated.

Sue

Yes my Aunts dog had one bite in the head. Took 3 days to find it and by then the toxins were taking effect. Shutting down major organs like the heart and causing the back legs to pack up. The legs were the 1st visible sign that something was up and so rushed the dog to the vets. The ticks were removed and the dog went into intensive care for a week. It survived and is now perfectly normal. If it had gone another day without noticing something was wrong she would have died. The vets bill was huge!

As for preventing it, as far as I know there is no sure fire way of stopping them. We use preventic tick collars and sentinel spectrum tablets once a month plus the occasional gunk to the back of the neck (sorry forgotten what it’s called). Then you are supposed to check the dog for ticks after every walk but this is a right pain in the ass and with a thick dogs coat it’s hard to find them at the best of times. Hope this helps.

We now take the dog to the vets at the first sign of a cough or other obvious muscle problem.

hey, you know we have ticks in the UK?! Our cats used to come in loaded with them when we lived in the country. They can cause lyme disease here..nasty. Flea drop products may help, but regular checking and brushing is best. They used to attach to my cats ears, and face and neck generally. You can buy a tick removal tool or use tweezers. Watch out if you walk through long grass. I had one once but got it before it embedded..it was sooo tiny. yuck.

One point to keep in mind...... the Heartworm Injection cant be given to dogs under 12mths.

Donna.

My dad had to remove one from his dog just the other day. (Shudder). Don't think they are the paralysis type in the UK though?

For those who've actually been bitten by one - does it hurt when you pull it out? The very thought of these loathsome creatures is making me feel ill ...

Hi Sue, as far as I know they are only found on the east coast of Australia, mainly in the coastal region where the humidity allows them to breed. Further north they are present year round, but further south (like around Brisbane) they are usually only around Spring to Autumn (OK so thats 9 months of the year ) . Perhaps ask your vet over there just to check?

FWIW a metal comb would be next to useless on a long haired dog with regard to finding ticks - firstly you would be hard pressed to get a comb like that through a long haired dogs coat anyway & certainly not down to the skin like you have to to find ticks & secondly by the time the tick was big enough to find with a comb, the dog will probably already be affected by the toxins.

The best way to examine your dog for ticks is by feel - use your fingers & run them through the dogs coat back & forth, preferably going in lines, paying particular attention to the front end of the dog, especially around the shoulders (particularly between them) & back of the neck. I think vets say that 80% of tick attachment are on the front half of the body, but they can be on the back end as well, so you really need to check the whole dog.

Hope that helps.

One other thing to remember is that there are various types of ticks & the one that is dangerous is the paralysis tick. Other common ticks are the brown dog tick, which whilst unsightly & can cause problems isnt as deadly serious as the paralysis tick.

Britishaussie - yes I think thats the sort that seasprite is referring to in the UK - it would be far too cold over there for paralysis ticks to survive.

have added a pic of what they look like - remember they are only tiny, about the size of the head of a pin when they attach & they are about the size of the end of a ballpoint pen when they are fully engorged (the thick end, not the nib part LOL)

We'll certainly check with the vet when Kali's out of quarantine. The missus is well versed in removing the common or garden British variety - we do live in a fairly rurual area though, with plenty of badgers, foxes, deer about. The best thing she's found to use over here is a swab of cotton wool with vodka on it - they just fall straight off. The cat's forever getting them in her face - the dog's prone too.

Drunk or dead?

Doc's advice for removing ticks from humans:

Spray once with Mortein fast knock-down insect spray - this stuns it and it won't harm you.
Wait 1 minute.
Spray again to kill it.

Leave to drop off or carefully remove with tweezers.

This really does work - even deeply embedded ones quickly resurface.

Ticks are mostly carried by bandicoots around here.

There was a thread on this last week. Here's the link, it may be of some use:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...aralysis+ticks

Nooooooooooo!!!!
Spiders, creepy crawlies and now 'ticks' to worry about too???!!! :scared:

My vet has just given my 5 month old pup the heartworm injection - should I be worried ?