How do you know if your dog has a tick?

How To Know Dog Has Tick

Ticks generally reside on the underside of leaves of bushes, etc., and when your dog decides to relieve himself under the nearest bush, they can either get on your dog as he brushes up against the underside of the leaf, or falls/jumps to your animal when the opportunity presents itself.

Depending on your geographical area, ticks can vary in size and color and of course, there are several types of ticks. A tick usually starts out small but should be visible to the naked eye. After they feed, they can get rather large, like 3/16" in diameter, or larger, depending on the type of tick you're dealing with. In general, you should check your dog's coat and ears every few days. One of the easiest ways of doing this is by brushing your pet, and watching where you're brushing for any little "dark spots", or something that feels like a small pea lodged in your pet's hair. And be sure to look down into their ears as well (some ticks like dark, moist areas).

What a tick does, is burrow down through the hair until it has access to the pet's skin, plunges a proboscus or bites into the animal and then feeds on its blood, gorging itself until it gets nice, fat and happy at your dog's expense.

It can also carry things like Lime's disease which could be bad news for your pet, as that usually causes an early onset of arthritis much sooner than a dog would normally have it through the natural aging process.

Whatever you do, DO NOT grab a pair of tweezers and try to pull the tick out that way. What happens is that the head detaches from the body but continues to burrow in. What I usually do, is use some flea and tick spray, but I saturate a cotton swab until it's dripping wet, applying it directly to the tick's body, making sure it's thoroughly soaked and then wait a few hours for the stuff to do its magic. Then after the tick's demise, it's easier to remove with tweezers, making sure at that point to get ALL of the tick's remains (especially any remaining head pieces) removed from my pet.

There are several brands of flea and tick applications on the market. One of the ones I use is Hartz 4 in 1, which I pick up at my local superstore. It seems to work well and I think I've only had to deal with a tick on my dog only once in the last eight years.

First answer by Cubby. Last edit by Stupid little genius. Contributor trust: 223 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 20 [recommend question]