Tick Bites on Dogs: What you Should Know

Ticks are particularly prominent throughout the UK and thrive in densely vegetated areas such as woodlands, marshlands, and grasslands. They’re most common in rural areas but you can also bump into them in gardens and parks in more urban areas.

They’re a risk to our beloved pets, as they will usually latch onto your pooch’s coat as they walk through the taller grass and from there make their way to their skin where they can bite and remain there until they get their fill.

Initially, there aren’t usually clear signs to show that they’ve attached themselves to your pup and as they’re such small little pests, you or your pup might not even notice. That’s why it’s important to regularly check your pets for ticks during the warmer months to prevent any serious health risks from a bite.

The only thing that makes a tick bite detectable is the fact that ticks will bite and remain attached to your dog while they get their fill of blood. They’re incredibly hard to spot as when they’re hungry they can almost appear to be the same colour as your pup’s skin and blend in quite well. You can rarely see them, especially through a dog’s coat.

They become a little easier to spot when they start to feed from your beloved pet. Their body will get darker and swell as they fill up with blood. They can range from one millimetre to one centimetre in size.

Ticks will usually remain in place for up to ten days where they will drop off again once they’re full and wait for their next meal. When they fall away the bite site will usually be a little inflamed, but it can be hard to tell what it was even after they fall off, if they manage to remain undiscovered for that long that is.

The easiest way to detect any ticks on your furry friend is by having a good feel. After walks, especially if they’ve been frolicking through ticks’ favourite vegetated areas, make sure you run your hands over them under their coat to detect any little bumps that shouldn’t be there.

If a tick has already attached itself to the skin, it can feel almost like they’re a part of your pooch, but if you regularly check them over you should know where bumps should and shouldn’t be! You can sometimes even see them on the fur if you find them fast enough.

Other than physical clues you both are not likely to detect a tick unless they’re carrying a secondary disease which will flare up it’s own symptoms.

Tick bites are incredibly dangerous for our dogs, but never from the bite alone. Ticks are quite good at coming and going without being too noticeable. They’re even able to numb the site of the bite with their saliva before they chomp into your pup’s skin, so it’s likely won’t even feel a thing.

As the bite itself is pretty harmless, the main cause of concern is the potential diseases the ticks pick up and carry from host to host. If a tick is able to remain in place for over 24 hours, then it’s far more likely to transmit any diseases it might be carrying to the host.

Secondary diseases include Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis and Lyme disease, all of which can lead to death in the most serious cases. 

Lyme disease in dogs is a nasty illness which can contract through a tick bite. Also known as Borreliosis, it’s a bacterial infection that spreads from the site of the bite and multiplies outwards. The bacteria can spread through their joints and symptoms will usually first be noticed near the bite.

Symptoms include:

Lyme disease can be treated by a vet with a course of antibiotics, with some canine patients needing anti-inflammatory medication to help with other symptoms. If caught quickly, most dogs will make a full recovery and respond well to treatment. In cases where the bacteria have multiplied excessively, it can cause issues like kidney failure which can result in a much poorer prognosis and is sometimes fatal.

Removing a tick can be a daunting process if you’ve never done it before. It’s easy to find horror stories where an owner has removed one of these little pests by detaching it from the skin.

If pulled, the mouth and head can sometimes remain attached to the host which will cause a nasty infection as it starts to decay. When you remove a tick it’s important to remove the whole thing, which means making sure the body, head and mouth all come away with it.

Tick removers are useful for this, specially designed to make sure all of the tick comes away together. The Johnsons Tick Remover Tool is just a perfect example that gets right under the body and legs, to slowly detach the mouth from your pooch leaving no trace of the parasite behind.

Overall, the best cure for tick bites is to prevent them in the first place. By keeping your beloved pet up to date on their flea treatment, you won’t need to worry about becoming an expert at removing them.

Ticks can bite people too, while it’s less common to see it’s not unheard of. Dogs are far more likely to be running through thick undergrowth and their fur makes for a great anchor for these pests to cling to, so we tend to see more of them attaching themselves to our pets. That isn’t to say that if you’re going through the same environment as your pup that you might not come across them too.

A tick bite can look very similar to a mosquito bite on humans, however one of the tell-tale signs of the transmission of Lyme disease is the bullseye effect that can appear on a bite if the bacteria has been passed onto you. These bites are red in the centre with a ring of pale skin around them and then a circular red rash surrounding that.

If you’re worried about a bug bite that looks suspicious you can visit your doctor who might prescribe you antibiotics if they think you’ve contracted anything from a bite.

To keep your beloved pet’s parasite free and for all your other pup essentials, visit us online or in store.