🩺🐾Treating and Preventing Tick Infections
💡Expert Tips to protect yourself and your pets from Ticks🐕
With tick season in the offing in US and probability of rise in tick infection higher this year, its important to have in place sufficient safeguards to protect oneself and your pets. Weather and climatic change conditions does play an important role in the severity of a tick season. But the tick that experts warn of the most is a common blacklegged tick, which is found mainly in forests and spreads Lyme disease.
What are Ticks? Ticks are small, eight-legged bloodsucking parasites — arachnids, not insects — that feed on animals and sometimes people. Some ticks are infected with germs that can cause illness, and they spread those germs when they bite. They can’t jump or fly onto their hosts, instead, they hang out on a branch or a blade of grass with their legs outstretched and wait for people or animals to pass by so they can grab on and bite. Blacklegged ticks — also known as deer ticks, since they feed on deer — are among the most common ticks in the eastern half of the U.S. Tick populations cycle through the year and their numbers depend on climatic conditions (warm, humid weather) and more can be seen after a mild winter. Farmers, hunters and pet owners are particularly vulnerable to the disease. Scientists have found that the virus is often transmitted to humans from animals like goats, cattle, deer and sheep.
How to keep Ticks away? Ensure you or your pet doesn’t get a tick bite. If you travel outdoors, stay away from wooded and moist areas with grassy surroundings. Try to walk in the middle of paths, wear light-colored and permethrin-treated clothing and use Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-registered insect repellents. In order to avoid contracting the illness, various government authorities, including China’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), urges the general public to avoid wearing shorts while walking through tall grass, the woods, and any other environment where ticks are likely to thrive.
How to check for Ticks? Ticks are harder to see when they are young, so look carefully and pull them off with tweezers. Common spots include around the waist, behind the knees, between fingers and toes, on underarms, in the belly button and around the neck or hairline.
Symptoms of ticks and tick fever to look our in pets: Once ticks attach themselves to the host, they multiply and cause many protozoal infections through bites. Some of the major symptoms are extensive erythrocytic lysis — a process by which red blood cells rupture, leading to anemia, jaundice and hemoglobinuria (hemoglobin in the urine). The signs of infection slowly become severe depending on the immune system of the dog.
The doctors add that in the short term, the dogs develop:
– Fever, — Swelling of the lymph nodes throughout the body, — Enlargement of the spleen, — Decrease in the number of platelets in the bloodstream. Other symptoms include:– Loss of appetite,– Depression,– Loss of stamina,– Reluctance to walk,– Swelling in the limbs or scrotum,– Coughing, — Difficulty in breathing
Long-term infections: Even after recovery, there is still a chance the dogs/s may develop long-term diseases, whose signs and symptoms depend on which organs have been affected, such as,
* . Enlargement of the spleen, *. Kidney failure, *. Inflammation of the lungs, eye, brain, and spinal cord
If the brain and spinal cord are involved, there may be problems with the nervous system, such as lack of coordination, depression, partial paralysis, and increased sensitivity to a normally painless touch.
Other symptoms, are:
* Severe weight loss during tick infections
* Abnormally-low levels of platelets or other blood cells, meaning blood clots are slower leading to bleeding from the nose, blood in the urine or stool, or abnormal bruising on their skin or gums
Bio Protect Plus — First & Only Vet-Formulated Dog Supplement. Elevate your dog’s well-being with a commitment to the health and happiness of your cherished canine companion.
Identification and prevention: According to the vets, laboratory tests like blood smear examination, blood tests, and molecular diagnosis in the form of PCR can be done to identify a tick infection. Tick fever, they say, can be treated with antibiotics like tetracycline and particularly doxycycline. To treat anemia, a blood transfusion or other supportive fluid therapies can be recommended. Home remedy which may be effective is of applying the neem paste in the opposite direction of your pet’s luxurious coat, making sure to cover all those vulnerable areas. Let it work its magic for 10–20 minutes while your pet enjoys a well-deserved relaxation session. Once the time is up, rinse off the neem paste and follow up with your pet’s regular shampoo routine.
Affiliate Disclosure: Our posts contain affiliate links. If you buy a product or service recommended on this blog, you won’t pay a penny more, but we may receive a small commission to help keep the blog running. Thank you so much for your support!
#TickTrouble #ProtectYourPup #TickFeverAwareness #PetHealth #TickPrevention #HealthyPets #SummerSafety #VetAdvice #DogCare #PetOwners #TickCheck #PreventTickBites #TickFreePets #PetSafety #DogHealth #PetCare #TickSeason #DogLovers #PetSafety #TickAwareness #ProtectYourPets #PetWellness #TickFever
