Ticks - How worried should I be? What can I do?

[milfordkong]

We have recently bought a little place in the French alps, it’s close to a lot of forested areas and whilst we’ve obviously had no problems over winter this last week our dog (three year old cockapoo) has had 5 tick bites - we’ve carefully removed them with tweezers and kept the little buggers in a jar, they all look to be intact with all the legs and heads etc. Two of them were particularly engorged and the others much smaller.

Have spoke to our vet in the UK and they just said it’s ok unless nasty symptoms such as lethargy, sickness or diarrhoea begin. Google ticks though and like googling anything of course there are horror stories a plenty. It’s my first experience of these nasty little critters so i’m worried about our little fella, he often wears an equafleece coat here and he has a lightweight summer version too which covers a lot of his body up but the little bds seem to be able to find any exposed area and latch on. I don’t mind checking him over after every walk and removing them but how risky is it even taking him into the woods? He absolutely loves the long hikes into the mountains and so i’m loathe to stop taking him in there if it’s just a problem I have to deal with, but if it’s putting him at real risk to take him into areas where ticks are clearly very prevalent then i’ll stop doing so.

How often do you remove ticks? Do you have any effective tips for prevention?

[craig1912]

We live on the south coast and our dog used to have a few. Get one of the extractor tools

http://www.lymediseaseaction.org.uk/about-ticks/ti...

Our dog has Bravecto tablets now and hasn’t had any ticks since

https://www.vetuk.co.uk/pet-meds-prescription-only...

Edited by craig1912 on Sunday 1st April 08:34

[milfordkong]

Thanks Craig, have ordered one of the tools and will ask our vet about Bravecto - Appreciate the advice.