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Are Ticks Painful To Dogs


sandgrubber
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We have loads of ticks around here. One of my dogs gets loads of them. I had a problem with tick meds leading to seizures last year and am hesitant to go back to medicinal responses. . .. so tick picking is part of the morning greeting ritual. The dogs seem happy to have me go over and pull the beasties.

I myself have gotten half a dozen ticks attached, which is pretty gross. The sores from pulling them ulcerate in a pretty ugly way and are slow to heal.

I'm curious as to whether my dogs are suffering from having a tick or two pulled every day . . . and whether I should go back to using meds, despite bad reactions.

Btw, the girl who got really bad seizures and nearly died has gone on to have cluster siezures and is now on a low dose phenobarbital regime. She almost never gets ticks. Is it possible that the phenobarbital acts as a tick repellant?

p.s. we don't have tick borne diseases in the area and do have lots of wildlife.

Edited by sandgrubber
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As far as I'm aware any of the creatures that suck blood inject local anaesthetic or their version of it so they can feed undisturbed.

If the dogs dont look uncomfortable when you remove them (and is it just you that gets the ulcers, or the dogs too, this can be a reaction to the saliva) then I would feel pretty safe continuing that way as you dont have diseases or toxicities to worry about.

RE Phenobarbital anything between heaven and earth is possible? Ticks are attracted to body heat rather than scent I think, so I personally wouldnt think it likely but maybe someone from a high tick area would know better than me. Is she a different coat type to the other dogs?

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As far as I'm aware any of the creatures that suck blood inject local anaesthetic or their version of it so they can feed undisturbed.

If the dogs dont look uncomfortable when you remove them (and is it just you that gets the ulcers, or the dogs too, this can be a reaction to the saliva) then I would feel pretty safe continuing that way as you dont have diseases or toxicities to worry about.

RE Phenobarbital anything between heaven and earth is possible? Ticks are attracted to body heat rather than scent I think, so I personally wouldnt think it likely but maybe someone from a high tick area would know better than me. Is she a different coat type to the other dogs?

I've had ticks on myself (when bushwalking) and I know others who have too and honestly you wouldn't even know they're there. I just pull them off - the only problem is making sure you remove the whole tick, I've had a visit to my GP when I didn't get the whole tick out :)

I remember visiting Cloncurry years ago and seeing a dog literally covered in ticks and it didn't seem to be aware of them ;)

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have you tried just using Permoxin as a spray? We had brown ticks here at one stage- and it certainly kills them :)

I was going to suggest the same - a rinse or spray with Permoxin would deter/kill them and it doesn't penetrate the skin like spot treatments do.

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I don't think they are painful, but my dog has never told me otherwise :)

I had a kelpie x shepherd in Sydney who always got ticks when we went bush walking and they never fazed him. I would pull them off and there would be a tiny red mark (like a mozzie bite) and it would be gone the following morning. He never scratched at the tick site or licked it which I would have thought would be the sign that it was causing him distress.

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We had a problem around the farm with roo ticks getting on people. You didn't feel them while they were attached, but most removal methods cause the tick to react by injecting (??I think - stomach enzymes??) into you, and the subsequent itching was awful, with scratching then leading to infection / sores. Anyway, we contacted an entomologist at Sydney Uni for advice, and she said applying anything containing pyrethrin will cause the tick to disengage and die without doing the injecting thing. It was actually quite hard to find human-use things with pyrethrin in, but eventually we found a scabies cream and a head-lice shampoo! Both of these worked, it took 3-24 hours for the ticks to drop off, but no itching or sores afterwards.

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My old silky had a tick above her eye which i found after she rubbed it and yelped, i thought it was her leg/paw that was sore untill she did it again with the same response and i checked her face and found the paralysis tick, so it was painful for her.

My pom is also not her self at the moment due to running through the bush down the back the other day and picking up a few of the buggers, the frontline had killed the ones i found but even due to that short amount of time she is not herself

Edited by melt
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I would rather take them off than leave them there.. Get enough of even scrub ticks and it can lead to paralysis through numbers.

Spray them with Rid or aeroguard... they will back out a bit. If you get a pair of tweezers (good surgical ones) you can get down low and get them all relatively easily

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Thanks everyone for info.

I don't think I'll try permoxin, as the spot-on treatment that caused seizures in my girl was permethrin based. Many insecticides are nerve poisons. Having found there's something sensitive in my old girl's nervous system, I don't want to take chances.

Google on Permoxin yielded the following: Permoxin is a concentrated permethrin based insecticidal spray and rinse for the control of fleas and ticks on dogs, and flies and biting insects on horses. ...

Edited by sandgrubber
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There is also a spray you can make up yourself with Rose geranuim oil/citronella and water. You will have google 'natural remedies to deter ticks'. Also dabbing ticks with meths works. There is also tick twisters that remove ticks and their mouth bits. You can get them from some pet shops or online at vetstop.

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