Urgent Tick Help

[pipsqueak]

From what I understand, paralysis ticks are most commonly found on the Eastern seabord to roughly 20-25 klm inland and sometimes further inland, from most of Qld down to East Gippsland in Victoria. If you live further inland, bush or cattle ticks are more common. Paralysis ticks seem to prefer humid coastal habitats.

Paralysis ticks are now being found in the lower Blue Mountains, on what seems to be a fairly regular basis.

[frufru]

Excellent photos teekay - you can see the characteristic shield/shell marking.

Bush ticks also have the first set of legs close to the snout but their legs are all the same colour unlike the paralysis tick.

Aren't cattle ticks notifiable? For me they are not the same as bush ticks (we used to call these bottle ticks as a kid)

Edited September 7, 2012 by frufru

[Crisovar]

Paralysis ticks are now found in a far greater area than they have been before, it would pay for anyone who owns pets to ensure they know what to look for and to get into the habit of checking daily. If you move to a new area ring around the Vets and ask if they treat any tick cases.

[far_kenell_73]

Wow seems like their are a lot around the mountains areas I never realized. The vet said he has seen a high amount come in recently with most being from the Mt riverview area at a guess that would be at least 60km from the ocean.

[dancinbcs]

Wow seems like their are a lot around the mountains areas I never realized. The vet said he has seen a high amount come in recently with most being from the Mt riverview area at a guess that would be at least 60km from the ocean.

They have also apparently worked their way up from Kangaroo Valley / Fitzroy Falls into the Southern Highlands to Bowral and Moss Vale. It seems that anywhere around the Sydney Basin with pockets of rainforst in the surrounding bush has become a tick area, even much further inland than ever before. The only part of Sydney to not have ticks is the dryer south western suburbs. There isn't enough humidity here for ticks to survive and we don't get bandicoots.

In the north western suburbs there are some weird areas like Middle Dural that don't seem to have any ticks but a couple of kms away at Galston, they do.

[Tralee]

We lived in the tick Capital at Koonorigan NSW for several months during tick season.

The ticks are not uniform in colour, it depends on how much they have engorged themselves.

A lot of blood makes them very dark.

Anyway, finding a tick is not a major concern.

Noting any symptoms is the game changer.

[BC Crazy]

I nearly lost a BC puppy with a tick many years ago now when we were visiting my grand dad in Vincentia, which is on the south coast, past Nowra NSW. People used to say there were no ticks down there

as it was too cold but we proved that theory very wrong.

Tralee, I have noticed in some coastal areas ticks vary in colour slightly, was thinking maybe different habitat, I don't know. They do appear to become darker the more they engorge themselves as well.

Edited September 8, 2012 by BC Crazy

[dancinbcs]

I nearly lost a BC puppy with a tick many years ago now when we were visiting my grand dad in Vincentia, which is on the south coast, past Nowra NSW. People used to say there were no ticks down there

as it was too cold but we proved that theory very wrong.

Tralee, I have noticed in some coastal areas ticks vary in colour slightly, was thinking maybe different habitat, I don't know. They do appear to become darker the more they engorge themselves as well.

The entire eastern coast has always had ticks, it just varies how far inland they go. The NSW south coast has always been notorious for them but used to be relatively safe in winter, until the last few years. In most areas south from Sydney, 20-30 km is far enough inland to be safe but but in some places they go more than double that distance depending on the terrain, rainfall and if it is a bandicoot habitat.

[skelp2]

.

From what I understand, paralysis ticks are most commonly found on the Eastern seabord to roughly 20-25 klm inland and sometimes further inland, from most of Qld down to East Gippsland in Victoria. If you live further inland, bush or cattle ticks are more common. Paralysis ticks seem to prefer humid coastal habitats.

Hi,

The Blue Mountains have become a major P Tick area.....alot of our Vet have maps on their wall, pin pointing where the dogs have come from that they have treated for P Tick........my local Vet used to have this map up only through Summer....it's now up all year round.......I live in the mid Mountains, and this is the first year where I have gotten both bush and P Ticks all through winter.....even though my dogs are on prevention, I check them

daily

From what I have read, the problem is also partially due to Currawongs (as well as Bandicoots, who are a favourite host). Currawongs used to spend winter in the coastal areas and migrate back to the ranges in spring. Due to more food sources in built up coastal areas (ie: bird feeding tables, suburban gardens) they have stopped migrating early in spring, if at all and are staying far longer in coastal areas. Being omnivourous, they eat fruits/berries but will also hunt out other birds nests in spring and eat the baby birds, favouring smaller bird species. Many smaller woodland birds are insectivorous and eat ticks. Declining populations of these smaller birds, due to Currawong predation, has led to the proliferation of ticks. There has also been a resurgence of Bandicoots in some areas due to fox baiting and people being more cautious about letting cats roam.