Ticks

[Teamedup]

Nobby if you are in France, then you need to go to the doctor and tell them that you have had a tick which you have removed.

The reason the ticks are a big deal here is that some of them carry an illness that can and does kill animals and can make us very ill.

 

As per usual I can't remember what it is called, but go and see what the doctor says. I would, just in case.

 

I get my dogs ticks off with the little crochet things you get from the vets, they are excellant as they pull the head out too.

[nobby]

hi everyone I posted a message but cant find it so will ask again.I found a tick on myself this morning removed with thingy from vet and applied germoline.Now I am paranoid that I will get more Is there anything I can do (dont fancy frontline!!!)Will I suffer any ill effects?It looked like it had been there a short while because it was not very big Not as big as the one on the dog two weeks ago Regards Lorraine

[Teamedup]

Nobby, if you look a couple of posts up I've posted. I personally would go to the doctors.

[steve@sarah]

Nobby, do as Teamup says and get off to the docs. Especially if the area round the bite is red or inflamed or if you start to feel unwell with a high temperature......

The illness is called Lymes Disease and can make you very ill. My brother in law caught it after being bitten by a deer tick while he was in Belgium. Thats how I know about it.

Sarah 

[Bones]

Well I've been watching the dog for ticks for a while now; she's had a couple of brown ones that I've removed with tweezers.

But today I noticed something on the floor near Lola, it was like a small flagolet bean, I noticed that it had little legs that were too small to walk on: it was gourged on blood! Urrrgh! I pierced it to confirm and a load of blood oozed out.

It was grey and much bigger than the brown ones.

My stepson was also stung by a hornet today: they (he and his mate) had split it in half and had it under a microscope when it struck. Boo Hoo!

[Teamedup]

Bones you saw one big engorged tick then. Aren't they revolting.

[Russethouse]

Isn't the disease you can get called 'lymes disease'? No major symptoms immediately but nasty further down the line if left untreated. A trip to the doctors and a test is essential AFAIK

Bon Chance

PS Here is a link;

http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/jake/mosaic/lyme.html

[Teamedup]

It's called maladie de lyme in french too.

[Dunton4]

I came back from Normandy yesterday after taking my dog for the first time.  She was treated with Frontline on Friday night according to the regulations and the vet checked her over.  The first thing I noticed when I got back to the UK on Sunday was a large grey tick on her chest!  It's been removed ok, but how come it was there after that Frontline.....

My vet has recommended a special collar which she says is the latest in the battle against ticks.  When I get it later in the week I will post its name, if anyone is interested.

Very disappointed with Frontline....

 

Sue

[steve@sarah]

I dont think that frontline stops the ticks attaching, but kills them when they have. So if you found a tick, it should have been feeling very ill!

I also use a collar, called a "scalibor" [Think thas how you spell it] collar when we visit. It was recommended to us as it is supposed to repel ticks as well as kill them and also it helps prevent sandfly bites [apparently these are common in many areas in France and are not just the things you find on beaches]. I started using these collars after reading several articles in the press about sandflies and the disease they carry - I think it is called Leishmenioses which makes dogs very ill.

I have noticed that with the collar we get far fewer ticks attaching to the dogs.

Hope this helps, Sarah

[Dunton4]

Thanks Sarah, that sounds like the collar my vet was recommending.  She did say it repelled flies as well. 

Re the Frontline - you may be right about it killing them, rather than preventing them attaching, although I would have thought the tick would have fallen off in that case.  It did look rather flat and empty , but was hanging on in there!  Still, with a combination of Frontline and the collar we should hope to have some respite in future.

Sue

[M]

[quote]Isn't the disease you can get called 'lymes disease'? No major symptoms immediately but nasty further down the line if left untreated. A trip to the doctors and a test is essential AFAIK Bon ChancePS ...[/quote]

Yes, it's Lyme disease. I caught it last July after picking up a tiny tick in Finistère. Symptoms appeared after about 2 weeks (I was lucky!) but it still meant a night in hospital and a lot of antibiotics. I still don't know if I'm rid of it, and if not, the long term effects can be crippling, and even fatal. So be warned! Tuck your trousers into your socks. No bare legs or sandals wneh walking in long grass - and look (really look hard!) for ticks in odd places on your body after any walk through grass.

Malcolm

[bizzer]

Hi Guys

I had a tick attached to my ankle last night I never felt it attach itself and I only noticed it when I went for my bath--- a little brown blighter---ugh--Called for help(as one does) and had it expertly srayed with an aerosol --- this one was a deodorant--- apparently aerosols kill the tick straight away (cold) the other option was a burning cigarette (local advice) and I did not fancy that one.. took it out with tweezers made sure nothing left in and plastered my self in germolene !!!! Hope I am still okay in two weeks time...

cheers

[Teamedup]

Just keep your eye on your health bizzer, these can be dangerous things in France.

[bizzer]

Cheers Team

 

Will do

 

Barry

 

 

[Corinne]

The Lyme Disease Foundation advises against burning or smothering ticks (which is what using an arasol will do) to remove ticks as this may cause the tick to release infected fluid.

The best was is to just simply and carefully remove the tick wash the area with soap and water and use antiseptic on the bite AND the tweezers.

Don't try out  ways of killing it before you remove it as it is more likely to make the tick to it's worst before you get it out.

[Deimos]

The special hooks MDW mentions earlier in this thread as beat as there is no squeezing of the tick involved in removing it, thus minimal risk of regurgitation whilst still attached and thus lower risk of infection.

[Corinne]

[quote]The special hooks MDW mentions earlier in this thread as beat as there is no squeezing of the tick involved in removing it, thus minimal risk of regurgitation whilst still attached and thus lower risk...[/quote]

 

risk of regurgitation

Now that is one nasty way to put it...made me laugh though

[Dunton4]

Sorry to continue the unpleasant topic of ticks, but I found a large baked bean-shaped tick in the middle of my kitchen floor this morning .  It's really weird because my dog had a tick treatment (Frontline ) in France last Friday, was checked over by a vet in the UK on Monday and has been groomed by me every day since.  Unlike the tick the vet found on Monday, which was flat and dry-looking, this one was large, hard and shiney .  I think it's unlikely that the tick had been present on my dog all the time and we failed to notice, so wonder if it could have been hiding (in bedding?) and came out to play just today.  Do ticks live for long away from a host?  This one looked very healthy, although it wasn't attached to anything and was hardly moving.  Of course, its source could be the UK, but I have never seen a tick like this over here and my dog has not been out of the garden since she came back from France as she is in season.  It all seems very curious to me...

I am now paranoid about ticks and have all doggy bedding in the washing machine.  Is there anything else I should be doing?

Sue

[Deimos]

I’ve had the “baked bean” type ticks left around the house (though none yet this year) – in France. Frontline does not stop the tick attaching to a dog but kills it before there is a disease risk (2 days or so).

[Corinne]

Found a link that you might find useful (at bottom of page) and gives some enjoyable reading...NOT   But here are a few snippits to wet your appitite

Your Baked bean I believe :

There are two basic types of ticks. Soft ticks, the argasids, are distinguished by their soft, leathery cuticle and lack of scutum. They can be recognized easily by their subterminal mouthparts that are on the underside of the tick. Soft ticks when engorged with blood blow up like a balloon. Soft ticks are fast feeders, being able to tank up in a matter of hours.

The brown dog tick, stick to you like glue it seems :

Hard ticks, the Ixodids, have a hard plate on the dorsal surface and have terminal mouthparts. When attaching, a tick will slice open the skin with the mouthparts and then attach itself. They also secrete a cement that hardens and holds the tick onto the host. Hard ticks are slow feeders, taking several days to finish their blood meal. During feeding a tick may extract up to 8 ml of blood, they can take 100X their body weight in blood. Interestingly, they concentrate the blood during feeding and will return much of the water to the host while losing some by transpiration through the cuticle.

Now you will know what it feels like to be a bed for hanky panky..A drink of blood is their equivelent to a ciggy:

A female tick can produce up to 20,000 eggs. Mating usually occurs on a host, after which the female must have a blood meal in order for the eggs to develop.

You hoo I'm over here!!

They will then climb up onto a blade of grass or the leaf of a plant to await a potential host. They will sense the presence of a host and begin the questing behavior, standing up and waving their front legs.

Can live longer than your dog....so who wants one as a pet then?

Some ticks have been known to live for over 20 years and they can live for a very long time without food.

 

http://www.spokaneoutdoors.com/ticks.htm

[Bones]

RIGHT!

The human race has caused the extinction of an inordinate number of 'lesser' species in the relatively short space of time we've inhabited this planet.

Can ANYONE present a protection case for these ticks?? Wasps?? Anything that can either harm and/or make me go "Urrgh"?

Would anyone on this forum shed a tear if they never saw another fly?

Our scientists should be working around the clock to combat these filthy little parasites.

Failing that we need to organise: 6am,  every morning, in your local field, with a comb and a blowtorch. We could have t shirts made and everything.

Who's with me?

 

[Athene]

[quote]I'm not a vet and not involved in the industry so my 2p worth is just comment:The British authorities are quite paranoid about tick diseases and Frontline is still one of the approved treatments for d...[/quote]

Now Frontline is the ONLY product allowed for tick treatment on cats and dogs entering the UK!

[pattsie]

Our welsh terrier got a tick found in his mouth by the lady who was grooming him unfortunately she had washed him first so we could not frontline him again for two days (this is because the frontline enters the dog through a layer of fat that covers the dogs body(or cat) and you must wait at least two days after washing dogs ) anyway we had frontlined him three and a half weeks before so we were not worried however he became very ill and did no eat his food for two days plus a few other symptoms relating to his toilet so we took him to the vet (a great English speaking vet in couhe ) who checked him out he said frontline works against fleas for about 4 weeks but for ticks only THREE weeks and dog had contacted some disease that sounded like pericaniteous and it was not good so he gave him antibiotics and cotersone injections and he seems a little better today he also said that ticks are endemic this year He also gave us free some little plastic crowbars that remove ticks the tick screws itself in clockwise so to remove them you place the crowbar under its head and screw anticlockwise and the tick comes out alive to flush down the loo

[PossumGirl]

[quote]Our welsh terrier got a tick found in his mouth by the lady who was grooming him unfortunately she had washed him first so we could not frontline him again for two days (this is because the frontline ...[/quote]

I've switched to Advantix from Frontline, because of the added protection against mosquito bites. However, our vet also recommended that we use a Solibor collar as extra insurance against ticks. It lasts for six months. I had used the Preventic collar with good results before, but apparently the Scolibor is considered even more effective.

Possum