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Friends of the Riney Canine Health Center,
As we round the corner to summer and spend more time outdoors, it is a great time to review the strategies you use to protect your pets from ticks. While our exposure might be higher in the warm weather months, ticks are not just seasonal parasites. Especially here in upstate New York, I make sure my own dog, Mishka, receives year-round prevention. With the risks that ticks pose to our pets and family, it’s just not worth skipping a step.
In this month's newsletter, we will discuss some of the reasons why we need to consider ticks year-round, how to prevent them, how to pick the “best” preventative and what you should do if you do find a tick on your dog.
Ticks are common in both rural and urban environments. The adult ticks will remain active throughout winter if the temperature outside is above 32-40 degrees. While ticks are primarily found outdoors, some tick species, such as the brown dog tick, can thrive indoors. Ticks can also transmit several diseases to pets and people. For example, the black-legged tick, or deer tick, often spreads Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, and ehrlichiosis. I’m frequently asked, “What’s the best tick preventative on the market?” However, there is a lot to consider and certainly no shortage of choices. So there isn’t just one easy answer.
When I talk to clients about successful products, I start by asking them to think about which one will work best with their lifestyle. For example, do you have a busy household where remembering to reapply a product every month might lapse into every six weeks? Does your dog get irritated by collars? Is it impossible to keep your kids from petting your dog even if a product needs 24 hours to dry?
All of those questions will help you decide what type of application will work best — whether it’s a topical product, chewable or long-acting collar. You also want to think about the product’s duration. Most options are either one month, three months or eight months. Additionally, chewable products usually need a veterinary prescription, while most other products are accessible over the counter.
Next, I consider how the product works. Some products repel ticks (helping keep them off in the first place), and then the products kill on contact if a tick ends up on your dog anyway. Other products won't keep ticks from crawling on your dog, but they will still kill the ones that attach.
For products that kill the tick after attachment,you still want a relatively fast kill time. The faster the product kills the tick, the lower the risk of disease transmission since most tick-borne disease take 24-48 hours to start spreading.
Lastly, there are several combination products available, meaning they are also effective against fleas, heartworms, skin mites and some internal parasites. Factoring these into your decision-making process can help streamline your other preventative healthcare. So, what happens if you do everything right and still find a tick on your dog? Remember, no preventative is 100% perfect. The odds of a tick breaking through the preventative may increase from repeated exposure to high-risk areas — including dense woods, off-trail hiking and other areas with heavy leaf litter or thick brush.
Even while using a high quality product, tick checks are an essential part of prevention. The faster we find ticks and remove them, the safer our dogs will be.
To remove an attached tick, grasp it gently but firmly — holding it as close as possible to your dog’s skin. Then you can use tweezers or a tick-removing device, such as the Tick Twister, to pull it slowly away from the skin. Sometimes the skin around a tick bite can get irritated, slightly raised or scabbed, but that generally resolves on its own. If you have any concerns about how the skin looks, ask your veterinarian to examine the area.
For more information, check out some of our tick-related health articles:
...and my latest presentation on Tick Treatments featured on Cornell University New York State Integrated Pest Management's webinar series 'What's Bugging You?':
We hope that this information helps keep you and your dog safe as you enjoy time outside together. We’re looking forward to seeing you again next month!
Aly Cohen, D.V.M.
Extension associate
Cornell Richard P. Riney Canine Health Center
