It's Tick Season, Protect your Pet & your Home

Living in the North Eastern part of the United States...Oregon, Northern California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, we are blessed with a special season, a season that is filled with an 8 legged parasite that can cause a disease so debilitating to not only your dog, but also to you.

The season is when hiking is at it's most beautiful, streams are flowing, the mountains are lush, trees are full and the air is fresh, clean, and crisp. 

Tick season begins when the weather changes and nature is at it's most beautiful. The Deer Tick's name is even kind of pretty, but there is nothing pretty about the disease these parasites carry, Lyme Disease.

 Deer Ticks also known as Black Legged Ticks depend on the White Tail Deer as their primary host.   There are many different descriptions of what this thing is, some believe it is an insect, some call it a parasite and then there are some descriptions of it belonging to a crustation family, such as scorpions.  Personally, I am not concerned what family it comes from as I am how to keep it away from my dog and myself.

Deer ticks have 4 stages of life, egg, six legged larval, 8-legged nymph and adult, it is during the 3rd stage, 8-legged nymph that the chance of Lyme Disease in humans usually occur. 

Ticks usually are abundant with temperature changes...some say spring/summer is tick season, but I find them more in fall and the beginning of winter, they are very common on deer trails and human trails.  Ticks do not fly, nor do they jump...they can drop or crawl onto a host, so they love tall grass areas and areas around ponds or streams where warm blooded animals come to drink.

 A tick will attach itself by inserting it's cutting mandibles and a feeding tube into the skin.  The feeding tube is equipped with it's own set of curved teeth that serves as an anchor.  At this point the tick is about the size of a fleck or pin head. Physical contact is the only way a tick can be carried.  As the tick grows and more detectable, careful care to remove is easier than thought.

A pair of tweezers and hydrogen peroxide is all that is needed, no need for a lit match or any match.  Carefully place your tweezers as far down the shaft as you can, without squeezing, carefully pull tick out and clean with hydrogen peroxide or other antiseptic in the first aide kit.  Place tick in plastic bag and refrigerate for a few days just in case an infection starts and tick can be identified.

Proper and daily grooming of your pet plus added protection with flea and tick applications monthly, will help guarantee your pet and yourself a healthy hiking season.