Treat your animals for ticks!

Article by TEARS Animal Rescue

Summer is just around the corner, and for pets and their owners that means: tick season. Ticks are horrible little parasites that can transmit several very serious diseases to dogs and cats, and even humans.

Ticks are rife in long grass or wild areas, and so a particular concern for pet owners who walk their dogs on the mountain, in parks and open areas, or for dogs that roam in bushy areas around their homes. TEARS Animal Rescue recently saved a little dog that almost died after being bitten by ticks.

If you can afford it, the best treatment is tick control medication available at your vet. If not, you can approach your nearest animal welfare organisation, like TEARS, and get your pets treated to prevent them getting sick from tick bites.

Unfortunately, some home remedies that people believe will keep ticks away can be very harmful for your pets and don’t work at all.

TEARS Animal Rescue Spokesperson Tinka Shapiro says, “Please don’t try anything that could hurt your dog or cat. We’ve seen some cases where petrol or motor oil has been used as tick prevention as the owners believed this would work. It doesn’t work and it will only hurt your pet.”

On top of getting your dog tick control medication, you can also do a daily check to make sure there are no ticks on your pets or in their beds. Focus on their ears, neck, underbelly and between their toes when you’re looking for the small brown arachnid. It’s a good idea to treat your pets’ bedding and kennels with tick control products and wash their bedding every week, especially during spring and summer as ticks are more active in the warmer months.

Ticks can cause a few serious diseases; here are some of them with their symptoms:

• Babesiosis, known as biliary: fever, anaemia, jaundice, lethargy
• Ehrlichiosis: fever, bleeding, weight loss, eye issues
• Anaplasmosis: joint pain, fever, lethargy
• Tick paralysis: weakness or paralysis
• Haemobartonellosis: anaemia, lethargy in cats, pale gums

Meisie is a little dog that got very ill with Ehrlichia, a tick-borne bacterial infection. She got so sick that she nearly died. She was handed in to the Hermanus Animal Welfare and then sent on to TEARS Animal Rescue as she’d been exposed to Parvo, a highly contagious and potentially fatal viral disease that affects unvaccinated dogs.

Meisie became lethargic and her belly was very swollen despite her body being skeletally thin: the symptoms of ehrlichiosis. Shapiro explains, “Meisie’s liver was failing due to the fluid build-up in her abdomen. We did a blood test to diagnose the Ehrlichia and started to treat poor Meisie. There was a time we weren’t sure she’d make it – but she did!”

“To make things even better, Meisie was fostered by a staff member and then adopted last month. We’re so happy that she now has a lovely place to call home,” says Shapiro.

Please take your pets to your closest welfare organisation or TEARS Animal Rescue to have them treated with tick control medication, or visit your nearest vet.

For more information, contact TEARS.