Keep dogs, cats safe from ticks this summer
CENTER TWP — This past winter's warmer-than-usual temperatures may have caused an increase in the number of ticks people now are finding on their cats and dogs.
While it has not been proven cats get certain diseases from ticks, such as Lyme disease, the blood suckers are, at least, a nuisance, said Dr. Nicole Osche, a veterinarian with Butler Veterinary Associates, 1761 N. Main St. Ext.
While examining Iris, a co-worker's tabby cat, Osche explained the lack of frost, snow and winter temperatures had the clinic finding ticks on animals as late as December and early this spring.
There are several different kinds of ticks in Western Pennsylvania, but the most worrisome is the deer tick, which can carry Lyme disease and transmit it to dogs.
“We still don't know if cats get Lyme,” Osche said.
Ticks tend to like to hang out on long grasses, waiting for an animal to pass through, where the tick can drop or jump onto it.
Ticks can attach to animals by burrowing their heads into the animal's skin, where they suck the animal's blood.
In the process of taking blood, infected ticks can leave behind bacterium that can cause Lyme disease, which causes fevers and swollen sore joints; Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, which causes fever, stomach cramps and even death; or tick paralysis, caused by toxins that come from the tick, which causes animals to lose the ability to move, along with high fevers, aches and pains, and even death.
Strangely, just the removal of the tick can, in many cases, completely reverse the symptoms in tick paralysis.
Osche recommends owners take time to check their animals after they have returned from being outside, even just a walk in the city, as ticks are expanding their territory.
“Look in their ears, along their necks and in and on their feet. Ticks can attach anywhere, but those seem to be the places they really like to attach,” Osche said.
If a tick is found, remove it and place in a container with rubbing alcohol to kill it, and make sure to wash your hands.
If a tick is found attached to the animal, owners can either remove it with tweezers or new tick removers that can be bought through a veterinarian or at a pet store.
The device, made of plastic, looks like tweezers that have been bent into a C shape with a stick handle.
Osche said you place the instrument around the tick and start to twist the device.
“After a few turns, the ticks with their heads intact, usually pop right off,” she said, adding tick heads that are left inside the animal's body can cause a localized infection that could require antibiotics.
The other diseases caused by ticks in dogs are usually treated with antibiotics.
Preventative measures include the use of a topical flea and tick treatment and a Lyme disease vaccine for dogs.
“It's an annual treatment and is only offered to dogs because of not knowing whether cats get Lyme disease or not,” Osche said.
Osche recommends pet owners talk to their veterinarians about ticks and their treatment options.
