I Want to Check You for Ticks

If you own a dog in the Treasure Valley you know all too well about the problem of ticks.  Last summer, I was playing in the marshes around the foothills and brought home a couple ticks.  They are just awful.  My mom thought she had ticks as a result, but she is a little nuts so that wasn’t surprising.  My good friend Dr. Bob Beede at Intermountain Pet Hospital and Lodge was telling my mom all about ticks.  Here are some tips I picked up:

Did you know ticks have four distinct life stages:

1.  Egg
2. Six-legged larva
3. Eight-legged nymph
4. Adult

There are two types of ticks.  The hard tick (Ixodidae) and the soft tick (Argasidae).  The hard tick is the one you will most likely find on your dogs.

In addition there are at least 15 species of ticks in North America, only a few will latch on to us canines.

The American Dog Tick (fancy name), the Lone Star Tick (shout out to my Texas dogs), Deer or Blacklegged Tick, and the Brown Dog Tick (which is not specific to my friend named Brown Dog at daycare).  Ticks are usually found in grasses and shrubs, and can even be active in the winter if the ground temperature is above 45 degrees.

I know I just dropped a lot of information on you, but the best prevention from ticks are the tick preventatives that you can find at pet stores and/or from the vet.

If you want more information like this and to let all us dogs hang out together this Saturday at Kleiner Park in Meridian is the first annual Helping Hand Fund 5k! Click here for more details. 

I look forward to sniffing your butt.