![Flea and tick pills for dogs](https://loka.nahovitsyn.com/39.jpg)
(At the bottom of this article, we’ve included a few of the best tools for pulling ticks off your pup, each of which has been recommended by our experts and tested by me and other Strategist staffers.) After a tick bite, if your dog displays any warning symptoms - which include joint pain, limping or lameness, swollen lymph nodes, fever, lethargy, or decreased appetite - Potzler says to speak to your vet as soon as possible, as tick-borne illnesses can be fatal.įor dog owners with backyards, entomologist Marc Potzler, a technical services manager for Ehrlich Pest Control, suggests looking at ways to reduce the number of ticks (and the mice who host them) on your property. If you find any ticks, remove them right away. Leslie Brooks, a vet advisor for Better Pet, recommends paying close attention to your dog’s face, ears, belly, groin, and feet. This allows you to see down to the skin, even on very furry dogs.” Dr. Jennifer Coates, who serves on the advisory board for Pup Life Today, says the best way to check for ticks is to “run your hands through your dog’s fur against the direction it normally lays. I have learned the hard way that keeping ticks off your dog is an important step in keeping ticks off you and your family, too.īecause ticks can be tiny and easy to miss - deer ticks that carry Lyme disease are often as small as poppy seeds - regular tick checks are essential, especially if you take your dog hiking, play with them in areas with a lot of tall grass, or live in the prime tick country of the Northeast. And just because a tick starts off on your dog doesn’t mean it won’t end up catching a ride into your living room and burrowing its way into your thigh while you watch Love Is Blind on the couch. If unprotected, dogs can contract lots of nasty illnesses from ticks, including Lyme disease, canine ehrlichiosis, canine anaplasmosis, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. But now it can be tick season year-round, thanks to warmer winters and growing populations of the deer, mice, and other creatures that ticks love to bury their Lyme-disease-carrying heads in. Tick season used to be a spring and summer thing depending on where you live, you’d typically get a break come late fall, with cold weather killing off a lot of them.
FLEA AND TICK PILLS FOR DOGS SKIN
If you’ve ever had to remove a fully engorged tick from the folds of skin behind your dog’s ear, you know that keeping the tiny pests at bay is a battle, even in the best of times. Photo: Getty/Getty Images/Cavan Images RF
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