Ticks on Dogs: Comprehensive Guide to Prevention, Removal & Diseases

As ticks and related diseases and illnesses are becoming more prevalent, know how to protect your dog’s health

As summer arrives, dogs and their owners ramp up their training and other outdoor activities. All the fun can take a turn for the worse, however, if you don’t proactively remove ticks from your dog. Tick-borne diseases can do severe damage to a dog’s health if not caught soon enough.

The United States is host to many different types of ticks. The list includes the blacklegged, dog, groundhog, Gulf Coast, Rocky Mountain wood, soft, and Lone Star ticks. Of those, there are two types of blacklegged (deer and western) and dog ticks (American and brown). Most ticks thrive in heavily-wooded forest cover and grasslands, but are also found in other populated areas. Even urban areas with high deer and rodent populations harbor ticks. With this, each tick species is unique in regards to diet and ability to transmit diseases.

Seasons of these ticks vary between spring, summer, and fall. However, in some places, ticks are active year-round. Additionally, as our climate warms, expect to see more active ticks during the winter. A 2019 report by the Environmental Protection Agency found that, as reported cases of Lyme disease have doubled since 1990, climate change has played a role in the deer tick’s range expanding such as into areas of Canada where previously not suitable for it.

Yet, are a cause for concern in dog owners, there are ways to make sure your dog remains healthy. I spoke with Dr. Lindsay Vega, DVM, of West Virginia’s Cheat Lake Animal Hospital about tick prevention in dogs.

Protecting Dogs From Ticks

There are plenty of ways to mitigate tick-related damage to your dog before you ever step into the field. Here’s a quick breakdown about each one.

Oral Medications

Dr. Vega’s favorite, and a popular choice among many dog owners, is oral flea and tick medication. It comes in the form of a chewable treat. These are usually given monthly, but to be effective, an owner must keep up with the treatment schedule.

“With an oral product, you know your dog has ingested it, and they often enjoy the chewable-treat form,” she said. “If used as recommended for the specific product, then they work extremely well and effectively to prevent tick-borne illnesses.”

Topicals: Tick Collars, Ointments, And Sprays

Dr. Vega also shared her thoughts on other methods of prevention. She supported the use of the Seresto brand collar and casting doubt on topical products, sprays, and over-the-counter collars.

“Topicals can cause skin irritation for some dogs and can get rubbed or washed off,” Dr. Vega said. “That’s why I think oral medication is better because it removes those outside factors that can decrease its efficacy. The Seresto collar is effective, and the advantage of this collar is that you don’t have to remember every month to give an oral medication or apply a topical treatment. The other advantage is it lasts eight months if used properly. A vital part of the Seresto collar working is that it’s tight to the dog’s skin.”

“I don’t recommend sprays and over-the-counter products or collars because they don’t work as well as the previously mentioned products. For example, sprays are going to keep ticks away from a specific area, but it doesn’t protect the dog.”

If you choose to use a spray repellent, Sawyer Permethrin is supposed to work for up to 35 days. While it’s not safe for human use, it bonds with a dog’s fur and skin and doesn’t hurt them. Still, as a common pyrethroid, it’s best to keep permethrin application to sprays only. Ingesting it poses a risk to dog’s health.

Because permethrin is dangerous to other animals like cats and fish, there are plenty of other environment- and wildlife-safe options. Some of these sprays are Wondercide’s lemongrass and essential oil spray and UltraCruz‘ equine natural fly and tick spray. While the latter is for horses, this kind of spray is common and is safe for the environment.

Inspecting A Dog For Ticks

For short-haired dogs with light coats, it’s relatively easy to spot ticks before they pose a threat. However, you still have to check your dog after every outing. Long-haired dogs or dogs with darker coats pose more difficulty catching ticks. That said, there are plenty of tools to help pet owners check their animals.

You always won’t catch all of them, but it’s still necessary to comb through your dog’s coat. Dr. Vega also suggests checking specific places. Ears (especially the small skin pocket on the lateral aspect of the ear), armpits, skin folds, gums, eyelid margins, and in between the toes are all common places for ticks to hide.

“You’re not going to prevent your dog from getting ticks on them,” Dr. Vega said. “You aren’t going to find and remove all the ticks that come onto your dog. You can use a flea and tick comb, but the thing that will be doing the heavy lifting in keeping ticks off your dog is the flea and tick medication.”

Removing Ticks From A Dog

Once you identify ticks on your dog, two scenarios demand different removal methods. 

First, if the tick is crawling around and isn’t attached to your dog, just use your fingers to remove it. If the tick is attached, you will need to be more careful—don’t separate the head from the body. There are tools designed to help with this such as special tweezers or tick keys that can be found at different online stores or marketplaces. However, Dr. Vega notes that it’s not necessarily required to have a tool. 

“You can easily use tweezers or your fingers to remove a tick that is attached,” she said. “Whatever you’re going to use to take the tick off, you want to get as close to the skin without pinching your dog and remove the tick in one motion without detaching the head.” 

So what happens if you attempt to remove the tick and the head remains stuck in the dog’s skin? Dr. Vega recommends leaving it alone because the dog’s body will likely take care of the head on its own. In other words, there’s no need for an owner to dig into the site. A residual tick head in the skin may increase the risk for a local infection, but it’s unlikely to transmit tick-borne illness. Still, if this occurs, it’s best to monitor the area for infection or inflammation which would necessitate a visit to the veterinarian.  

Finally, once a tick is removed, be sure to wash your hands thoroughly. 

An Overview Of Tick-Borne Diseases

Dr. Vega notes that she frequently diagnoses dogs with Lyme disease. Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease transmitted to pets and humans in the Mountain State.

“A lot of times these dogs come in sore, not wanting to walk, maybe having a shifting leg lameness, fever, or may not be eating,” Dr. Vega said. 

Furthermore, different ticks carry different diseases. If an owner suspects their dog has contracted one of the more common ones—Lyme, ehrlichiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, or anaplasmosis—a physical exam, including blood work, will help confirm or rule out these suspicions. 

As reported by Peconic Bay Animal Hospital in Riverhead, New York, and confirmed by Dr. Vega, here is some important information on these four bacterial diseases and how to treat them.

Lyme Disease

Lyme disease is a bacterial disease carried by deer ticks, and to contract it the host must be attached to a dog for roughly 48 hours. Once infected, a dog will show signs such as lethargy, fever, swollen lymph nodes and joints, and a lack of appetite. If untreated, an animal can develop serious issues such as kidney disease or heart and nervous system disorders, though Dr. Vega reports heart and nervous system disorders are uncommonly seen in dogs with Lyme. Dogs with kidney failure may show a variety of non-specific signs like poor appetite, diarrhea, vomiting, weight loss, and lethargy. 

Treatment for acute infections is simple: oral antibiotics. This is not the case, however, for kidney problems related to Lyme disease, which is largely why catching the disease early is so important. Additionally, vaccinations for Lyme disease are available. Consult your veterinarian to determine if it’s a good option for your pet based on its exposure risk and geographic location. 

Ehrlichiosis

Ehrlichiosis is commonly transmitted by brown dog and Lone Star ticks. Symptoms include lethargy, lack of appetite, fever, stiff joints, and bruising. Additionally, Anaplasmosis is transmitted through bites by western blacklegged and brown dog ticks. Signs of this bacterial infection are similar to ehrlichiosis, but also include vomiting and diarrhea and can develop within weeks of transmission. Anaplasmosis and ehrlichiosis are both treated with antibiotics. 

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

Finally, Rocky Mountain spotted fever is transmitted by the host-named Rocky Mountain tick and the American dog tick. The incubation period is 2-14 days and symptoms are similar to the other three infections. Fever is common initially, and disease varies from subclinical infections, skin issues, red and white blood cell and platelet issues, and eye and neurologic disorders. Clinically, this can look like lethargy, loss of appetite, pain and discomfort, or gastrointestinal signs. 

Peconic Bay Animal Hospital also notes other transmissible diseases and illnesses in their article, including tick paralysis, haemobartonellosis, tularemia, babesiosis or piroplasmosis, cytauxzoonosis, and American canine hepatozoonosis.

Dr. Vega notes that in some cases of dogs contracting tick-borne illnesses, their bodies may identify their red blood cells or platelets as foreign and begin to attack and destroy them. This leads to severe anemia or low platelets which can cause bruising on the skin or gums, or gastrointestinal ulceration and bleeding, which causes black stool. 

The Cost Of Treating Tick-Borne Illnesses In Dogs

So how much does treating your dog for tick-borne illnesses cost? For simplicity, I’m going to break it down into a three-stage list ranging in severity. 

Sickness Level	Basic Symptoms	Rough Cost of Care*	Types of Care
Mildly affected	Pain, fever, limping	$200-300	Initial exam, blood work, antibiotics
More significantly affected	Markedly painful, loss of appetite, may not be walking	$1,000-2,000	Exam, blood work, hospitalization for IV fluids and injectable medication, antibiotics (if dog is responding to hospitalization)
Severely affected	Kidney failure or other significant health issues	$2,000-3,000 (for short term care)	Short-term care includes an exam, blood work, hospitalization, and treatment for conditions like acute kidney failure. Those animals will require more frequent blood work rechecks. For long-term care, depending on how a dog responds to treatment, you could spend a significant amount more.

*Prices depend on individual hospitals, geographic location, type of practice (emergency vs. GP). These are generalizations and not meant to be a mold for every animal. Treatment decisions and plans depend on the individual animal and your veterinarian’s recommendations. 

A note about severely affected dogs: Typically, when a dog has kidney failure from Lyme disease, the long-term prognosis is very poor to grave. For dogs that aren’t immediately euthanized and go home to try treatment, various medications and a kidney-friendly diet may prolong and promote kidney function for as long as possible. In the end, despite even the most aggressive treatment, most animals are euthanized.