Summer problems: the dog was bitten by a tick

Summer is a fertile time when you can go out with a dog to nature and spend a lot of time with it. However, the warm period of the year is fraught with some serious dangers to the health of your pet. These dangers lurk in the thick grass. Their name is ixodid mites.

Of course, this is not a reason to stay with the dog at home all summer and deprive her of walks in nature. Just need to remember about this danger and clearly know what to do if the dog was bitten by a tick. Why does it cause such danger from ticks, because there are many bloodsucking insects( fleas, for example)?We have heard a lot about tick-borne encephalitis and tick-borne borreliosis, but these diseases affect people, for dogs they are not terrible. Ticks bring dogs other troubles - they are carriers of a terrible infectious disease - pyroplasmosis( babesiosis).

First of all, you need to prevent the dog from the tick bite proactively. To do this, in the warm season( as the periods of the most active mites - this is the end of spring and the beginning of autumn), the dog's fur should be regularly treated with a special acaricidal drug that repels mites. Unfortunately, no other preventive measures have been invented by mankind - there is no serum or vaccine. Acaricidal drugs also do not give a 100% guarantee against infection with pyroplasmosis. These drugs work well on fleas, mites and other parasites, but ticks have greater survivability. Vets advise to apply acaricidal drug in the form of drops on the withers of the animal every 3-4 weeks, and before each walk spray the dog with acaricidal spray. It is important that both the drops and the spray contain the same active substance, because different substances, having entered into interaction with each other, can become toxic and cause poisoning or an allergic reaction. It is necessary to consult a veterinarian about the choice of this or that acaricide.

After a walk you need to carefully examine your pet. If the dog is bitten by a tick, this will immediately become clear when the animal's body is felt, as it sucks in the skin. Especially insects like those areas of the body where it is easy to get to the blood vessels: the head, the area behind the ears, the stomach, the elbow fold. Suppose you found that the dog was bitten by a tick. What to do?

First of all, you need to remove it from the body of the dog. To do this, the vegetable oil is dripped onto the mite, then with tweezers grab it from the body closer to the head and begin to unscrew it in different directions, just as the cork is taken out of the bottle. It is important not to crush the mite and not pull out one torso, leaving the head in the skin of the dog, since then a suppuration and, in some cases, an abscess, form at the bite site. But even if you safely removed the tick, you need to treat the antiseptic place of the bite. If, nevertheless, the insect's head is torn off and further in the body of the animal, it is necessary to show the dog to the vet and inform him that the dog was bitten by a tick.

After the pest has been safely removed, one should observe the state of health of the pet for several days. If, some time after the dog has been bitten by a tick, you observe loss of appetite, fever, lethargy, weakening of the hind paws, diarrhea and vomiting, you should go to the veterinarian without any delay, and, perhaps, call it onhouse.

But do not put a terrible diagnosis yourself. If the dog is bitten by a tick, this does not mean that it has picked up pyroplasmosis. Only about 10% of ticks are carriers of the disease. But you should not neglect it either. It is important to conduct a laboratory blood test on the first day, as you will notice that something is wrong with your pet. For analysis on pyroplasmosis, the blood in the dog is taken from the ear, since a large number of pyroplasm accumulates in the peripheral vessels. The diagnosis of "pyroplasmosis" is established only in the case of laboratory diagnosis of the blood test. Any other examination, even in the presence of classical symptoms( high temperature, darkening of the urine and ekterichnost) does not give full confirmation of the disease.

Treatment of pyroplasmosis is the more effective the earlier treatment is started. The triggered illness often ends for the dog fatal.