Infected Tic bites

To any and all dog/cat owners bringing their pets on holiday with them to mainland Europe please read this and inwardly digest what I have to say.

No and I mean NO tic treatment will stop a tic biting your pet and a very limited few of those can be infected.

Treatments administered prior to your trip should cause the tic to become drowsy and they will eventually kill them, but if they can reach the flesh prior to the treatments taking effect, they will attach themselves.

Only last week we had someone arrive here with a beautiful black lab, they came to us from a location further North.  Before coming here the owner had noticed his dog getting drowsy and took it to a vet, it was a trainee vet and all they did was check the dog over....... nothing else.  The morning after their arrival I saw them leaving the site early in the morning, they looked ashen, the reasone being that there dog was in a sorry state and had gone off his food, they were on the way to buy him some of his favourite chicken!  At my insistence they immediately took him to our local (superb) vet who immediately gave the dog 3 large injections as well as undertaking a thorough internal examination, including the bladder.

Luckily the dog recovered, but it was a cliff edge balance between life and death.

The owner had thought he was 100% covered because it had been treated with Frontline immediately before leaving the UK.

Most especially in April/May and September/October and shortly after it has rained, tics are likely to be about so please, please, please be vigilant at all times and thoroughly check their coats after each and every walk.  If you find a tic and it is attached, use one of the special removal tools that you can get from all good pet shops and vets and use it to carefully remove them.

If you see your pet going even slightly off colour then take it to the vet.

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