Care Guides

I used to come back from a walk and find a tick on my dog like a small grey raisin welded to his neck. The first few times I panicked and yanked, which left the head behind and a vet visit to fix my mistake. Now we have a routine, and the routine is boring, which is exactly why it works.

Ticks are not just gross. In long grass and woodland they carry Lyme, anaplasmosis, and a handful of other fevers that turn a healthy dog into a feverish, aching shadow over a week or two. The check is the cheapest insurance there is, and it takes less time than finding your keys.

We do it the second we are through the door. Lead off, hands on. Start at the head, because ticks love the thin skin around the ears and the corners of the eyes. Run your fingers against the fur so you feel the lumps, not just see them. Then down the neck, the chest, the armpits, the belly, the groin, and finally between the toes. Ticks hide in the warm, hidden places, and a dog who licks his paws will swallow one before you spot it.

A fine comb helps on longer coats. I keep one by the door and run it through after the hands. The comb catches the tiny nymphs, the size of a poppy seed, that fingers miss entirely. Miss those and you get the bigger problem two weeks later.

What to do when you find one

Twist it out with a proper tick tool, never fingers, never fire, never oil. The tool hooks under and lifts the whole thing, head included, in one slow turn. Drop it in alcohol, write the date on a bit of tape, and watch the dog for a week. A red ring or a limp means call the vet, not wait.

Prevention is the other half. The vet-prescribed chew or spot-on beats the supermarket version for a reason, and I learned that after a "natural" collar did nothing during a bad season. Talk to your vet about what fits your area and your dog, because the right product changes by region and by year.

Do the check even on treated dogs. Nothing is perfect, and the habit catches the odd hitchhiker before it bites. My dog now associates the door routine with a biscuit, which makes him stand still for it, and that stillness is the whole game.

It sounds like a chore until it is not. Two minutes, every walk, in grass or woods. The one time I skipped it, we found three on him that night, and I have not skipped since. Boring beats sorry every single time.

Long grass is not the only risk. Ticks wait on low branches, on logs, on the edge of a mown lawn where the wild meets the tidy. I found one on his chest after a walk on a paved path bordered by weeds, so now the check happens after every walk, paved or not. The habit is the point, not the terrain.

Learn the seasonal rhythm where you live. In some places ticks are a spring-and-autumn affair; in mild winters they never really stop. A neighbour who works in the local clinic told me their worst tick cases came in January one warm year, which nobody expected. Ask your vet what the local pattern looks like and adjust the vigilance, because the calendar lies.

Watch the dog for the signs no hands can catch. A tick bite can itch and the dog may scratch a spot raw; a fever from a tick fever shows as lethargy and a stiff walk days later. I check his gums when he seems off, because pale or yellow tells me to call, and I note the date of any tick I found so I can connect it to a later limp. The notebook on the fridge has saved a guess more than once.

The check is free, the prevention is cheap, and the diseases are not. I would rather spend two minutes with my hands on his coat every evening than a week with him on a drip. The routine feels like nothing now, a small ritual at the door with a biscuit as the reward. But the day it catches one early, and it will, you will be glad the boring thing became a habit.

Make it a family habit if there are kids, because children love the drama of finding a tick and will happily present you with one held between thumb and finger, which is exactly how not to handle it. Teach them to point, not touch, and to fetch the tweezers or the tick tool. My nephew now announces 'tick check' at the door like a little inspector, and the dog sits for it, because the routine is just part of the walk to him now, as normal as the lead.