How to prevent and remove ticks from dogs and cats

Ticks are becoming more prevalent in the UK, which means our pets are more at risk of picking up one of these blood-sucking stowaways!

Ticks are parasites that are part of the spider family. Ticks live for up to 3 years and each of the three life-cycle stages has to find a host to feed on. Ticks search for hosts by crawling to the top of vegetation and attach to passing animals and people. They feed on the host by burying their head under the skin and drinking the blood. While feeding, they use barbed mouthpieces to remain attached for 3 to 14 days, depending on life cycle stage.

Ticks can be found all over the UK but are more prevalent in grassy and wooded areas in southern and northern England and the Scottish Highlands.

The newly hatched larvae, only 1mm in size, feed on small rodents or birds and then moult into 4-6mm nymphs. These nymphs, and the bigger adult ticks, feed on larger mammals such as sheep, deer, cats, hedgehogs, dogs and humans. Adult females can swell up to the size of a grape when they feed on their host’s blood. They then drop off the host back into the environment where they can lay up to 10,000 eggs!

One way to help prevent ticks on your pets is to avoid walking in long grass or vegetation that they might be living in, and to regularly check your pet and remove ticks before they can feed.

As well as trying to prevent ticks attaching, it’s best to use a veterinary-prescribed tick preventative for your pets. The tick treatment will kill any ticks on your pet within 48 hours of feeding. So they’ll be killed off before they can pass on any diseases they may be carrying.

It’s important to check your pets regularly for ticks throughout spring, summer, and autumn. If you’re in a high-risk area, you should check daily. They can attach anywhere on the host’s body but are more likely to be found on the thinner-haired areas such as the face, ears, armpits, and groin. They could also be between the toes or under the tail. If you do find a tick, you should remove it right away.

Ticks are often mistaken for skin tags and warts. So, if you’re not sure whether the lump you’ve found on your pet is a tick, get it double-checked by your vet. But if you’re confident that the grey mass you’ve found has legs, at that the end that is attached to your pet, use your tick remover to get rid of it!

Before they start feeding, they can look like tiny black or brown spiders. Once they’re attached and start feeding, they look like round grey or brown lumps and when you look closely, you should see their legs.

Ticks need to be carefully removed because if the mouthpieces are left behind, they can cause painful skin lesions. The safest way to remove a tick is to use a specially designed, inexpensive, tick removal tool. They’re usually plastic and look a bit like a 2-pronged fork, and can be used on people, cats, and dogs.

You can buy them in most pet stores and veterinary practices. It’ll be an essential part of your pet first aid kit. 

The two prongs of the tick remover are placed between the mouth and body of the tick. The tool is then gently twisted and pulled, removing the tick alive and intact. 

You then need to kill the tick. Squashing it inside a bit of tissue usually does the trick!

Removing a tick from a cat is the same process as with a dog. You’ll need a tick removal tool, slide the tool between the mouth and the body of the tick, so the tick’s body is between the prongs. Then twist the tool and gently pull the tick away. Once the tick’s removed, make sure to kill it.

Ticks are more than just parasitic blood-suckers, they can also spread disease between their hosts. The most well-known of these is Lyme disease which causes illness in dogs, horses, cats, and people.

Due to climate change and increased pet travel and importing, tick-borne diseases previously seen only in Europe are now also occurring in the UK. This is why tick prevention for our pets, and quick removal when they are found, is so important.

Ticks need to feed for at least 48 hours to pass on a disease picked up from a previous host. That's why it's important to use a tick prevention treatment as it'll kill them within 48 hours.