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A mild winter has provided perfect breeding conditions for ticks, according to a Maitland veterinarian.
Louise Trist from Greencross Vets Maitland said the surgery had treated a number of dogs this season that had been affected by paralysis ticks.
“We see a lot of dogs coming in from Gresford, Vacy and Paterson, and of course the paralysis tick is always worse on the coast,” Dr Trist said.
“The trouble is, people from Maitland take their dogs on holidays to the coast or into the beaches in Newcastle and a couple of days later they show signs of having a tick.”
Dr Trist recommended checking dogs and cats each day for ticks.
“If you find a tick, remove it straight away,” she said. “Dab it with methylated spirits, leave it for 10 minutes, then twist it out.
“Some people still say that if you leave the head in the tick it can still keep injecting the venom, but that’s a bit of an old wives’ tale.
“The venom is in the tick’s saliva and so when the tick is dead, as it is when you dab it with methylated spirits or alcohol, it can’t hurt the dog anymore.”
There are generally four types of ticks found in the Maitland area: cattle ticks, brown ticks, bush ticks and paralysis ticks.
The venom from the paralysis tick is an anticoagulant – that is, it thins the blood so the tick can consume it.
It takes four days for a tick to engorge itself and then it will most likely drop off, but it only takes about two days for the dog to start showing symptoms.
“Symptoms can vary but usually start with nausea, followed by weakness in the hind legs,” Dr Trist said.