Protecting your pet from ticks

It is not necessary to take every dog with an attached tick to the vet if they're on these products.

New products are very effective at protecting your dog from ticks. Picture: MOLLY AND ME PHOTOGRAPHY

Question - My dog is on tick and flea prevention but I still find dead ticks on her, some embedded and shrivelled up. Should I still take her to the vet or wait and see what happens?

Answer - Modern tick treatments like Bravecto, Nexgard and Simparica are not repellents.

These substances do not keep ticks off your dog, they kill ticks which bite your dog.

They are very effective and extremely safe products, which have contributed to a massive decline not only in the number of tick paralysis cases but also in virtually eliminating flea allergic dermatitis and mange in dogs.

Ticks require a period of time to inject venom into a dog, to cause paralysis.

Many products which are marketed as repellents fail to provide an adequate level of repulsion and ticks attach in any case.

It is not unusual to still find ticks on your dog if they are on one of the new products.

Most of these ticks will not attach.

Aggressive ticks which attach will quickly die. These ticks may be found attached but dead and will shrivel up and drop off.

I have yet to encounter a dog on one of these new products which actually shows signs of tick paralysis.

It is not necessary to take every dog with an attached tick to the vet.

Dogs which show symptoms need prompt attention - vomiting, paralysis of the back legs or any signs of breathing difficulties may indicate tick envenomation.

Once a dog starts showing suspicious signs, it needs prompt treatment.

The new products are actually cheaper than many of the older products and are way cheaper than the cost of a tick paralysis case which may snowball into many thousands of dollars.