Tick Bites on Dogs - How You Can Protect Your Four-Legged Companion

As soon as the temperatures start to rise, the dreaded tick season begins. Ticks don’t follow a calendar; they just need a comfortable temperature of around 7°C to become active. If you live in a consistently warm area or are on holiday, then “tick season” can last all year round!

Ticks (Ixodidae) are arachnids and belong to the subclass of mites that feed parasitically on the blood and lymphatic fluid of their hosts. You can recognize them by their triangular, flattened body with eight long legs and a small mouth area. They range in color from dark brown to red-brown. Some species have a shield (hard-bodied ticks), while others do not have an exoskeleton (Argasidae).

If you closely examine a tick, you can clearly see its mouth, which have parts that are shaped like pincers at the end of its head. The actual piercing tool is hidden between these “pincers” and is used for feeding while also holding onto the victim. Thus, the term “tick bites” actually refers to the tick piercing through the skin.

Ticks go through several stages before they become fully grown. They lay eggs outside the host (e.g., on the dog bed), which hatch into larvae. These larvae develop into nymphs, which eventually become adult ticks. Ticks are active parasites during all three stages, biting dogs, humans, and other animals to continue their development. The larvae and nymphs are small and hard to spot, but adult ticks can be seen relatively well with the naked eye, provided your dog’s coat allows for easy viewing. Once the tick is full of blood, it will be easy to see, with its grey, bulging body. Fully fed female ticks can reach up to 3 cm in size.

Ticks prefer to live in locations like the edges of woods and forests, meadows, clearings, and parks. They sit on high grass stalks, low-hanging branches, and in bushes, reaching out with their forelegs equipped with special sensory organs to detect passing victims. They are alerted by odors (sweat), vibrations, and changes in CO2 levels (breath), allowing them to drop onto potential victims. Some tick species are active “hunters” and search for victims themselves.

Dogs are especially affected by ticks because they love to explore tick-prone areas. However, humans and other animals like cats, hedgehogs, birds, mice, rats, and sheep are also prey for ticks. Generally, ticks are specialized in specific hosts, and they have developed sophisticated anesthetics tailored to the immune systems of their specific hosts.

Once a tick lands on a dog, it searches for a suitable spot to bite, preferring thin-skinned areas that are well-supplied with blood, like the head, lumbar region, ears, and stomach. The fear of these bloodsuckers is justified because tick bites in dogs and humans transmit more pathogens than any other type of parasite, except for mosquitoes. Globally, there are around 900 species of ticks. In Europe, there are three main tick species: the wood tick, the alluvial forest tick, and the brown dog tick.

Ticks can harbor pathogens like bacteria, viruses, and other parasites, using the tick as an intermediate host. The tick may have contracted these cohabitants during a previous feeding from an infected host. While feeding, the tick releases undigested blood residues from its intestine into the dog’s wound, transmitting these pathogens and potentially leading to dangerous illnesses in the dog’s system.

A blood meal for an adult male tick takes a few days and is relatively small, as the male only needs the blood for its own sustenance while waiting for a female. However, adult females can suck at the bite site for several weeks, as they require more blood to produce eggs.

The risk of the dog being infected with pathogens begins after approximately three hours. The tick needs this time to disgorge the undigested remains of its blood meal, along with pathogens, into the host’s wound. The danger of infection increases with each hour the tick feeds on the dog’s blood. Therefore, it is crucial to remove the tick immediately upon spotting it on your dog! Learn more about this process here.

As ehrlichiosis has a silent stage it is not always recognised and tends to become a chronic illness. Babesiosis, from the species Babesia canis vogeli, runs a relatively mild course and is still rare in Central Europe, but is widespread as a cross infection with ehrlichiosis in the Mediterranean, France, North Africa and South America. See alluvial forest tick for information on babesiosis.

Anaplasmosis was counted as ehrlichiosis until recently. However, latest research has shown that the bacterial pathogens concerned with this disease are of the Anaplasma type. The symptoms are similar to ehrlichiosis.

At times the dogs do not show any visible symptoms apart from exhaustion. The Anaplasma bacteria attack special white blood cells – the granulocytes. The illness worsens through cross-infections with babesiosis and ehrlichiosis.

There are no vaccinations for all three illnesses, prophylaxis is done exclusively via tick repellents.

The main symptom is a kind of reddish rash around the puncture site but this is seldom noticed in the dog’s thick coat (or with dark skin pigmentation).

In severe cases, neurological damage may remain, or the disease may take a chronic course. In some cases it ends fatally for the dog.

A borreliosis vaccination does exist but it only covers a few of the possible Borrelia bacterial strains. It is not considered sufficient and requires an additional tick prophylaxis anyway.

If you notice these symptoms, take your dog to a vet immediately.