[scooterscout99]

Especially on humans! I've been dog walking in local natural areas to monitor bird migration. Finally had the first encounter with ticks yesterday (why do I forget about them until it's too late?). Found one in my hair, then inspected the dogs, and my standard had one in his ear. Both dogs are treated with Nexgard so eventually any attached ticks will die.

My question, which locations on dogs are most likely to hide ticks? As a child living in Florida, it seems that between the toes was a likely spot. The locations that I've found ticks on both dogs in the past was on their faces (my beagley girl's snout and the edge of my poodle's TK, partly why he's cut short all over now, along with the nuisance of weed seeds).

 

[Liz]

Mia's a tick magnet (oral preventives have worked significantly better than topical). Where I have found ticks on her:

• her legs, especially below her knees/elbows
• her ears
• her top knot
• sometimes tucked into her armpits
• only occasionally on her tail or her sides
• a very memorable experience of one near her eye that looked like eye gunk until it wiggled
• I don't know that I've ever found one on her chest/belly

Of course, they can end up anywhere, but 95% of the ticks I find on Mia are in the top three places.

 

[cowpony]

I almost always find ticks somewhere on the head or neck, most typically ears and topknot. I think it's an opportunistic thing for the tick: the dog provides an easy target by sticking his head into a patch of tall grass and snuffling around for a minute.

I suspect, also, that dogs might remove some ticks themselves by self grooming. A dog can't easily remove a tick from his own head.

 

[Asta's Mom]

No ticks found on Asta - they have been getting me instead. 1 tick earlier in the week, 2 ticks yesterday. Worst was the tick between my toes. Would love a human version of Bravecto -LOL Meantime, I am now closely looking all over my body when Asta and I come home after a jaunt in the fields and woods.

 

[Kuzco]

Gahh, this conversation makes me shudder. Kuz had one as a puppy last fall that my boyfriend was thankfully on hand to remove. I have a picture in my phone somewhere of a tick remover (sort of like tweezers) that I’m debating getting 😂

I did really well with his neuter incision and a bump (histiocytoma according to the vet) on his elbow, but I generally don’t do well with cuts, bleeding, or bloodsucking bugs

 

[cowpony]

Here are three of mine. The orange one, by Ticked Off, is my favorite. I just part the hair as best I can, rub the notch along the skin towards the tick, and pull up when I feel it catch. Very easy. I haven't used the silver one very much. The white scissors one is difficult to use. I end up pinching the tick in half or catching the dog's hair.

 

[scooterscout99]

Thanks all for sharing your experience. My gardening friend said that the prediction is for more insects in our area this summer due to a warmer than normal winter. I vacuumed the entire house, though ticks can hold onto cloth surfaces so that may not have helped. This morning I checked the car crates and found one tick in each, one in a fleece pad and another in a water bowl (w/water, and it managed to crawl out by midday when I started the car clean-out). I added a 5th tick to the collection this evening on my bedroom curtains. Really won't help me sleep well.

I use Nexguard, the last dose 2 weeks ago. Asta's Mom, I'm starting post-walk dog inspections of all of us. I'm going to try treating my socks, shoes and long pants with permethrin to at least avoid bringing any ticks home on me. It's the treatment used on insect-resistant clothes.

This may limit our field walks if it puts all of us at risk of disease. A friend contracted Alpha-gal syndrome, the meat allergy, from a tick bite.