If you have a dog, especially a dog with long hair then it is extremely important that you constantly check your dog’s skin for ticks and tick bites. Although ticks are only small creatures, they can actually cause a great deal of damage to your dog’s health, especially if they are left unattended for a long period of time. In order to be able to check thoroughly for tick bites on your dog, you will need to know exactly what to look for so that you can diagnose them quickly and effectively. Fortunately, even though there are a wide variety of different tick bites that your dog can receive, they will generally show the same symptoms on your pet. The affected area will swell up quite considerably where the tick has bitten or where the tick is still attached. So you should always run your hands carefully over the skin of your dog to seek out the swollen areas. Sometimes, if the bite has become infected you will see some redness around the swollen area too and it will also feel warm to the touch as most infections do. If the tick is still attached to your dog then you will need to remove the tick immediately to ensure that it does not cause any more damage to your dog’s health. This procedure should be carried out extremely carefully, you can simply use your hands to prise off the tick and you can try and burn off the tick. Burning can be dangerous though so try to remove the tick carefully with your hand. It is important to ensure that the siphon (the tick mouth) is removed as this is where the main infection comes from.
