While animal health pros may discuss the same topic multiple times daily, individual animal owners may only hear about the risks from mosquitoes, fleas and ticks once or twice a year and ignore the topic in their online streams or feeds.
Dana Kneese, DVM, reminds us that animal owners need to know the types of ticks and what diseases they carry and understand the basics of how tickborne diseases pass from ticks to pets. Asserting the use of tweezers to remove a tick, she warns against crushing, burning, or using alcohol to remove one that has latched onto an animal, as these act as a catalyst for a disease to be transmitted.
Source: Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, July 11, 2024. Link.
Removing ticks with tweezers is less likely than other methods to trigger disease transmission.”
Also see: Guide to different tick species and the diseases they carry, Mayo Clinic, November 2023. Link. The images of unfed, human-biting ticks also show where they might be found in the U.S. and the diseases they’re known to carry.
Image credit: Mosquito Buzz HQ