There are no legal restrictions on who can sell them, so they don’t need to be supplied by a veterinary practice. The lowest classification is AVM-GSL (Authorised Veterinary Medicine – General Sales List). Treatments for animals are placed in different categories and this determines who can supply the medication. The area around an infected tick bite on a human can have a bull’s-eye looking lesion. Signs in humans are similar but can be more severe and often start 1-2 weeks after a tick bite. The signs of the disease include fever, loss of appetite, lethargy, lameness and swelling of the joints. The bacterium is picked up by the tick when it feeds on the host, it then passes this on to the dog when it bites them. The Lyme disease bacteria are usually found in rodents and deer. But there have been reports of it in the UK and it is likely that it is now established here. The disease is usually found in dogs that have been abroad. Some forms of the disease can also affect humans. The main diseases that we are concerned about are Lyme disease and Babesiosis.īabesia is a parasite that can be carried by ticks, it infects red blood cells and can cause anaemia, lethargy and collapse. Not all ticks carry the bacteria but they can carry other diseases that can be passed on to humans as well as dogs. Ixodes ricinus is the main carrier for Borrelia burgdorferi which causes Lyme disease. In a recent study, nearly one in three dogs were found to be carrying ticks. The most common tick to be found on our pets is Ixodes ricinus, the sheep tick. After walking your dog in these areas, especially if there are a lot of deer or sheep in the area, you should check the skin carefully to ensure that they haven’t picked up a visitor! What are the different types of ticks?Īlthough there are over twenty different species of tick in Britain, not all of them will be found on our pets as they have adapted to live in different types of environments, feeding off particular animals. Therefore they are usually found in woodland, moorland or grassy areas. They have to live in a relatively humid environment to prevent drying out. Ticks are unable to fly or jump, instead, they crawl from plants onto their host. But sometimes an inflammatory or allergic reaction can be seen on the skin. Usually, the bite from a tick is harmless. At first, the tick is brown-black in colour but as they become engorged with blood, they turn a bluish colour, ending up about the size of a pea. After grabbing onto the skin, they then feed on the blood of the host, becoming larger and larger until they fall off. Ticks are small, spider-like blood-sucking insects that can attach to animals and humans.
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