Ticks are not just unpleasant parasites — they are a serious health threat to your dog. Here's our summary on ticks and how to protect your dog without unnecessary risk.
What are ticks and why are they dangerous?
Ticks are tiny parasites from the mite family that feed on the blood of their hosts — dogs, cats, and even humans. They are most commonly found in grass, forests, and bushes, especially in spring and summer.
What do they look like? Ticks are 1 to 5 mm in size, brown or black. After attaching to a dog's skin, they can grow up to 1 cm while feeding on blood.
Ticks can transmit serious diseases:
- Lyme disease (borreliosis) – causes joint pain, fever, and lethargy
- Anaplasmosis – reduces blood cell count, causes weakness and bleeding
- Ehrlichiosis – can cause anemia, weight loss, and neurological symptoms
Therefore, prevention is key.
How to protect your dog from ticks?
1. Regular checks – after walks, check your dog, especially around the neck, belly, behind and inside the ears, around the tail and anus, and between the paw pads.
Regular grooming is also extremely important as it allows for the entire dog's skin to be inspected and parasites to be detected and removed in time. It is not uncommon in practice to find ticks in the most unusual places, for example, inside the paw pads, under the lip, or deep under the armpits.
2. Spot-on treatments – applied topically to the skin, they act as repellents and kill parasites. In addition to being effective, they have a lower risk of side effects. Make sure that at least 3 days pass without wetting the skin and fur before applying the spot-on. Therefore, it is best to apply it either 3 days before a regular grooming appointment, or 3 days after the appointment. Also, consider the duration of the spot-on's effect (instructions are on the packaging).
3. Tick collars – long-lasting protection (up to 8 months), easy to use but must be in constant contact with the skin, which is difficult to achieve with long-haired dogs, so they are not the best protection for them. For short-haired dogs, they can be a good solution, just keep in mind when the collar needs to be replaced with a new one.
4. Natural sprays – regardless of the choice of basic protection, we recommend using protective sprays based on essential oils such as lemongrass, especially before spending a longer time outdoors. However, as much as we want to protect our pets by only using natural sprays, practice has shown that this is difficult to achieve, and many pets with natural protection still ended up with ticks or other types of parasites.
5. Protective tablets – tablets like Nexgard, Bravecto (fluralaner) are oral preparations given every 3 months. Although effective, they are associated with numerous possible side effects:
- Vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite
- Lethargy, tremors, ataxia (loss of coordination)
- Seizures, even in dogs without a previous history of epilepsy
- Death of the dog
The American FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has issued a warning about possible neurological side effects with isoxazoline preparations such as Bravecto, Nexgard, and Credelia. Additionally, a study published in BMC Veterinary Research describes a case of a dog that developed severe neurological symptoms 24 hours after taking Bravecto.
Conclusion: the best protection against ticks?
Ticks are a serious threat to dog health, but the good news is that we can effectively keep them under control with carefully selected protection methods — choosing those that are safe for our pet. Instead of systemic tablets with possible side effects, many owners rightly turn to local solutions such as spot-on treatments and collars.
We hope this blog was useful and interesting, and that you have already taken steps to protect your four-legged friend. Because a healthy and happy dog – that's what we all want!
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