Ticks this summer!

A couple of days ago, Sirius had a case of ticks. I was petting Sirius and felt bumps on his head and neck. They were yellowish and the size of corn kernels. Now, I had never seen or encountered ticks in my life, so I did not know they were ticks. I thought that they were cysts. I called RR (who was still away) and after seeing pictures I had taken, he deduced that they might be ticks.

I called our vet's office early the next morning and found out that though our vet was not available, if the problem was ticks, then the vet technicians could take care of them. The vet technicians tried to find the ticks that I had seen, but the ticks had already dropped off by that time. However, they did find a tick in his ear, as well as a baby one on his body. Once they picked them off, I authorized the vet technicians to apply Frontline Plus. This is a monthly dose that would kill the existing ticks and eggs on his body, and prevent future ticks from coming on to him.

When I got back to the car, I saw one of the ticks that had fallen off of Sirius. It was fat, white and the size of a kidney bean. At first I thought it was dead. However, when I looked closely, it was crawling ever so slowly. I went back to the vet's office and they gave me a plastic bag to pick it up and they would dispose of it for me. I still do not know where the other tick dropped off - it could have dropped off when we were outside or inside our house?? It gives me the shivers thinking about it.

I am not sure where Sirius could have picked these up. We did go to Eagle Creek Park on Monday, so he might have picked them up there, or even just from our daily walks. He had never had these before. A colleague of mine said that ticks are prevalent in Indiana, and this year has been particularly bad. It has very warm lately, so maybe that's a good environment for both ticks and fleas.

Anyway, with Frontline Plus on him, Sirius is safe from fleas and ticks. I am still a little bit nervous about bringing him outside, but that's just me.

tick on head