Tania's Page

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Tania... From the South coast of England, about 20 miles from the sea, I live with my husband Dizzy and my two children, Katie and Jason. I am currently a member of the South of England Bulldog Society, the London Bulldog Club, The Bulldog Club Inc. and the Bulldog Club of America. I strive to learn as much as I can about Bulldogs and their day to day care as well as the many problems one can encounter, but I also stand by the fact that you will never know it all and there is always something else to learn and to experience. I hope that through these pages we can share our experiences and help others to learn what we have sometimes had to learn the hard way.

FLEAS AND TICKS

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There are two main external parasite worries for your dog (or cat for that matter): Fleas and Ticks. There are a great many good preventative treatments that you can obtain from your vet to combat both of these parasites but why should we worry about them?

The advice offered below is general and based on regular, chemical based, preventative and treatment methods. However, I know that there are a great many alternative, tried and tested home remedies out there such as adding garlic to the dogs food, so if you have an alternative treatment that works for you please email them in to us, we’d love know how you combat these parasites and we’ll list them on this site.

FLEAS:

Fleas to most of us are little black bugs that live in our pet’s fur, they survive by feeding off the blood of the animal by attaching themselves and sucking through the skin. To check if your dog has fleas, gently run a comb backwards through the coat, you may see a flea running for cover or what appears to be dirt, which in fact could be flea droppings. Fleas, at the very least will cause your pet discomfort, at the very worst they can cause an allergic reaction, transmit tapeworms and if passed on to young puppies even kill by literally sucking their blood to the point of anemia.

The first sign you will see that your dog has fleas is the simple fact that they will be scratching themselves, it is not uncommon for this to lead to bald patches on your pet where an allergic reaction has taken place to the flea bite and the animal has basically scratched himself raw. Bulldogs in particular are prone to self mutilation; the scratching of an itch until the itch has been completely obliterated, so it is extra important that we do all we can to keep our dogs as flea free as is practically possible. There is no shame to having fleas, the fact that our homes are now centrally heated and in most cases wall to wall carpeted means that we have created the prefect breeding ground for fleas. A good flea treatment will do the trick as far as the animal is concerned, sprays and powders have been around for a great many years but there are also some pretty good neck spot treatments and even pills that can keep fleas at bay for a great many weeks and in some cases even months. See your vet to see which treatment he recommends for your dog.

Once you have the infestation on the animal under control you need to address the home itself, the life cycle of the flea can take as little as 2-3 weeks during the Summer months and can effect the human population of the house as well as the animal, in our house myself and my daughter are the preferred dish of the day. Prevention is better than cure so keep the dogs bedding clean and use a spray available from most pet stores or your vet to completely treat the entire home, especially carpets and soft furnishings, regularly use which ever flea treatment you have opted for and you will be able to keep these little bugs at bay permanently.

TICKS:

How dangerous a tick is, depends on the area you live, which I discovered after advising someone that ticks were harmless. Being the only British member of the Cyber-Bulldog Coalition Team, I was correct in so far as my own area, the South Coast of England was concerned. However, the tick can transmit a disease known as Lyme Disease and although my own vet informs me that he has never come across a case of Lyme Disease at his clinic, I have discovered that in some areas of the States, ticks can transmit this disease quite readily. However, Lyme Disease is recognized in the UK and we have what the lab I spoke to called "hot spots" (different from what are called hot spots in the States), namely The New Forest, Exmoor, Dartmoor and parts of East Anglia, although here too the cases that have been reported were few and far between.

At the very least a tick will look unsightly, cause discomfort and maybe cause an infection or abscess at the point of attachment, at the very worst they can transmit Lyme Disease and other tick-borne diseases including Spotted Fever disease in some parts of the US. Ticks live in grass and woodland and attach themselves to your dog as they walk past, ticks cannot fly or jump, they will find a nice spot and begin to feed by imbedding their head parts into the skin. They will suck the blood until they have grown to several times their normal size and once full they will drop off. With the Bulldog being such a cuddly breed it is usually quite early in this cycle that the tick will be discovered, if you do discover a tick DO NOT pull it off, you may not remove the whole tick and leaving the head parts behind can be dangerous and could cause infection, also never "pop" the tick as again this will leave the tick embedded in the skin and may lead to infection. If you don’t feel competent to remove the tick yourself your vet will be only too pleased to do it for you and if you live in an area where the tick can transmit diseases it is a good idea to get your vet to remove the tick so it can be sent for testing if required, especially as some tick-borne diseases can take many weeks to begin to show any form of symptoms.

If you feel competent and are sure that the tick is most probably harmless there are several ways you can remove it. Cover the tick in petroleum jelly, this suffocates him and causes him to die and drop off, another good method that our own Sheila Dunn uses is to use an eye dropper and drop a few drops of rubbing alcohol directly onto the tick, this will cause him to let go. My ex-husband used to use a lighted cigarette end to remove ticks he found on his working spaniels, he would place the end of the cigarette directly onto the tick causing it to let go. However, I would not personally recommend this method and prefer to use a "tick remover" which I purchased from my vet, these are basically flat pieces of metal with a slit cut into one end, by sliding this under the ticks body part and gently lifting and holding for several seconds the tick will let go (a similar maneuver can be performed using tweezers).

To safeguard yourself whilst walking through woodland wear light coloured clothes and ensure your legs are covered by either trousers or a good repellent. To safeguard your dog, groom and check him over thoroughly on a regular basis, especially after having walked through an area where you feel ticks could be, there are also now many combined flea and tick treatments available on the market that will both kill any ticks the dog may already have and prevent further ticks from surviving on your dog for a great many weeks, again your vet will be able to advise you as to which he recommends you use.

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The Lyme Disease Network	Lyme Disease Foundation	CDC; Lyme Disease
MEDLINEplus: Lyme Disease	Fighting Fleas and Ticks	Links On Lyme Disease


Stages of flea growth