Pet owners know: the pleasure of having a four-legged friend includes not only the joy of communicating with him. It is also an indispensable care for a pet, which, like a person, can easily get sick. Sores, infections and parasites that cats and dogs are able to catch are a great many. Including among them and ixodid ticks.
Ticks briefly
Before talking in detail about such a variety of ticks as ixodidae, it is necessary to at least briefly highlight who such ticks are in general. In Latin, the tick is called Acari, it is a representative of arachnids (and not insects, as is commonly thought). Ticks live everywhere where there is life. The main feature of ticks is the absence of eyes, which, however, does not prevent them from orientating themselves perfectly by smell: for example, they can smell their “victim” for ten meters. In length, they are small, usually less than a centimeter, but the largest individuals can reach three. Adult ticks have four pairs of legs; teenage ticks have only three. By themselves, they are not dangerous - unless, of course, they are infected. Ticks are active in the summer - from early May to late September.
Tick species
For us, ordinary inhabitants, all ticks are on one “face”, and meanwhile, in the world there are more than forty thousand species of them. Each of them is the causative agent of a particular infection, some of which are dangerous to humans, while others are not. Often, it is ignorance about the "functions" of the tick that causes a lot of problems. It is impossible to talk about all forty thousand species, but the most common ones are quite easy:
- Gamasid mites - their “victims” are birds, chickens, rodents. In chickens, a feather loss occurs after a bite.
- Water mites - as the name implies, live in water bodies. Their “food” is water insects and mollusks.
- Carapace - live on mushrooms, lichens, living plants. Nevertheless, they pose a danger to animals and birds, since they carry helminths.
- Spider mites - completely safe for animals and humans, but not for plants.
- Predatory or tick-cannibals feed on their “colleagues”.
- Dust mites - not dangerous for living creatures, feed on dust and exfoliated epidermis.
- Ears - live on dogs and cats, cause inflammation of the ears in four-legged pets.
- Scabies mites - cause scabies in both humans and animals. After a bite, severe itching and redness appear.
- Subcutaneous - live on the body of humans and animals, their "food" - dead skin cells. They cause itching and irritation, can live for several years.
- Barn - harmless to living things, pose a danger to the supply of flour or grain: they can mold and rot.
- Ixodid ticks are described in more detail below.
Who are they?
This species of tick lives in nature, usually in places with a temperate climate, but in general they are completely unpretentious to living conditions. You can “pick up” such a tick near trees and shrubs, in foliage and grass. Ixodid ticks are large enough (more than their counterparts) - when they drink blood, they are extended to two and a half centimeters. Their body is covered with a solid chitinous shell, and the head is very mobile; quite often, when a biting tick is pulled out, its head remains in the human or animal body.
Ixodid ticks with equal pleasure cling to both humans and animals, and they can drink blood for up to several weeks - unless, of course, they are not detected on time. Females of this species of ticks are incredibly prolific, laying several thousand eggs in one season. Ixodid ticks pose a great danger to humans and animals. They are carriers of a number of serious diseases.
The development of the ixodid tick
It develops in four stages. The first stage is the egg. The female tick usually hides its eggs in the foliage or burrows of rodents. Once larvae are born, they immediately try to “attach themselves” to any living organism - most often this role is assigned to rodents. Having plenty of their blood, the larva leaves a hospitable place and grows further, subsequently turning into a nymph. Nymphs feed on the blood of larger animals - for example, hares.
The next stage of development is the imago, that is, an adult. Here to feed a hare or a mouse you will not manage. An adult tick needs large “bait”: livestock, dogs, people. It is possible to undergo “treatment” with ixodid ticks (pictured above) as soon as sunny weather sets in and grass begins to show through.
Kinds
Ixodid ticks are divided into two types: namely, ixodid and argas. The latter, as a rule, are active at night. Their difference from the actual ixodid ticks is that they “settle” not in nature, not in leaves, but closer to future victims - in the crevices of houses, for example. Argas tick bites cause severe itching, irritation and redness of the skin in the affected area.
Danger
Once again, attention must be paid: not every ixodid tick is dangerous, but only one that is infected itself. Unfortunately, by external signs it is impossible to find out in any way, which is why it is so important to seek qualified medical help immediately after finding a tick.
Ixodid ticks are the causative agents of diseases such as tick-borne encephalitis, tick-borne paralysis, fevers of various types, typhoid, Lyme disease and many others. If treatment is not started on time, the outcome may be the saddest.
Noticing a tick bite is not so simple, because when this action is performed, tick saliva enters the wound. It is able to anesthetize and slow down blood clotting. That is why often a lot of time passes before you can find the cause of itching and pain. In addition, as a rule, they choose a place where ticks bite, where, firstly, delicate skin, and secondly, they will not be visible. These are ears, armpits, groin, neck and so on.
Dog tick
Quite often, pets attack dogs and cats from the attack of these parasites. As a rule, in dogs, ticks are most often located on the head, behind the ears, on the nose. It should be remembered that they do not immediately “fixate” in one place, but, so to speak, “travel” through the animal until they choose a point. An important point: it takes an hour or two from getting into the skin of the animal to infection, so if you examine your pet right during the walk, an unpleasant excess can be easily avoided by managing to eliminate the sucking impudent on time. If the parasite hit the dog’s body recently, removing it is not difficult. It is recommended to pull out the ixodid tick, which “saddled” the dog a longer time ago, with tweezers or petroleum jelly (having greased the lower part). After removing the tick from the body of the animal, it is necessary to carefully monitor its behavior for seven to ten days and, at the slightest sign of illness, contact a hospital.
Ticks can cause as dangerous diseases in four-legged friends as in humans. For example, one of the infections caused by ixodid ticks in dogs is pyroplasmosis. This disease is most common among pets.
Signs of pyroplasmosis, which are usually exposed in spring and autumn (this is a seasonal sore), are as follows: lethargy, lack of appetite, a sharp increase in temperature, rapid and difficult breathing, increased heart rate, yellow mucous membranes of the eyes and mouth, red or coffee-colored urine. If untreated, pyroplasmosis is fatal, which is why it is so important to start it on time. To accurately verify that the pet has this disease, it is necessary to take a blood and urine test, and with a favorable resolution of the situation and recovery of the dog - follow a special diet for complete recovery.
In cats
No less dangerous are the bites of ixodid ticks (pictured) for cats. Like dogs, cats are more likely to attack in the spring and fall. At the same time, one should not think that if a cat is domestic and does not walk on the street, then it cannot become infected. Unfortunately, this is not so - after all, we humans are able to bring the parasite into the house ourselves - for example, on our shoes.
If the cat is “walking,” then each time it returns home, it must be carefully examined. If the tick "attacked" the pet, it may not immediately dig into it, but for a while lurk in thick cat hair. Then the risk is great that the parasite will jump onto the owners of the cat. Most often, in cats, ixodid ticks cling to the ears, at the withers, in the groin.
After a bite, a cat may have various unpleasant and even dangerous diseases. Among them are babesiosis, borreliosis (Lyme disease), theileriosis and others. And if the first of the above diseases in Russia is a rather rare case, then the last two are very common. With Lyme disease, the animal develops pain in the heart, joints, kidneys and brain are affected, with theileriosis - the liver, spleen, lungs. Theileriosis is almost impossible to cure.
If previously an active, cheerful cat became lethargic, lazy, lethargic, refuses to eat, often breathes heavily, and in addition to everything, his temperature has risen - this is a reason to sound the alarm and immediately consult a doctor.
In other animals and humans
It is important to remember what other infections transmitted by ixodid ticks are dangerous for humans and animals. First of all, it is tularemia (damage to the lymph nodes, fever) - people suffer from it. Cows, sheep, goats are susceptible to such a disease as anaplasmosis - fever, inflammation of the internal organs. Horses can catch encephalomyelitis from a tick - inflammation of the brain and spinal cord.
Ixodid ticks: the fight against them
In order to prevent a parasite from attacking a dog or cat, it is better to take special measures: treat the animal with special anti-tick tools - they are sold in large quantities and in different forms. It is important only to carefully read the instructions before you start using any pesticides. In addition, antiparasitic collars are excellent remedies for ixodid ticks. They are also available at any pet store.
The fight against ixodid ticks also involves the adoption of measures to completely eliminate the parasite. For these purposes, the tick removed from the skin should not just be thrown away, but doused with boiling water or kerosene - this will destroy it.
Tick removal
Of course, the best thing is for the mite to be pulled out by a professional. However, it is not always possible to immediately go to the clinic, and procrastination in the literal sense of death is similar. That is why it is important to know how to properly remove the tick itself.
There are several ways. The first is manual. He is the most unreliable, since there is a great risk of tearing the parasite - and in this case his head will remain in the body of the victim. Pulling out the tick with your hands, you need to take it not by the lower part, but by the place where the head connects to the body. No need to jerk sharply - on the contrary, making rotational movements, as if unscrewing a screw, it is necessary to slowly, carefully get out the parasite. After that, you must make sure that the wound is clean and there is no head left in it, and then you can treat the affected area with any antiseptic.
Another way to remove the tick is with tweezers. It is necessary to get it in exactly the same way as during actions with hands. In addition, you can use the thread, but here you need a certain skill. The thread must be strong so as not to tear. She should capture the body of the ixodid tick, throwing a loop around it like a lasso, and gently unscrew it from the wound with the same rotational movements. This method will require more time - and, accordingly, patience.
You can also get a tick with vegetable oil, petroleum jelly or any other improvised oil-based product. It must be poured / spread on the lower part of the tick - it breathes precisely with it, so that its airways become blocked and it crawls out on its own. After removing the tick, it is best not to kill it, but take it to the clinic for analysis - in order to know for sure whether it was infected or not.
Interesting Facts
- Ticks are one of the oldest representatives of living things on Earth.
- After mating ixodid ticks, the male dies, but the female, laying eggs, dies too.
- Mating them, as a rule, occurs on the body of the victim.
- The section studying ticks is called acarology.
- Ticks most commonly carry encephalitis.
Thus, ixodid ticks in animals are no less dangerous than in humans. You must be extremely attentive both to yourself and to your pets, and then all the misfortunes will bypass you.