Read more about fleas and ticks and tick paralysis

Ticks

These are blood sucking parasites that live on the skin. There are two types of ticks found in Cairns.

PARALYSIS TICKS

(Ixodes Holcylus also called the scrub tick or shellback tick). This tick is mainly spread by bandicoots and other wildlife and can cause serious illness and death in all animals including man.

In North Queensland paralysisticks are most prevalent in the second half of the year from June to December are present all year.

Paralysis ticks differ from the common brown dog tick in that they are blue-grey in colour, are firmly attached to the dog and have their legs up the front of the body around the mouthparts. When removed they leave a distinctive tick crater: a 2mm hard, round volcano shaped lesion on the skin. These ticks crawl usually attach on the front half of the body, especially the face, head, neck and shoulders. After 3 to 5 days of feeding on blood symptoms of paralysis may develop. These ticks produce a very powerful toxin. One tick is powerful enough to kill a horse.

Symptoms of tick paralysis start with wobbly gait, voice change, vomiting and labored breathing. If not treated early with antiserum death frequently ensues from respiratory paralysis.
If you find a scrub tick It can be killed with an insecticide spray such as "Pea-Beau", a few drops of concentrated dog tick and flea rinse, or a drop of frontline applied directly to the tick. Once e the tick is dead it is easy to remove. Alternatively you can purchase a special tick remover to detach tick immediately.

BROWN DOG TICK

(Rhipicephalus sanguineus, incorrectly called grass ticks, cattle ticks, bottle ticks and bush ticks). This tick is found on dogs only and engorges to about the size of the nail on the little finger. It can be found in very large numbers all over the body. Only the female sucks blood. Often the male tick is found next to the engorged female and looks like a little spider. The main identifying features of this tick are its brown colour and the fact that the legs are down the side of the body (rather than clustered near the head in the paralysis tick). This ticks only loosely attach to the dog and are easily removed. There are often very large numbers of these ticks and they cause damage by sucking blood, skin irritation and their ugly appearance. They can carry infections which can make dogs sick. If left untreated these common brown dog ticks can multiply into plague proportions, infesting both the dogs and the house.

PREVENTIVE TICK CONTROL

Cairns Veterinary Clinic recommends the following tick control regime

Daily searching concentrating on the head neck and shoulders but doing the entire body.  Contrary to pupular opinion, paralysis ticks are rarely found inside ear canals, mouths or anuses!  They are found on haired areas of the skin, though they can (and often are) found on the edge of the mouth or ear.

Use a tick preventative during exposure to tick infested areas (see below)

No product provides 100% tick prevention.  You should search your tick daily whenever it is in tick infested areas and for 5 days afterward.

Dog Tick Prevention

‘ADVANTIX’, a new product recently introduced to the tick control market, combines the proven flea-killing action of ‘ADVANTAGE’ with tick control. Used as a “spot on” every 2 weeks it protects your dog from paralysis ticks. Used monthly it protects against ticks, fleas, mosquitoes and sand flies.

Cat Tick Prevention

Use ‘FRONTLINE SPRAY’ every 3 weeks. Cats don’t like being sprayed, so many people prefer to use the more convenient FRONTLINE TOPSPOT. Note this is not registered for fortnightly use against paralysis ticks, but many people find it helpful.