[net.pets] Rocky Mountain ticks

mlj@lanl-a.UUCP (07/19/84)

A few days ago I discovered two ticks (the Rocky Mountain type,
I think) sucking away on my terrier--one on her throat and one
under her right front leg (in the armpit).  Apparently these
ticks are found around cattle so we figured out where she got them,
on a hiking trip to the Rio Grande (in the rocky-mountain northern
NM), about a week earlier.

The first one, about the size of an M&M, we pulled out with
forceps.  It was very swollen with blood and had excreted
blood on my dog's hair.  Luckily there weren't any eggs
anywhere.  Then I talked to someone whose dog also had had ticks.
I was told to hold a match against the tick so he would get hot and
let go and back up, but my dog has long hair and is extremely 
flammable!  My dad tried a soddering (sp?) iron, but that just proceeded
to cook it.  We finally pulled it out with forceps, along with
a hunk of skin that it was hanging onto.  Both wounds were good
sized, about 1/2" and are now scabbed over, and a bit swollen.
It looked like we didn't leave the heads of the ticks behind
when we pulled them out; otherwise she would get infected.

Do these ticks harm dogs in any way, other than sucking out
their blood and perhaps inviting infection?  Do they carry
diseases?  I'm courious. . .  this is my first experience with these nasty
creatures.  Luckily my dog was very cooperative when we "operated"
on her!

                        Marie-Louise Jalbert
                        mlj@lanl

hutch@shark.UUCP (Stephen Hutchison) (07/20/84)

<tick tick tick tick tick tick tick - we have ways of making you tock!>

In response to query about suspicious ticks removed from dog after
a hiking trip in the mt's.

Yes, Rocky Mountain ticks, if indeed they WERE, carry a number of
horrid diseases.  Among them is Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, a
rather nasty disease.  If you still have the ticks, take them to your
vet for identification, and check yourselves for ticks as well!  Often
you don't know when you've got one!

You might want to quarantine the pooch if it DOES turn out to be the
kind of tick that carries RMSF since it is somewhat contagious.

Hutch (from the Rockies)