Watch out for ticks in France

I HAVE just got back in from a walk with the dog and picked three ticks off her coat, and will be keeping me eyes peeled for others from now on.

Ticks can pose real dangers to your pets, but also to people themselves, so as the days get warmer the chance of seeing some of these beasties increases.

Diseases such as leishmaniasis, babesiosis, ehrlichiosis and heartworm can prove fatal to your pets so precautions should be taken.

It is possible to buy Frontline spray-on and spot treatment that can be applied to cats and dogs, make sure your pet doesn’t try and shake it off once applied.

But also make a habit of looking over your pet for the distinctive tick, there is a larger black variety and a small red coloured one.

Learning how to stay clear of ticks yourself and safely unhook them from your skin is an important skill to have, because they can pass on Lyme disease, which can see people suffer flu-like symptoms for a long period of time.

The Lyme Disease Association works to raise awareness amongst doctors of the symptoms and offers advice and tips on the illness.

Another site worth exploring is tick-victims.info who offer these tips:

Wear light-coloured clothing that shows ticks easily and covers arms and legs. Wear long-sleeved shirts, tight at the wrists, long pants tight at the ankles and tucked into socks, and shoes covering the whole foot.

Apply diethyltoluamide (e.g., DEET) to skin and permethrin to clothing. But do not apply it to clothing while it is being worn, and allow the clothing to thoroughly dry before wearing.

Perform daily checks of skin for ticks. Check children two to three times a day. Check under waistbands, sock tops, under arms, and any other moist areas.

Remove ticks by using fine-tipped tweezers. Grasp the tick firmly and as closely to the skin as possible. Use a steady motion, pull the tick’s body away from the skin without rotation. If parts of the tick remain stuck in the skin, they should be removed as soon as possible.

Suffocating the tick with oil, cream etc. may induce injection of more infectious material into the body, so do not use petroleum jelly, burning matches or cigarette ends, nail polish or other products.