We have been having some lovely sunny dog walking weather recently, but unfortunately with the mild wet winter we have had there has been an increase of nasty ticks.

Ticks are most common in areas where deer are present, which means Ashton Court and Leigh Woods in Bristol will be of high risk. More details here check your dog after walk

In the past we have tried various methods of removing the ticks from our dogs. The easiest way being is to use tick hook tweezers, you can buy these in pet stores or they usually come as part of a pet first aid kit which you can buy online.

An alternative method, if you can bare it, is to massage the tick in circular motions until it gets dizzy and lets go… yuk!

Another way is to drown it off, this did work on a dog which was not happy with us approaching it with the tick tweezers. This worked by holding a shower head over the tick for a while until it eventually dropped off.

Whichever method or tools you use make sure you get the whole of the tick out, as it can cause infection if left intact. Of course seek a vets advice if you are unable to remove the tick successfully from your dog.

Also ticks can cause harm to us humans, and we are also at risk of contracting lyme’s disease if a tick latches onto us!