A big black bucket of blue bug’s blood.
Dogs aren’t really that into tongue twisters, but humans seem to like them so thought I’d get you warmed up for the topic this week. Today I want to talk about things that really BUG dogs, so if you don’t like creepy crawly things, then you might want to skip on down the butterfly path. For the rest of you, let's talk about bugs!
Ticks are a big problem here in Minnesota, and of course Ellie and I get blamed for every tick the people find crawling in the house. (Um, hello. We’re not the only mammals that go hiking.)
The Deer Tick (Ixodes) has stages that are absolutely TINY so a person would never find them on a dog.
Mom protects us pretty well, maybe because she’s not a fan of the little blood-suckers, herself. There are two things she uses for us; one goes on our back and one is a treat. It varies from month to month and sometimes, in high tick season, she might even use both.
The stuff on our back works by spreading across the surface of our skin by ‘an osmotic gradient’, or at least that’s how I’ve heard her describe it. All I know is it doesn’t bother me, but my sister, Ellie, acts all weird for a day or two when she gets it put on. Mom thinks it probably feels a little tingly, and Ellie is super sensitive to all things that rock her world even the littlest bit. When the kids come over, they comment that we look ‘greasy’ for a few days but then Ellie stops itching and life is good again. Mom likes this one because it starts to affect ticks even before they start to feed on us, and also it isn’t absorbed into our system but just stays on the surface.
On other months she gives us the chewy treat instead. We like this tick treatment because it tastes yummy and the kids still lay their heads on us and tell us we are cute. Mom likes this one, too, and says it can kill more things like mites, but she does tell people to talk to her first if their dog has had seizures in the past. And, it doesn’t start to work until the flea or tick start to feed, but the little varmints usually do that within the first few minutes of getting on us. We feel fine when we take this one, but our friend, Izzy, said it made her feel sick for a day.
We don’t see as many fleas here in Minnesota as they do other places, and I’ve never had fleas but Mom says it’s because she is such an awesome mom to us and we are on protection monthly.
Whatever...
What else bugs us around here? The gnats can be horrible in the spring, and sometimes after I lay in the grass I come inside and the kids freak out when they look at my stomach.
“Mom! Look! Sophie has Lyme disease! There are big red circles all over her belly!!”
Gnat bites can be pretty impressive and I hear my mom talking to people about it all the time. Since dogs rarely get the ‘bull’s eye’ lesion that people get with Lyme disease, I hear her tell people that most of the time a dark red circle on the tummy of a dog, especially in the spring, is probably a gnat bite. I don’t mind them much; they're not itchy, so thus really 'gnat' that bad (sorry, couldn't resist).
There are also these things called mites (or mange) that live on dogs – the two most common types are sarcoptic mange and demodectic mange. I had one kind of them, and my mom had the other!
When I first came to live with the family, mom noticed a spot on my chin. She scraped it with a scalpel blade and looked under the microscope and told me I had demodectic mange (Mom says they look like cigars under the microscope). I guess it affects mostly young dogs or ones who are immune-suppressed, so of course mom then had to poke me and take my blood to be sure I was okay. I guess I looked good on paper, because she simply gave me the chewy flea/tick medication and my spot went away.
The other kind of mite is called a sarcoptic mite. This one isn’t as common as demodex, but it can make dogs really itchy, which is what happened to our neighbor dog, Fritz. Fritz is a cocker spaniel, and one summer he would not stop scratching so the neighbor lady would walk him down to our house.
Mom would sit on the front step, put Fritz on her lap, and do an examination, all the while Fritz
was squirming around and trying to lick her face or get down so he could play with Ellie and me. They did this exam a few times until finally Mom said Fritz had to come to the clinic so they could do a skin scrape, which is what she did to me when I had my demodex. The neighbor lady said she would call and set it up.
In the meantime, my mom got all these little bumps on her arms and legs. “Great, I must have gotten into poison ivy,” she said, and tried not to itch them. Then the neighbor lady called and told my mom that both she and her husband were itching like crazy, and their doctor had found sarcoptic mites on their exam. They had to rub a special cream all over their bodies to kill the mites.
“Hmm,” Mom said, and the next thing I knew she was scraping her own skin! Sarcoptic mites can be hard to find on a skin scrape, so mom called her doctor and the next day she was rubbing this stuff all over herself, too. Then Fritz got some special medicine, and after a few weeks everybody in the neighborhood stopped itching.
I think they decided the sarcoptic mites came from the fox that cuts through the neighbor’s yard every morning. It cuts through our yard, too, but Ellie and I never started itching so we escaped the whole "Fritz and the Fox Fiasco".
There are lots of other insects that can bug dogs. Black flies like to bite at the ears of dogs, especially if they spend a lot of time outdoors. Mosquitoes can spread heartworm disease so Mom gives us a chewy little pill once a month to help prevent it. In July, the deer flies land on Ellie’s and my head and torment us the entire time we walk or hang out in the yard.
And, it seems that every year mom riles up a family of yellow jackets – the mean little buggers who make their nest underground. Ellie and I have managed to steer clear of them, but Mom says she has treated dogs that have come to the clinic after getting into a nest.
The worst case, she said, was a little dachshund named Fred, who came to the clinic flat out in anaphylactic shock. She gave him some injections, carefully removed over thirty stingers from his mouth and ears, and in a few hours he had recovered enough to go home with his owners.
“So, if I ever say ‘RUN!’, you girls run!!” is her advice to us. “There’s a reason they came up with the saying ‘mad as a hornet’.”
Luckily, my mom has lots of things to help us take care of all the little pests that can make a dog’s life less than perfect. Your vet will help you, too. And remember, bugs can affect the humans we love, as well.
“Gross! Is that another tick on my leg? Those darn dogs keep bringing them in!”
Okay, first of all, I saw her out by the garden so she probably got it on her own. Second, in the cupboard there’s some topical tingly stuff, and I think she should try it. You never know - that robust osmotic gradient might also do her some good!
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