Ticks and Their Hidden Dangers

By Dana Call, RVT, VTS (ECC), CHT-V

Ticks are arthropods that are more closely related to spiders and scorpions than other 8 legged bugs.  They have several life stages starting with an egg.  The egg hatches and the hatchling is called a nymph, you also may have heard them referred to as seed ticks.  They are very small and at this stage of life have only 6 legs.  As they grow, they will molt into several versions of the nymph stage taking a blood meal each time and will eventually become an adult with 8 legs.  Ticks reproduce on their host.  The male tick attaches just underneath the female tick. The female tick will engorge with blood from the host, release itself from the host to drop off into the environment to lay her fertilized eggs.  A female tick can lay thousands of eggs at once.   This lifecycle can repeat itself as soon as every 6 weeks.   There are two major types of ticks referred to as hard ticks and soft ticks.  Hard ticks are the most common ticks found on pets and people.  Soft ticks are typically found in the ear canal of animals. 

Ticks are everywhere, Oklahoma provides their favorite climate to hang out, find hosts (animals and people) and reproduce.  We have a thriving tick population with every type of tick represented (See below).  Ticks are parasites that attach themselves to a host and feed on their blood, which is of course disturbing and can become dangerous for pets and people.  They can adhere themselves to the host with a glue-like substance in their saliva.  Other components of their saliva, such as anti-inflammatory agents and numbing agents, aid in their ability to continuously feed on their host with very little detection. Heparin, a blood thinner with anti-clotting properties, allows the blood to continuously flow without clotting.   Ticks pierce the skin with their mouth parts and release their saliva to adhere and begin feeding.   Having a heavy tick burden can cause a pet to become anemic.  Anemia is a condition caused by a lack of red blood cells. Pets become weak and can die from the anemia caused by ticks. Although this is very concerning, that’s not all we have to worry about. 

     The following images and disease transmission information are from the

Tick Research Lab of Pennsylvania. 

www.ticklab.org 

click on images to enlarge

Ticks can carry and transmit diseases to animals and people.  Some of these diseases may sound familiar.  Different types of ticks carry different organisms that are passed to the host while the tick is attached and feeding, this is called transmission.  Transmission of organisms can occur in a few minutes, hours, or days of attachment to the host.  Some of the organisms are viruses and bacteria that are passed directly into the bloodstream. Some are protozoa that invade blood cells causing disease and destruction of the blood cells.  Rickettsial organisms behave like bacteria in the bloodstream and can disturb white blood cells.  A recently discovered disease transmitted to people by ticks results in a red meat allergy that can be very dangerous due to anaphylactic shock. The cause of these unsettling symptoms is sugar known as Alpha- Galactose.  This causes Alpha-Gal Syndrome or AGS.  This disease causes illness in the person when they eat meat, particularly red meat. Many sources including the CDC, believe this syndrome is highly underreported and undiagnosed.  People are equally susceptible to other tick-borne diseases like Lyme Disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Ehrlichia and tularemia. 

It is important to keep pets on parasite preventives for external parasites such as ticks and fleas that feed on the blood of their host year around.  People should use insect repellents with Deet in them as well.  If you find a tick on yourself, a loved one or your pet, try to identify it.  This will be extremely helpful should the person or pet become sick. To remove the tick, use tweezers and pull straight back on the tick.  Try not to crush it.  Ticks do not have a head per-se, the main component that people identify as a head is actually their mouth parts.  Don’t be concerned about leaving the head in the skin.  There will be a raised bump where the tick was attached and that is the result of the saliva components injected into the skin.  It is unsafe to use your bare fingers to remove ticks as the organisms that they carry can contaminate your skin and you  risk infecting yourself.  The tick can be taped to an index card with the date the tick was removed written on it or take a good clear photo of it.  This may prove to be extremely helpful. If symptoms do not materialize, great!  If symptoms begin, contact the person’s doctor or the veterinarian and let them know about the tick attachment on them recently and you have it available for identification.  There are some university labs that will test the ticks in question for possible pathogens they carry.   East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania has a tick research lab that ticks can be sent to for analysis.

Test Your Tick for Pathogens | PA Tick Research Lab (ticklab.org)