Saturday 31 August 2013

South East Ontario has ticks- we watch the cats like stink!

Daisy has a black spot on her nostril (left), Dorah is larger
I've been vigilant. Every time a cat comes indoors we inspect it. I grab a small piece of tape and remove the little ones before they become attached. Easy peasy. With two white cats it is pretty simple to spot them. The white twins have just turned 1 year old. Peculiar that Buster (2), being black, either moves faster or they don't like him. Maybe he removes them. Sadie (8), the queen, doesn't go out quite so much. She gets ticked off with the twins.

By June 21st we had found and removed 76 ticks. By July 10th we were up to 80. Things slowed down in the summer. We were only finding one or two a week. Late August, they picked up again and we are up to about 85. We've been finding a few more every other day or so, one was on Daisy's cheek yesterday. I've stopped keeping track.

Tick Report August 30th
Dorah: 36; Daisy: 42; Buster: 4; Sadie: 1; Jenn: 1; and 1 was found ambling around the cat bed in the Muskoka room. Another one bites the dust!
I've only found 3 or 4 fleas, which are larger and easier to spot.

All cats have been treated with Revolution, as the problem is so bad this year. It's not cheap, but if you are a pet owner, you must take responsibility for your pets.
Advantage treats the cats for fleas, but the ticks were ubiquitous. With lots of rain, they've been happily reproducing and looking for a blood meal. Ticks need a blood meal to lay eggs, as do mosquitoes.

Manitoba's website (below) has excellent photos of the ticks in various states, and shows the difference between dog ticks, wood ticks, and black-legged ticks. Either way, get them off of your pet! Most of ours are likely wood ticks.

Identifying Blacklegged Ticks | Lyme Disease | Enviromental Health ...

www.gov.mb.ca › ... › Environmental Health › Lyme Disease
Blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) exist in three active stages: larva, nymph and adult. The life cycle of blacklegged ticks takes at least three years to complete.

We take many forest walks. The cats enjoy it. It is good exercise. Daisy is the tree climbing queen. She is so wee, that she can go high, and climb down.
Poor Daisy and the dock spider
Dorah had a good day in the dirt
Queen Sadie on her throne!
(Don't tell her it is a doggie bed!)
They are very clean cats.
Hot work, running in the heat.
But they love it!
Twerps on the table
Sadie in the forest
Down in the meadow

Camera-Critters #282

14 comments:

Janet said...

Those ticks can be really pesky. Try Pet Armour. It's cheaper and works well for our cats, and there are LOTS of ticks in our neck of the woods.

Anonymous said...

What cute cats!

Andrea said...

They are so beautiful. We have many cats too and there is a stage when they are really very funny. We normally give them away to interested adoptors, and we always feel sad when that time comes.

TexWisGirl said...

such playful beauties. the ticks sound dreadful, though!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful cat photos ~ love the ones hanging from the tree and yes owners need be responsible ~ carol, xo

eileeninmd said...

Lots of cute kitties pic's! Those ticks sound awful! Happy weekend to you!

VioletSky said...

Love the cats climbing the tree!
How awful about the ticks. I've not had to deal with that since my cat is indoors only (except for the balcony, but she seems safe enough)

Lina Gustina said...

They are so adorable!

http://www.1sthappyfamily.com/2013/08/a-cat.html

Billy Blue Eyes said...

I can relate to the tick thing. Last year we went to Scotland for a long weekend with our caravan. One afternoon we stopped off to go fro a walk round some woods, my wife said I bet there are deer ticks here. She was not wrong because when we got back to the caravan she found tree on the little dog. http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7086/7296897936_f2de2c35f9_c.jpg
Thats a photo of one of the little blighter's. When we go home to out house she found he had brought some more of them with him which were quickly dispatched. Glad we don't have that problem round here.

Yogi♪♪♪ said...

My goodness!!!

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari OM
Oh yes, in OZ we have dreaded paralysis tick - it only affects dogs, so was at Jade every night. Do you know in all her 14+ years, I only ever had to remove 5 ticks from her? She was like your Buster, apparently quite immune. I had three friends lose their pets to the nasty little bugs.

Jasper never seemed to gather ticks either, but because he liked dark and dank places, he was rather prone to fleas, protective drops regardless!!! So he had his 'massage' every night and never seemed to cotton on that metal tweezers were not part of the therapy!!! Happy Critters Day. YAM xx

Unknown said...

Beautiful cats. Ticks are a problem many places here too.

Anne (cornucopia) said...

Great looking cats!

Kay said...

Ticks? I remember finding one on my pregnant tummy LONG ago after going camping. We had the worst time getting it off.