Cats & Tics

[Dan_1981]

After some general advice.

Got two cats, one male one female.

Both of them enjoy being outside and we live in a house that backs onto a woodland, so they spend a lot of time chasing various wildlife.

They both have bi annual check ups and there inoculations plus an injection each time that is meant to prevent fleas.

One of the cats - the female has started getting tics - regularly - probably about one a month - the other cat has never had one.

Any ideas on why and how to prevent this happening?

Once we find them we remove with a pair of tweezers and make sure we've got it all and the bite area is clean and so far never had any further issues but its not a very nice problem!

Cheers

[Mobile Chicane]

I think the mild weather isn't killing off the ticks as you'd expect in winter.

Are there deer in said woodland? Where there are deer, there are ticks.

I change Bob's flea treatment to Frontline in summer, as this is effective against ticks whereas Advantage isn't. This doesn't seem to stop them latching on - but they do die and drop off.

[digger the goat]

Dab the ticks with nail varnish remover..
Takes a few days but the blighters die and fall off..

[poing]

I had to ask the vet about it because I've never known so many as this year and she said that it's been a bad year for them due to the weather. I use a little a tic remover tool thingy but you have to wait until they are big enough to grab them with it. It doesn't help that the cats are particularly fluffy so it can be hard to get to the tic, especially when they think the little tool is a toy that they should be playing with!

[Dan_1981]

Don't think there are deer in the woodland - its little too urban for them.

This year does however seem to have been worse than the last few.

I guess its just a case of keep checking and then carefully removing when they do turn up.

Still not sure why they favour one cat over the other though!