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Let's
Face It, Ticks Suck!
© Erika Matulich
I once rushed
Critter to the vet because I found a wrinkly brown growth on her
stomach. The vet tugged at the growth with forceps until the mass came
free; inspected it critically; and popped it in her mouth. I almost
passed out.
"Yup, it's a raisin!" she
announced.
Sometime later, I was stroking Critter and
felt another bump. I parted her fur, expecting another raisin, and
instead saw a tick. Eeeeew! Ticks are dangerous (not to mention
disgusting) parasites that should be removed immediately.
If your ferret takes outdoor walks or plays
with another outdoor animal, there's a real possibility she'll pick up
ticks. When I lived in Wisconsin I would take my fuzzballs walking in
the woods; after every outing I checked their coats for ticks (and
sometimes found the little suckers!). I also rescued a ferret who was
kept in an outdoor shed in Texas, and the poor fella was covered with
several kinds of ticks (there are about 800 different tick species).
Just what does a tick do? When a tick first
finds your ferret, it attaches with its mouthpieces and begins to suck
blood. When the tick gets "full," it regurgitates some blood
back into the ferret, which is how diseases are transmitted. The
regurgitation usually happens between five and 24 hours after the tick
attaches. The key to keeping your ferret healthy is early removal of
ticks (using proper methods to disallow regurgitation)—and prevention.
Don't rip the tick out, because the can head
break off and leave embedded mouth parts in your ferret. This can cause
skin infections and, worse, leaves your ferret susceptible to diseases.
There's all sorts of bad advice floating around on how to get a tick to
let go: matches, lit cigarettes, alcohol, urine, nail polish, gasoline,
nail-polish remover (acetone), and so on. All these methods frighten
ticks, causing them to regurgitate before letting go and spread any
disease they might be carrying. Furthermore, applying these
"cures" to a wriggling ferret is dangerous.
Ticks are oxygen breathers, and you can
suffocate them by dripping olive oil or globbing petroleum jelly on the
tick. As the tick struggles for air, it will start to release its grasp.
Using tweezers or a tick puller, slowly and steadily draw the tick away
from your ferret. Don't twist, and don't squeeze the body of the tick,
which could push diseased blood back into your ferret. Never use your
fingers unless you're wearing gloves, because ticks can give you
diseases, too. Ideally, let your vet remove and identify the tick,
determine potential diseases, and give your ferret appropriate medicine.
The best medicine, of course, is prevention.
While you should never use flea or tick dips, collars, or powders
(they're hazardous to ferrets), you can use repellent sprays (such as
Frontline and Adams) labeled safe for kittens. Farnam Flea Halt!
towelettes, which are the only flea product made especially for ferrets,
both repel and kill fleas.
If you'd like to use a monthly topical
tick-control product on your ferret, make sure it's Frontline TopSpot.
Advantage, Program, and Sentinel are not effective against ticks; Defend
and BioSpot are too toxic for ferrets. I use half of a cat dose of
Frontline on each of my ferrets every 45 days.
After any possible tick exposure, inspect
your ferret's skin, especially between the shoulder blades and behind
the ears. Look for bites, too (bull's-eye markings or red circles). Wash
your ferret with a kitten-suitable pyrethrin-based shampoo.
Don't let your ferrets get ticked off—or
worse—by ticks!
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