Cains vets have had enquiries from our clients and media about the severity of the tick season this year. there have been reports of a record tick season across Eastern Australia.
Fortunately for
Cairns Pets, we have actually had a fairly quiet tick season this year.
We normally see ticks at greatest numbers in the dry season (too much rain reduces the numbers of adult paralysis ticks) and this year has been too wet for record numbers.
Down south, they are emerging from a 10 year drought event so its the first time there has been enough warm and moist wet weather to trigger tick hatching and maturation on a regular basis.
This article on the ABC Rural news refers to the increase in
tick numbers. It manages to confuse things considerably by talking about
paralysis ticks, then describing symptoms of cattle tick infestation and control in cattle (anemia), and showing a picture of a cattle tick, (we rarely see cattle ticks in Cairns because there are no cattle around. On the tablelands cattle ticks are present.) Brown dog ticks look a bit like cattle ticks in this picture and are often mistaken for them by
Cairns pet owners.
Thursday, 25/11/2010
The Australian Veterinary Association says it's one of the worst tick seasons on record, and a significant increase in tick paralysis cases has been reported along the east coast of Australia.
Tick paralysis is caused by a toxin the ticks release into the bloodstream and can be fatal.
Queensland veterinary surgeon Dr Bruce Howlett says many farmers couldn't use the usual methods to control tick numbers throughout the year due to wet weather.
He says some animals he's seen are literally covered in ticks, and younger ones can even die of anaemia if left untreated.
"Because we didn't have any significant winter, there was no cold weather and very little frost, so there've been very stable temperature and humidity at ground level where the ticks breed," he said.
"We've carried through a pretty high tick burden and there are a lot of ticks around at the moment."
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