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The Very Best Tick Treatments For Dogs

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If you've ever had to remove a fully engorged tick from the folds of skin behind your dog's ear, you know that keeping the tiny pests at bay is a battle, even in the best of times. Tick season used to be a spring and summer thing; depending on where you live, you'd typically get a break come late fall, with cold weather killing off a lot of them. But now it can be tick season year-round, thanks to warmer winters and growing populations of the deer, mice, and other creatures that ticks love to bury their Lyme-disease-carrying heads in. If unprotected, dogs can contract lots of nasty illnesses from ticks, including Lyme disease, canine ehrlichiosis, canine anaplasmosis, canine babesiosis, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. And just because a tick starts off on your dog doesn't mean it won't end up catching a ride into your living room and burrowing its way into your thigh while you watch Love Is Blind on the couch. I have learned the hard way that keeping ticks off your dog is an important step in keeping ticks off you and your family, too.

Because ticks can be tiny and easy to miss — deer ticks that carry Lyme disease are often as small as poppy seeds — regular tick checks are essential, especially if you take your dog hiking, play with them in areas with a lot of tall grass, or live in the prime tick country of the Northeast. Veterinarian Dr. Jennifer Coates, who serves on the advisory board for Pup Life Today, says the best way to check for ticks is to "run your hands through your dog's fur against the direction it normally lays. This allows you to see down to the skin, even on very furry dogs." Dr. Leslie Brooks, a vet advisor for Better Pet, recommends paying close attention to your dog's face, ears, belly, groin, and feet. If you find any ticks, remove them right away with fine-point tweezers or a tick key. After a tick bite, if your dog displays any warning symptoms — which include joint pain, limping or lameness, swollen lymph nodes, fever, lethargy, or decreased appetite — Potzler says to speak to your vet as soon as possible, as tick-borne illnesses can be fatal.

Still, performing regular tick checks on your dog won't prevent all bites, which is why veterinarians recommend that dog owners, no matter where they live, consider a preventative treatment (since ticks can also be found in city parks). To help you find the most effective tick prevention for your dog, we asked veterinarians, plus our own writers and editors, to recommend the products they like best. Their favorites take different forms — from chews to topical treatments and wearable collars — and because some require a prescription from your vet, you may notice fewer (but all expert-approved) options on this list.

Tick-prevention medications come in three main categories: oral chews, topical treatments you apply to the skin, and collars embedded with medication to repel ticks. Most topical treatments and tick collars use insecticides that repel ticks so they jump off your dog's body before biting them. Oral medications absorb into a dog's bloodstream and then into the tissue fluids just under their skin; when a tick bites the dog, the medication in their body is transferred to the tick, which then dies before it has a chance to infect your dog with Lyme or any other illnesses it might be carrying. Because oral medications kill the ticks instead of just repelling them, they also help prevent future infestations where topical treatments and collars usually don't.

Whichever method of prevention you prefer, all our experts agree that you should stick to newer classes of repellents and medications, since ticks have become resistant to certain chemicals over time. For example, according to Dr. Jamie Richardson of New York City's Small Door Veterinary, "Frontline has been around for 25 years now, and it's not as effective as it was when it first hit the market. It definitely works for some, but not for all." Below, we've listed the active ingredients in each recommendation; as always, it's best to consult your veterinarian before starting a new treatment.

Tick-prevention medications are designed to be poisonous to insects but not harmful to mammals (like you, me, and our dogs). But because oral treatments are prescription medications and all tick treatments have potential side effects, even the ones sold over the counter, finding the best one for your dog should always start with a conversation with your vet, especially if you have a puppy, a toy breed dog, or a dog with preexisting health conditions. For instance, some oral tick preventatives, including the ones mentioned below, are not recommended for dogs with a history of uncontrolled seizures. But Richardson, whose own dog takes one of the treatments on our list (Nexgard), told us that the risk of seizures from taking tick prevention medication is rare and that the benefits far outweigh this risk. "In my [career] as a vet, I have treated probably thousands of dogs with severe and sometimes life-threatening tick-borne diseases, but I have never treated any dogs with the side effects known to these medications," she explains. Another benefit of oral tick treatments is they don't pose a danger to other pets or children in the home, which isn't necessarily the case with topical treatments, and your dog won't have to wait several days to swim or bathe after taking them.

That said, Richardson does recommend topical treatments for dogs with gastrointestinal issues. "If, when they eat anything out of the ordinary, they have a tendency to vomit, then the oral probably isn't the best product for them," she says. There are dozens of topical tick repellents on the market, many of which are sold over the counter. Still, while you may find some for less money or see an all-natural spray that sounds safe to use at the pet store, you should always discuss the ingredients with your vet. As Richardson explains, "some over-the-counter products have been associated with pretty nasty side effects." And when it comes to natural alternatives to flea and tick prevention, both Richardson and Dr. Tory Waxman, a veterinarian and the co-founder of dog-food brand Sundays, are wary: "A lot of people use tea-tree oil, but it actually can be pretty poisonous to dogs," says Waxman, noting that essential oils and other over-the-counter treatments are not as well regulated as prescription products.

Since dogs come in a wide variety of sizes from teacup to giant breed, dog medications come in a variety of weight-based dosages. In general, this makes buying the safest and most effective medication possible for all dog owners. And since my own dog, Uli, weighs just five pounds — a size that is vulnerable to potential overdose — I put more trust in brands that offer clearly labeled options for many different sizes of dogs.

Depending on where you live (the Northeast versus Alaska, for instance) and how active your dog is, it might make more sense to give them one dose of medication that lasts several months instead of having to remember to give them their medication every month. But for dogs who spend limited time in tick-infested areas, individual monthly doses could be convenient.

The cost of each tick treatment varies depending on the brand and the length of protection provided. But whether you're planning to buy a few doses or enough to last an entire year, it's helpful to know the starting price of a single unit. We've listed the approximate cost of each treatment per month based on the retail price.

Type: Prescription medication, oral and topical formActive ingredients: FluralanerDose range: Five dosagesDuration: Three monthsApproximate cost per month: Starts at $24

Bravecto was mentioned by all of the vets we talked to, with Waxman telling us her own dog takes the chewable oral treatment. It is also what I give Uli, whose gray fur makes finding ticks very difficult. According to the vets, its main appeal over other oral treatments is that it protects dogs from ticks and fleas for three months at a time, as opposed to one month at a time. The chewable tablets are meat-flavored, so you won't have to hide any pills in peanut butter or cheese, and they are available in different sizes for dogs from (roughly) four to 123 pounds. To say Uli is a fan of Bravecto would be a lie, but she does happily eat the chew and it has kept her safe from fleas and ticks for many years. Dr. Alejandro Caos, a veterinarian at the Vets, also gives Bravecto to his rescue Sharky and likes that it starts killing embedded ticks in as little as 12 hours and fleas in as little as two hours, which is ideal if you don't follow a year-round dosing schedule. He also says his dog never experiences any adverse side effects, like diarrhea or vomiting. Like Caos, Fable Pets co-founder Jeremy Canade gives Bravecto to his border collie Ranger and says he appreciates that the pup is always prepared for an impromptu hike or a trip to the park. Plus, Ranger likes the chews so much that he sometimes "picks them out of his food and brings them over to the couch to enjoy as a special treat," Canade says. Most clinics will carry Bravecto, but you can order it online with a prescription from a veterinarian.

Sakura Davis, a veterinary technician and consultant who gives her dog Bravecto's oral treatment, is also a fan of the brand's topical solution. It uses the same active ingredient that is found in chewable tablets, which means the topical will also protect your dog for three months at a time.

Type: Prescription medication, oral treatment onlyActive ingredients: AfoxolanerDose range: Four dosagesDuration: One month per chewApproximate cost per month: Starts at $25

Nexgard was also recommended by all the vets we spoke to, including Davis, who prefers it over other oral preventatives and calls it "the most effective prescription medication for ticks." When we polled Strategist dog owners, Nexgard was the top choice among four staffers. After trying a tick collar on her rescue Harmony, Strategist editor Maxine Builder switched to this oral option — which she calls a mess- and hassle-less treatment — and says it keeps her dog tick-free on summer trips to Maine (a state where the tick-borne illness called babesiosis is considered an endemic in 2023, according to the CDC). Strategist writer Arielle Avila, who gets prescriptions delivered through Chewy, says her hound mix has been taking it for at least five years with no side effects; meanwhile, Strategist writer Latifah Miles says a veterinarian exclusively recommended Nexgard for her under-1-year-old Lab. Strategist junior writer Brenley Goertzen also gives Nexgard to both her Great Dane and Aussie mix and likes that the medication is straightforward to administer because it can be given with food or on its own. Each month, the dogs take a dose determined by their weight, and because the chews are beef-flavored, Avila, Miles, and Goertzen all say their pups gobble them down like they're treats.

Nexgard claims to kill or control black-legged ticks, American dog ticks, lone-star ticks, and brown dog ticks, which together account for the majority of ticks that dogs in the U.S. Will encounter. Each dose lasts for one month (as opposed to Bravecto's three), which could be useful for mostly indoor dogs and their owners planning to spend a limited amount of time vacationing or adventuring in the great outdoors. Avila says the monthly method is easy to remember, but both she and Miles set reminders on their phones to ensure their pets never miss a dose.

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Type: Prescription medication, oral treatment onlyActive ingredients: Sarolaner, moxidectin, pyrantelDose range: Six dosagesDuration: One month per chewApproximate cost per month: Start at $27

Simparica Trio works against the same ticks and fleas as Nexgard and also protects your dog from heartworms, hookworms, and roundworms. Three experts recommend it: Waxman, Brooks, and Dr. Gabrielle Fadl, a medical director at Bond Vet, who says it's the tick treatment carried at the company's New York City clinics. Like Nexgard, Simparica needs to be given to your dog every month, which Fadl says can be easier for some dog owners to remember. She also says she prefers monthly prescriptions to those with a quarterly dose duration because, in her experience, the efficacy of the latter can diminish before the 90-day mark. "If you're in an area where the bugs are at large, your dog might do better with a monthly product," she says. It's available for dogs from 2.8 pounds all the way up to 132 pounds.

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Type: Over-the-counter, topicalActive ingredients: Imidacloprid, permethrin, and pyriproxyfenDose range: Four dosagesDuration: One month per tubeApproximate cost per month: Starts at $13

Unlike other topical treatments, K9 Advantix can actually kill insects on contact. Waxman recommends it because it repels ticks and fleas, along with mosquitos, biting flies, and lice. It uses a different class of drug than Bravecto and other oral tick prevention medications, so it's a good choice for dogs with a history of uncontrolled seizures. It is available for dogs who weigh as little as four pounds, and each application is effective for one month. Richardson and Caos also say non-ingested treatments like this are an excellent option for dogs with food allergies, but Caos warns that the active ingredients can be harmful to cats. For example, in multi-pet households, a cat may rub against a treated dog, which can cause severe reactions and is sometimes fatal, Caos says.

Type: Over-the-counter, topicalActive ingredients: Fipronil and (S)-methopreneDose range: Four dosagesDuration: One month per tubeApproximate cost per month: Starts at $13

This topical treatment is slightly more affordable than the option above but differs from K9 Advantix in that it's not considered a repellent, says Dr. Paola Cuevas, a veterinary consultant at Hepper and Pet Keen. PetArmor works to kill ticks, fleas, and lice within 48 hours of application, reducing the likelihood of blood-borne disease transmission. For this reason, Cuevas recommends using it in conjunction with a repellent spray before going outdoors or bathing your pup in a flea-and-tick shampoo afterward.

Cuevas says the active ingredients are also considered safe for dogs with the MDR1 genetic mutation, a condition that can cause serious reactions to some common drugs and affects approximately three of every four border collies. Other herding breeds, including Australian shepherds, German shepherds, old English sheepdogs, long-haired whippets, and some mixed breeds, may also carry the genetic variant. That's why it's best to consult your veterinarian before starting any type of treatment or if you otherwise suspect the possibility of drug sensitivity. PetArmor is available for dogs who weigh five pounds up to 132 pounds.

Type: Over-the-counter, topical treatment contained within a collarActive ingredients: Lumethrin and imidaclopridDose range: Two dosagesDuration: Eight months per collarApproximate cost per month: Starts at $9

Much like topical treatments, tick collars contain chemicals that coat a dog's skin to repel — and in this case kill — ticks on contact. Similar to the way topicals are applied to the skin, collars like this one release chemicals onto the dog's skin as soon as you put them on. Over time, as the chemicals wear off, the Seresto collar will release more for continued protection. For some pet owners, especially those who live in particularly dense tick areas, our experts recommend adding a tick collar in addition to oral prevention as part of your dog's treatment. "In highly endemic areas, sometimes we need to double up on protection," explains Dr. Stephanie Liff of Pure Paws Veterinary Care, who recommends the Seresto collar. Davis likes Seresto because it's a cost-effective over-the-counter option that kills fleas and ticks for up to eight months, which, as Coates points out, makes it a great option for owners who have trouble remembering to give their dog monthly treatments. Plus, it's water-resistant and comes in two sizes. Waxman calls the Seresto collar "awesome" and says that it's nothing like old tick collars, which were "greasy and disgusting."

Goertzen purchased this ultrasonic device after noticing it in several pet stores. Although she already gives monthly doses of Nexgard to her Aussie mix, Goertzen says she wanted an added layer of chemical-free protection (rather than using a tick collar). Tickless attaches to her dog's collar and works by emitting a series of ultrasound impulses that are harmless and imperceptible to people and animals, but disturb ticks and can repel them for up to 12 months. While Caos says he can't comment on the product's efficacy, he sees no problem with using it as a preventive solution (in addition to one of the oral prescriptions above). Goertzen says the nontoxic repeller has provided extra peace of mind when taking her dog to highly wooded areas like northern Minnesota and Manitoba.

If you still find a tick latched onto your dog after taking all the recommended precautions above, our experts say you should not try to pry it off with your fingers. Veterinarian Dr. Rachel Barrack, the founder of New York City's Animal Acupuncture clinic, says to instead "use fine-point tweezers" like these — not flat-edged ones — "to avoid tearing the tick and spreading possible infections to the area." In more revolting terms, Dr. Thomas N. Mather, director of the University of Rhode Island's Center for Vector-Borne Disease and its TickEncounter Resource Center, says you can "think of the tick as a bag of germs that happens to be connected to your skin with a straw." He cautions that if you squeeze the bug's body with an imprecise tweezer, all those germs will be released through the "straw" and into your skin. Pointed tweezers will get you as close as possible to the head of the tick, right next to the skin, without accidentally squeezing the bug.

While pointy-tipped tweezers are the best way to remove ticks of all sizes, Dr. Nadine Cohen of CareMount Medical notes that sometimes you might not have access to a pair. That's why she suggests keeping a tick key on your keychain, so you'll always have a tool designed for the job at the ready. As she explains, it "works by sliding underneath the body of the tick, close to the skin, with the goal of removing the entire tick easily and safely." Conveniently, it works on both people and dogs.

I have successfully used a tick key on my own body more than once. I've also used one to pull a tick off of a former boss's back in a Condé Nast bathroom. And while I enjoy the outdoorsy cred that carrying one affords me, using it on my squirmy curly-haired toy poodle has never worked out well. I much prefer this tiny crowbar-shaped tool called the Tick Tornado. It makes pulling out a tick much quicker, allowing me to get in and get out without her feeling the approach of the tool against her skin. It has never failed, even at the height of tick season in coastal Connecticut, just nine and a half miles from Lyme — the town where the eponymous disease was first discovered. Like an actual crowbar, it uses leverage to gently but firmly remove ticks without squishing them.

• Arielle Avila, Strategist writer• Dr. Leslie Brooks, a vet advisor for Better Pet• Maxine Builder, Strategist editor• Jeremy Canade, co-founder of Fable Pets• Dr. Jennifer Coates, who serves on the advisory board for Pup Life Today• Dr. Alejandro Caos, veterinarian at the Vets• Dr. Paola Cuevas, a veterinary consultant at Hepper and Pet Keen• Sakura Davis, a veterinary technician• Dr. Gabrielle Fadl, a medical director at Bond Vet• Brenley Goertzen, Strategist junior writer• Dr. Thomas N. Mather, director of the University of Rhode Island's Center for Vector-Borne Disease and its TickEncounter Resource Center• Latifah Miles, Strategist writerDr. Jamie Richardson of New York City's Small Door Veterinary• Dr. Tory Waxman, a veterinarian and co-founder of dog-food brand Sundays

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A Deadly Tick-borne Epidemic Is Raging. Dogs Are Key To Ending It.

EJIDO PADRE KINO, Mexico - The boy came home from school weakened by fever, his ears burning-hot. Over the next few days, the 7-year-old got sicker - vomiting and complaining of abdominal pain, his mother recalled. Then, the telltale red spots appeared on his hands. But none of the doctors in this rural community along Mexico's Pacific coast recognized the warning sign for one of the most lethal infectious diseases in the Americas - Rocky Mountain spotted fever. A week later, the boy was dead.

The following year, in 2020, the disease killed a 5-year-old boy in a nearby house. Then last October, a few blocks away, another 7-year-old succumbed to the same scourge.

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The disease, spread through the bite of an infected tick that lives primarily on dogs, is rare, but its incidence is rising. It has reemerged at epidemic levels in northern Mexico, where more than 2,000 cases, resulting in hundreds of deaths, have been reported in the past five years. Young children have been hit the hardest. In the Mexican state of Baja California, where Ejido Padre Kino is located, there were 92 cases in 2022, more than double the previous year, according to state data.

The outbreak prompted a team of Mexican and U.S. Scientists to descend upon this small town more than four hours south of San Diego to pluck ticks off dogs, scour the crevices around homes for larvae, and warn residents to keep their dogs from roaming the dusty streets.

"It's very, very hard, because it's a totally 100 percent preventable disease," said Oscar Efrén Zazueta, epidemiologist for Baja California and part of the research team. "Kids are the ones who are in contact with dogs, and they die so very, very quickly . . . In a matter of days."

Alarm has risen in recent years as warming temperatures intensify tick activity and disease risk. Cases of malaria, dengue fever, West Nile virus and Lyme disease - infections transmitted by ticks and mosquitoes - have skyrocketed. Scientists worry that Rocky Mountain spotted fever, first identified in western Montana at the beginning of the 20th century, could spread to more regions.

"What's the tipping point? We don't know for sure," said Laura Backus, a postdoctoral researcher at the Laboratory of Infectious Disease Ecology at the University of California at Davis and another member of the research team. "Weather directly affects how fast ticks reproduce. When it's hot and dry, they get more desperate."

The brown dog tick, one of the species that transmits Rocky Mountain spotted fever, becomes more aggressive toward humans in seeking blood meals in hotter, drier climates, such as that in northern Mexico and the southwestern United States, said Backus, who led a 2021 study that found that the ticks are twice as likely to choose humans over dogs when temperatures rise.

With the yearly number of days topping 100 degrees expected to increase across most of the continental United States in the next decade, the study warned of an "increasing concern for heat-driven emergence of tick-borne disease."

Climate change extends the length of time ticks actively feed on humans and animals, enabling ticks to develop and reproduce faster.

"They begin biting people earlier in the year and stay out longer," said Ben Beard, deputy director of the division of vector-borne diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "More people are being exposed potentially to the bites of infected ticks and, as a result, more cases of tick-borne diseases."

"Only a few degrees' difference in annual average temperature can have a huge impact," he said.

The spread of Rocky Mountain spotted fever is hard to predict, Backus said, because it often simmers undetected, erupts, then disappears again. Originally called "black measles" - a rash in the disease's late stages often turns the skin black - it is one of the deadliest tick-borne diseases in the Americas.

The bacterium that causes it - Rickettsia rickettsii, commonly spread by tick species that feed on wildlife in predominantly wooded areas - is present in almost every U.S. State. But scientists were surprised to discover the brown dog tick - which lives around and inside homes where dogs are present - as a new vector for the disease in the United States in 2003.

Since then, nearly 500 cases and 28 deaths have been reported on tribal lands in Arizona, CDC officials said. In California, 88 cases were reported between 2013 and 2022, more than triple the 26 cases reported the previous decade, according to state data.

Public health authorities are especially alarmed by the deadly outbreaks in low-income communities such as Ejido Padre Kino that have large numbers of free-roaming dogs. Migrant laborers from poorer parts of Mexico, many from Indigenous communities, have flocked here in recent years to work in the raspberry and strawberry fields. The dog population has also boomed after local governments stopped collecting strays - and spaying and neutering them - during the coronavirus pandemic. The increased interaction between dogs and humans is the underlying factor fueling the rise of Rocky Mountain spotted fever here, researchers said.

Ticks carry the bacteria and spread the disease when they bite dogs or humans. Previously uninfected ticks that bite infected dogs can acquire and transfer the pathogen. The disease can also cause serious illness - even death - in dogs. Dogs who do not receive regular veterinary care, as in poorer communities in Mexico or on tribal lands in Arizona, are more likely to perpetuate the disease.

Untreated, the disease kills 4 out of every 10 people infected in Baja California, Zazueta said. Children younger than 10 are at highest risk because research shows they have more contact with dogs, and the early symptoms of Rocky Mountain spotted fever - fever, pain, malaise - resemble those of so many common childhood illnesses that the disease is often not diagnosed in time to be treated. Deaths can be prevented with the right antibiotic, if it's administered within a few days of an infection taking hold.

For Emmanuel Juárez Flores, the 7-year-old boy who returned home from school with a fever, it was already too late. The local hospital sent the boy to the bustling port city of Ensenada, two hours away, in hopes that a larger hospital might have intravenous doses of doxycycline, the only treatment for late stages of the disease.

During the ambulance ride, "my son was crying and screaming because he was already in a lot of pain," his mother, Olivia Flores Legardia, recalled as she brushed tears from her cheek in a recent interview. "He was biting me. . . Because he was acting as if he didn't know me."

The nurse explained to her that the bacteria, which infect the lining of blood vessels, had already caused massive internal bleeding and damaged her son's brains and lungs. Medicine would not work.

Flores blames herself. In the months before her son's 2019 death, she had temporarily relocated the family to Ensenada for better health care for her high-risk pregnancy with Emmanuel's younger brother. Neighbors were supposed to care for the family's two dogs, but when they returned, the animals were skinny - and full of ticks.

"I tried to fumigate," she said quietly.

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Scouring for ticks

Multiple deadly outbreaks of Rocky Mountain spotted fever ravaged parts of Mexico in the 1940s and '50s before the disease went dormant, then reemerged in Baja California in 2008 and other northern states.

Disease detectives tracking the epidemic's spread are looking for clues about its ecology here in the San Quintín Valley to understand how the epidemic moved south in recent years from cities along the U.S. Border to smaller towns like this one.

"¡Buenos días! ¡Venimos de la Secretaría de Salud!" shouted Zazueta, announcing his official presence from the state health department as he stood outside a home in June. Wearing a bright-yellow vest emblazoned with "brigada epidemiológica" ("epidemiology brigade"), he peered over a brown mesh fence. His greeting set off barks from a small white dog chained in the front yard before homeowner Ignacia Cruz Cruz emerged.

Zazueta explained that the team of researchers was going house-to-house to survey families about their dogs and inspect for ticks because of recent cases of the disease, known here simply as rickettsia. Cruz said the family owns two dogs - Tobi, the white one, and Coca, who roams the streets - and no one had been bitten by ticks in the past year.

Researchers checked the white dog's ears and toes for ticks; it was clean. Another team member, crouching as she walked slowly along the house's cement foundation, searched intently for signs of tick larvae, nymphs or adults. Female ticks lay eggs in any crack or crevice around baseboards, window frames and door frames. An adult brown dog tick is reddish brown, about the size of a sesame seed. After feeding on blood, it turns gray and can stretch to the size of an olive.

After Zazueta explained that free-roaming dogs have a greater chance of being infested, Cruz headed into the street, grabbed Coca's collar and pulled the reluctant dog inside the yard for inspection. Nine ticks.

The ticks live in the dirt, along tiny cracks in cinder-block walls, under rocks and plastic buckets, and in the wood of doghouses. Public health officials spray the neighborhoods with pesticides, but not often enough, families say. Officials acknowledge that the pesticide is not as effective as tick collars in lowering incidence of disease, but the cost - up to $60 for long-acting ones - is prohibitive for many families who struggle to access even running water.

Cruz said she has been bitten by ticks before and is aware of rickettsia's dangers. But she doesn't worry about dying of the disease. God's will, she said, shrugging. Like other homeowners here, she said she needs the dogs for protection from burglars. If Coca wants to roam, Cruz said, she will let that continue.

At another house, the resident told researchers that the previous occupants had lost a child to rickettsia, but the family had moved, along with their dog. Yet researchers discovered the abandoned doghouse and other parts of the home crawling with ticks.

With gloved hands, Andrés López Pérez, a professor of disease ecology at the Institute of Ecology A.C., a Mexican government-run public research center in Veracruz, pulled a chunk of rotting wood from the side of the house and examined it closely. "This one is a male. Here is the female," he said, as he plucked the adult ticks out with tweezers and dropped them swiftly in a test tube for later analysis. "Down here, you can see the nymphs," he said, hovering his tweezers over the gray specks. "And here is the larvae. So we have the whole family."

That week, researchers would visit nearly 300 households in Ejido Padre Kino and a neighboring town, drawing blood from more than 500 dogs and collecting thousands of ticks, to learn what conditions might pose the greatest risk for human infection.

DNA testing will allow the researchers to see what portion of ticks are infected with the bacteria, and what portion of dogs have antibodies in their blood or already have infections.

López Pérez said he hopes to have some preliminary analysis completed by the end of the year. "If we are able to find a pattern, we will have more ideas on how to control the disease," he said. "We already know that one of most important things is to keep the dogs in the house."

- - -

Brown dog tick discovered in Arizona

Health officials in the United States have had some success limiting transmission from brown dogs ticks.

The 2003 death of a 14-month-old boy on a tribal reservation in southeastern Arizona caught health officials off guard. The case was the first time the brown dog tick was found to transmit Rocky Mountain spotted fever in the United States. The other tick species that transmit the disease are typically isolated in wooded areas, where they are less likely to come into contact with humans.

Sixteen people - nearly all of them children - fell ill with the disease on that reservation and an adjacent one between 2002 and 2004, according to CDC and Indian Health Service investigators.

"It was a big surprise because this was not a part of the country where the tick that spreads it occurred," said Jennifer McQuiston, one of the researchers, who is now deputy director of the CDC's division of high-consequence pathogens. She said investigators found "thousands and thousands of brown dog ticks" in the local environment - in the cracks of stucco walls, in crawl spaces under houses, and in discarded upholstered furniture outdoors, where children played and free-roaming dogs rested.

By the mid-2000s, the disease had spread to six reservations; annual incidence on the three most heavily affected tribal lands combined was more than 130 times the national average, according to a 2014 study by tribal, federal and state health officials.

After intensive efforts by tribal communities and health officials to raise awareness and promote the use of long-acting tick collars and pesticides, the average incidence on two of the most affected reservations dropped to 50 times the national rate between 2015 and 2019, CDC officials said. No deaths have been reported since 2019.

But the disease remains a threat. And public health and tribal leaders remain vigilant in a community where many families own three to five dogs.

During a tick awareness campaign on the San Carlos Apache reservation in July, some dogs had as many as 30 ticks, said Julie Cassadore, who runs Geronimo Animal Rescue Team, a nonprofit that provides veterinary services to the 13,000 people who live on the reservation. The group placed more than 50 tick collars on dogs, including strays.

Now, people know the importance of getting early medical treatment if they develop symptoms of infection, said Cassadore, who was raised on the reservation. "Whereas before, people didn't know what was going on," she said. "They thought it was just flu and they'll get over it, and they ended up dying."

- - -

Preventable deaths

The doctors who treated Daniela Villanueva León's 5-year-old son, Axel, in 2020 didn't know why his fever wouldn't go down. In desperation one night, she submerged the boy in a tub filled with ice.

After he began vomiting and had a seizure, she rushed him to the main regional hospital, where he stayed for two days. "A doctor said it was probably rickettsia, but they weren't sure," Villanueva recalled. Doctors sent them to a hospital in Ensenada, where their neighbor's son Emmanuel had died the previous year.

The hospital confirmed the diagnosis, but Axel's organs were failing. It was too late for further treatment.

Axel died on his third night in the Ensenada hospital, without his mother by his bedside because of hospital protocol during the coronavirus pandemic. "I was in the hallway when they told me," she said.

The family never owned dogs. But Axel liked to play soccer in the streets, where many dogs roam.

On Sundays, Villanueva would walk the 20 minutes from her home to visit Axel's grave with her parents and her other children, Haisha, 11, and Aron, 7. Plastic flowers and a small candle sit in front of the headstone. But she hasn't visited recently. She is pregnant, due in November, and tires easily during the walk uphill beneath the blazing sun.

Villanueva worries about protecting her other children. Even though the family has paid private companies to spray their dirt yard with pesticides, she wonders if that will be enough. Dogs trot behind children coming home from school. They gather around boys playing in the street. And her home is surrounded by neighbors who have dogs.

"The ticks," Villanueva said, "you see them everywhere."

Two days after the researchers left Villanueva's home, they received jolting news from the infectious-disease director at the local hospital.

Another child lost to rickettsia. The first in the San Quintín Valley to die this year. She had just turned 8.

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Gabriela Martínez in Mexico City contributed to this report.

Rise In Tick Fever Cases, Sterilisation Of Infected Stray Canines Put On Hold

Pune: Veterinarians and the veterinary department of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) have reported a surge in tick fever cases among dogs, pet and stray, which has been attributed to the ongoing monsoon.

Veterinarians and PMC veterinary department have reported a surge in tick fever cases among dogs, pet and stray, attributed to the ongoing monsoon. (HT)

Dr Sarika Funde, veterinary superintendent, PMC, said, "The number of tick fever cases has risen significantly in pedigree and stray canines. We have asked the animal birth control (ABC) programme staff to postpone the sterilisation of stray dogs found infected with tick fever. As a precautionary measure, the civic body is carrying out disinfection activities aimed at eradicating the ticks (Ixodida)."

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Following the recent showers in the city, the number of tick fever cases among dogs has increased. Over the past few weeks, veterinary hospitals have been daily seeing eight to 10 cases in dogs. More and more owners have been approaching hospitals with their pets suffering from tick fever. According to the vets, the owners should not take this condition lightly or underestimate the impact of ticks on their pets.

Dr Tribhuwan Katre, joint secretary, Pet Doctors Association, Pune, said that daily, they get 10 to 15 cases of dogs infected with tick fever. "The most important thing is to conduct prevention and disinfection activities to eliminate the ticks. The cases have increased in the past two to three weeks. Regular immunisation and timely treatment are good for the recovery of the canines," he said.

Tick fever is commonly transmitted through contact with an infected tick. Ticks can pick up the infection from other animals before passing it on to dogs when they bite the latter. Tick fever-affected dogs develop fever and red spots on thin-skinned areas like the inner ear or lower abdomen. There is loss of appetite, and the dog starts looking pale. More severe conditions can lead to bleeding through the nose, vomiting and swelling of the lymph nodes.

Dr Anjali Dave, a veterinarian from NIBM Road, said that August is considered peak season for tick fever. "These parasites attach themselves to pets and transmit the disease, which is further spread to other animals. Even one or two ticks visible on your pet is a cause for concern. Any behavioural changes in your pet such as loss of appetite should not be taken lightly. Delay in diagnosis can lead to severe tick fever in pets," she said.

Vets advice taking preventive measures such as using special collars and medicinal sprays and getting pets regularly checked to control the spread of tick fever.

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