Tick Safety for Pets

Pets Are Tick Magnets — and Tick Taxis

Dogs especially are tick magnets: they run through brush, sniff along wooded edges, and roll in exactly the spots ticks love. Worse, an engorged tick can drop off your dog inside your home. Protecting your pets protects your whole household — and dogs themselves can develop Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, and other tick-borne illnesses.

Where to Check Your Dog or Cat

Check pets after every walk, hike, or yard session during tick season. Run your hands against the fur and feel for small bumps, paying special attention to:

• In and around the ears
• Around the eyes and eyelids
• Under the collar — remove the collar for the check
• Under the front legs (armpits)
• Between the toes
• Around the tail and tail base
• The groin area

For long-haired dogs, a fine-toothed comb after outdoor time helps. For cats — especially any that go outdoors — the same spots apply, with extra attention to the head, neck, and ears.

Veterinarian-Approved Preventatives

• Talk to your veterinarian about year-round tick prevention. In New Jersey, ticks can be active in any month with above-freezing temperatures, so many vets recommend prevention all year, not just in summer.
• Options include oral and topical preventatives — your vet can match the right product to your pet’s size, age, health, and lifestyle.
• Ask about the Lyme vaccine for dogs. It is not a substitute for tick prevention, but your vet can advise whether it makes sense for your dog’s risk level.
• Keep preventatives on schedule — a missed dose during peak nymph season is the most common reason prevention “fails.”

Yard Steps for Pet Owners

• Create a designated potty area in a sunny, open part of the yard — away from wooded edges and tall grass.
• Keep that area mowed short and free of leaf litter.
• Fence the yard if possible, to limit roaming into tick-heavy edges and to keep deer (major tick hosts) out.
• Clear brush and debris along fence lines where dogs like to patrol and sniff.
• Consider targeted tick treatments for the perimeter zones your pets frequent most.

Our Seasonal Yard Tick Checklist covers the full property strategy.

Found a Tick on Your Pet?

1. Remove it with fine-tipped tweezers exactly as you would for a person: grasp close to the skin, pull straight up steadily, clean the area. (See What to Do After a Tick Bite.)
2. Save the tick in a sealed bag with the date.
3. Watch your pet for lethargy, loss of appetite, lameness or shifting leg lameness, fever, or swollen joints over the coming weeks.
4. Call your veterinarian if any of those signs appear — mention the tick bite and when it happened. Dogs can be tested for tick-borne diseases, and early treatment is very effective.

Tick-Borne Illnesses in Dogs

Dogs can develop several tick-borne illnesses, including Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, and ehrlichiosis. Warning signs typically appear days to weeks after a bite and include lethargy, loss of appetite, fever, lameness that shifts from leg to leg, and swollen or painful joints. Many infected dogs show no symptoms at all, which is why some veterinarians include tick-disease screening in annual wellness bloodwork. If your dog seems “off” after tick season exposure, say so at the visit — it helps your vet connect the dots faster.

Do Not Forget the Humans

Every time you check the dog, check yourself too — ticks transfer easily during cuddle time. Our Tick Safety for Kids guide has the full-body check routine the whole family can use.