Beware of Bumticks!

Argh....... such a great day out yesterday; sunny weather, a fabulous place to explore with ancient woodland and orchid meadows, watching woodpeckers & buzzards and nobody there but us..... and the ticks.

So I'm giving Merlin a good groom today as he had goose-grass burrs in his coat and it's not normally a place I investigate fully, but for some reason I paid close inspection to his bottom.

Just as well I did! I found a few fat deer ticks dug in for a feast just below his anus.

And I got painfully nipped just for looking too closely, he is *very* sensitive about that area (rightly so!) so no point in reaching for the tweezers or the Tom O'Tick Tool.

Further investigation revealed another one with its head buried in his groin and one beside his ear.

I've sprayed them with Frontline and here's hoping for the best - but thought I'd better remind people that ticks can and do creep into cracks & crevices where the sun don't shine....!!

err yuck and yuck again! The wonderful side of owning a dog!

Will go peer up my dogs bums now!

oh gross!

I have a wonderful picture of you spraying frontline on his bottom, and him hurtling off at high speed with his tail between his legs and an affronted expression. Well you did say that he was sensitive in that area!!!!

I am touching wood like crazy here, (and also scratching a bit) but so far this year my little tick magnet has not had one single beastie, even though other dogs in the area are picking them up on the same walks. It seems, and I am still being cautious here, that Billy No Mates really does work.