Hundreds of ticks discovered on adopted puppy
When animal shelters receive stray dogs, it is not uncommon to discover ticks on the animals, especially during summer, which Lodi Animal Services Officer Jennifer Bender refers to as “tick season.”
“Fleas and ticks are normal for shelters with stray animals. We treat them as soon as we see them,” said Bender.
What is less common is for a puppy to be adopted and go home with dozens of ticks on its body, as was the case when Jan and Bob Gruwell adopted Bear, a rottweiler-shepherd mix, in late July. The Gruwells adopted Bear through PALS, although PALS manager Stephen Curr said that the puppy came from Lodi Animal Service’s shelter as no dogs were adopted directly from PALS during the last week of July.
Bear was then taken to Cherokee Veterinary Hospital to be neutered, and was released to the Gruwells the same day. When the couple took the puppy, which they would later give to their grandson, Jan says she discovered around 100 ticks on the animal’s body. She removed many of them herself before taking Bear to their own veterinarian, where he went into surgery to remove the remaining ticks and made a full recovery. Bear was later given to the Gruwell’s grandson.
“I must have pulled out 100 to 150 ticks by hand before we took him to the vet. If there were this many ticks on one dog, how many other animals were infested and going home to families? I wanted to bring this to the public’s attention because children and parents are being exposed,” said Jan.
Curr reported that no ticks have been found at PALS recently. Bender also commented on behalf of Lodi Animal Services, although she was on vacation from July 24 until Aug. 2, and received her information by email.
“About two weeks ago, we had several dogs with ticks in our shelter, which were discovered after a stray was brought in with multiple ticks on its body. Any time an animal has fleas or ticks, we treat all of our dogs and cats as soon as we discover the infestation, and we call an exterminator to spray the facility,” said Bender.