Pet owners: Watch out for ticks

(STORY IMAGE:KHQ.COM)

SPOKANE, Wash. -Ticks are out and they’re biting. A pet owner has a photo of these blood-feeding parasites to show it.

One pet owner told KHQ over the phone that he found two ticks on his dog – one was engorged with blood, and the other was a smaller one. He doesn’t know how long they’ve been on there but wanted to warn the community and stressed how important it is to check your pets.

That’s something Joseph Arveson knows. He says his 7-month-old Xavier hasn’t gotten a tick, but he has found ticks on his dogs before. He says he most often finds them on his dogs' bellies or behind their ears. Arveson adds that the first one he found when he was kid on his dog was a huge one, filled with blood, so, he makes sure to check his dogs frequently by looking through the fur.

You can speak with your vet about ways to prevent ticks on your dogs. Here’s more from the CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/avoid/on_pets.html

The Spokane Regional Health District has more information on ticks and what you can do to prevent them on yourself: https://srhd.org/programs-and-services/bring-it-summer-pests/ticks