American Dog Tick (Dermacentor variabilis)
Unfortunately, I found this on my dog, but luckily, it was before it had attached. Dog ticks are a species of tick related to deer ticks, but they do not carry Lyme disease. Dog ticks instead carry bacteria that can cause Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Rocky Mountain spotted fever starts with headaches and fever and grows into a bleeding rash, it can lead to permanent hearing loss or amputation of a limb, however, contraction of this disease is very rare and can be treated with the antibiotic doxycycline. Dogs can also be treated with doxycycline.
Ticks live in four life stages: egg, six-legged larva, eight-legged nymph, and adult. They must feed on blood at each stage to survive. They also are not able to live in low-humidity or a humidity controlled environment. Adults are active April-early August and prefer to live in tall grass. They are brown and have hard shells that have distinctive spots on them.
