Tick Season in India: When to Check and Where to Look

Ticks need warmth and humidity, so activity tracks the weather rather than the calendar. Across most of India the heaviest months run from roughly March to October, with a sharp spike in the weeks immediately after the monsoon when humidity stays high and the temperature climbs back up. That post-monsoon window is when we get the most tick calls of the year.

In coastal cities — Mumbai, Chennai, Kochi, Goa, Kolkata — warmth and humidity barely drop, and ticks stay active essentially year-round. In the northern plains there is a genuine lull through the coldest weeks of December and January, though indoor populations in warm buildings carry straight through it. In the hills, from Shimla to Ooty, the active season is shorter and concentrated in the warmer months.

The practical takeaway is that in a coastal or southern city you should check all year, and elsewhere you can relax slightly in deep winter but never stop entirely.

Ticks look for thin skin, warmth and shelter from being scratched off, which means they concentrate in a short list of predictable places. Between the toes and in the web spaces is the most commonly missed spot on the whole dog. Inside the ear flap and along its folds is second — ticks tuck right into the crease where you cannot see them.

Under the collar is the third, and it is the one owners almost never check because they never take the collar off. Any dog that wears a collar permanently needs it removed for the check, every time. After those: the armpits, the groin and inner thighs, the base of the tail, the chin and lips, and around the eyelids.

On a long-coated dog you will not find ticks by looking. They are under the coat, against the skin, and the coat is hiding them. A dark-coated dog compounds this. Assume looking is not enough.

Check with your fingertips, not your eyes. Run your hands slowly over the whole body with enough pressure to feel the skin, not just the coat. An attached tick feels like a small smooth bump, anything from a sesame seed to a pea depending on how long it has been feeding. Once you know the feel, a full check takes about three minutes.

Do it after every walk in grass, scrub or a park, and once a week regardless. A fine-toothed flea comb through the coat catches unattached ticks and larvae that are still wandering, and is worth a pass in tick season even on short coats.

Good light helps for the ears, face and toes. In practice, standing the dog on a table or a step while you work saves your back and makes you more thorough, which matters more than it sounds — most missed ticks are missed because the person got tired of bending over.

Use fine-tipped tweezers or a purpose-made tick hook. Grip as close to the skin as you can, at the tick's head rather than its body, and pull straight out with slow steady pressure. Do not twist, do not jerk, and do not squeeze the body — squeezing pushes the tick's gut contents back into the bite.

Do not use kerosene, petrol, nail polish, alcohol, a hot matchstick or a lit cigarette. All of these are still common advice in India and all of them make the tick regurgitate into the wound, which is exactly the thing you are trying to avoid. They also burn dogs.

Dispose of the tick by dropping it in a sealed container with alcohol, or flush it. Do not crush it with your fingers. Wash your hands afterwards. A small bump at the bite site for a few days is normal; a spreading, hot or oozing area is not and should be seen by a vet.

This is the part people miss, and it is why tick problems recur endlessly. A brown dog tick spends most of its life off the animal. It feeds, drops off, and hides in cracks in the floor, gaps in skirting, behind furniture, in the folds of bedding, along balcony grills, in the gaps around window frames and inside sofa seams. Only a small fraction of the population is on the dog at any moment.

So treating the dog alone always fails. The environment needs doing at the same time: hot-wash and dry all bedding, vacuum thoroughly including cracks and edges and dispose of the bag or empty the canister outside, and treat the cracks and skirting. In a bad infestation this needs repeating on a cycle, because eggs hatch after you have cleaned.

If you live in a building where other dogs are affected, coordinate. Common areas, the lift lobby, the parking and the society garden are shared reservoirs, and one household treating alone gets reinfested from the stairwell.

A heavy tick burden takes blood, and a small dog or a puppy carrying a large number of ticks can lose a significant amount of it. Pale gums, unusual tiredness, weakness, or a dog that will not get up are serious signs and need a vet straight away — this is not something to manage with a bath.

Fever, loss of appetite, limping that moves between legs, bruising, or nosebleeds in a dog that has had ticks are also vet signs, and worth mentioning that the dog has had ticks when you go. Tick-borne illness is real and common in India, and it is entirely a veterinary matter.

What we do is the grooming side: a thorough tick-and-flea bath with a proper treatment shampoo, a full manual removal pass through the coat, and a hands-on check of every hiding spot including under the collar and between the toes. We do not prescribe, and we will tell you plainly when what you need is a vet rather than a groomer.