Whether it is because of rising temperatures in the UK, or because we have a fabulous population of deer, rabbits, hares and other wildlife in this area, we are finding more and more ticks on our pets every year.

This summer has been a bumper year and any dog that walks in the local countryside has been getting ticks unless they have preventative tick treatment on board.

Hopefully by now everyone knows that if you see a tick on your pet you must not just pull it straight out – you risk leaving the head parts in your pet.

You need to twist the tick out – and this is best done with a clever little tool called a tick hook, always worth having one of these at home – they are dirt cheap and work brilliantly.

Some dogs will get the odd tick but if your pet happens to run through the wrong bush or bunch of bracken on a walk, they can pick up dozens at once.

Far better than removing ones that you find is using a preventative treatment, there are various treatments out there – tablets and spot-ons, those you apply monthly and those you give every three months.

It is definitely worth using these in the summer (though with our increasingly mild winters it is worth using them all year round – particularly as you will be using them to treat fleas as well). Always be careful with tick treatments – there is one group of spot-ons that work brilliantly on dogs but can be toxic to cats so please always read the label and make sure you are putting the right treatment on the right pet.

Alice Moore is a vet at Castle Veterinary Clinic, Dorchester and Weymouth. Tel 01305 267083.