Tick season has begun.
Actually tick season never ends now that climate change has attached itself to us like, well, a tick to an unlucky pet.
Here at Topics, our job - for today at least - is to prevent paralysis ticks from causing sickness and death to dogs and cats.
Thankfully, we have veterinarian Dr Paul McCarthy to give us the lowdown on tick prevention and treatment.
Dr Paul, of Brunker Road Veterinary Centre, said tick season in Newcastle had historically run from September to March.
"But with the warmer weather over the last few years, we've had ticks all year round," Dr Paul said.
He said ticks were normally found in hilly areas.
"We see a lot of them in the Charlestown and Blackbutt areas, but you can get them from coastline areas as well," he said.
"The ticks only live along the eastern seaboard of Australia."
Ticks sit underneath vegetation. When a warm body moves past, they attach to it.
"You can get them from leaf litter and long grass, but generally it's bushy, shrubby areas," he said.
Tick prevention can be done with oral tablets, collars, spot-on treatments and sprays.
"All the preventions work really well. Provided you keep that up, that's half the battle," he said.
Daily inspections also help. Running fingers through a pet's coat is a sound method. Start at the head and work through the fur down to each paw, ensuring to check for lumps between folds and claws.
"Ticks tend to like to be around the head. They're also found on ears, noses, eyelids and cheeks, but they can attach to the pet in any place."
When a paralysis tick attaches to an animal, its nose sticks into the skin. They can be plucked off with fingers, tweezers or a tick puller.
"Do a bit of a twist clockwise or anti-clockwise to release the nose and pluck the tick off," Dr Paul said.
"Once the tick is off, go to the vet anyway. Toxin will already be in the system."
One of the dangers is people take a tick off and think their dog will be OK.
"But in the next 24 hours, they can't breathe or move because the toxin has been injected."
Dogs developing tick paralysis typically show weakness of their back legs and a wobbly walk, which then progresses to total paralysis of all four legs.
A vet will administer an anti-toxin to treat the pet.
Not all ticks make animals sick.
"There are different ticks in our local area. We have bush ticks as well as paralysis ticks," Dr Paul said.
"That's why I always say take your dog and the tick to the vet, so the vet can work out whether it's a paralysis tick or a common brown bush tick."
Almost 90 per cent of animals affected by a paralysis tick will require treatment.
"If they've only had a small amount of toxin, sometimes they'll be OK. Most animals do require therapy.
"The worse case scenario is ticks kill dogs and cats. It's a fatal disease if not treated correctly."
Knights versus Manly
With the NRL grand final on Sunday, Lambton's Phil Mahoney said it was time to share a story he'd kept secret for 22 years.
Phil said the Knights victory over Manly in 1997 was "rated by many as the greatest grand final in NRL history".
"It had everything," he said, including Darren Albert's last-ditch winning try.
"I was so confident the Knights from Steel City could beat the Silvertails from the Northern Beaches, I rang their team manager Dave Morley who I knew from my days as an advertising rep with the Newcastle Star newspaper," Phil said.
As an advertising man, Phil saw opportunity. He knew almost all rugby league fans would be backing the Knights to beat Manly, the most hated club of all.
Phil suggested to Dave that he take a couple of cartons of Coca Cola on the bus down to the match.
"With Manly being sponsored by Pepsi, how good would it look to see our boys all celebrating while drinking Coke after the game?" Phil told Dave.
"It will be a golden chance to get Coca Cola on board as a future sponsor."
As it happened, Phil's suggestion wasn't taken up. But it was a bright idea.
