How does a tick inside a dog's body look? - briefly
An engorged tick inside a dog appears as a soft, balloon‑like mass filled with blood, typically gray‑brown and slightly translucent. It is attached to internal tissue or blood vessels, lacking the hard exoskeleton seen on the exterior.
How does a tick inside a dog's body look? - in detail
A tick that has attached to a dog and is feeding becomes markedly enlarged compared to its unfed state. The body swells to a round, balloon‑like shape, often reaching 5–10 mm in length for adult females. The dorsal surface appears smooth and glossy, with a color shift from brown or reddish‑brown to a deep, almost black hue as it fills with blood. The ventral side, where the mouthparts are located, remains relatively flat; the hypostome (the barbed feeding apparatus) is visible as a small, dark projection extending from the anterior margin.
Key visual features of an engorged tick inside a canine host:
- Size: length up to 10 mm, width up to 8 mm; markedly larger than the 2–3 mm unfed stage.
- Shape: oval to spherical, with the posterior end rounded and the anterior end slightly tapered where the mouthparts emerge.
- Color: dark brown to black; the cuticle becomes translucent, revealing the blood‑filled interior.
- Surface texture: glossy, lacking the coarse, raised scutum seen in unfed ticks.
- Mouthparts: visible as a short, dark, serrated structure; the hypostome bears rows of backward‑pointing teeth that anchor the tick to the tissue.
When examined through imaging techniques such as ultrasonography or computed tomography, the tick appears as a hyperechoic (bright) mass within the subcutaneous layer, often surrounded by a thin hypoechoic rim representing the inflammatory response. On CT scans, the engorged parasite shows up as a well‑defined, soft‑tissue density nodule with a central area of higher attenuation due to the concentrated blood.
Internally, the tick’s abdomen contains a distended midgut packed with host blood, visible as a pale, gelatinous material if the tick is dissected. The salivary glands are enlarged and positioned laterally, producing a clear, slightly yellowish fluid that mixes with the ingested blood. The cuticle remains intact, preventing leakage of blood into surrounding tissues, which accounts for the clear demarcation of the parasite on imaging studies.