Hi PaulM,
General consensus is that a tick or two wont cause harm to a healthy hog – and as you say – they take their fill and drop off. usually replaced by another tick or two as the hog travels the undergrowth.
Too many ticks can cause a hog to become unwell – due to anaemia and or infection etc. unwell hogs will typically be more affected than healthy ones by ticks as they are less able to physically cope with the burden.
I wouldn’t recommend you pick up a hog for this purpose alone, you also need to know how to remove ticks without risking causing infection in the removal (ticks can regurgitate the blood they have taken back into the hogs bloodstream if not removed properly) – especially if she otherwise looks ok and appears to be carrying young. The stress could cause her to lose her babies or an infection could be detrimental to her and them.
probably worth keeping an eye out for her – although if she does give birth, she will disappear for a while – and you definitely shouldn’t interfere at that point either with her or any babies she may have.
Hogs usually breed in May / June time for a first litter, and the female gestation is between 30-40 days. So you could well be seeing a pregnant female at this time of year. she will be hungry and thirsty – so useful to support feed her, and she may bring her babies to any safe food source once they are mobile.
best wishes
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