Parasites are small creatures that live off animals and people. Some of them, such as mites, are too small to see. Some, like certain lice and ticks, can be seen if you look carefully. Others, like cattle ticks and worms, can be easily seen. If you leave ticks on a cow for very long, they can get as fat as your thumb with all the blood. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gross! There are parasites that live on the outside of the body, like ticks and lice. There are also parasites that live inside the body, like worms. Parasites cause sickness in two ways. Some feed off your blood so that you get weak! Worms do this. Others carry germs that go into your body while the parasite is sucking your blood! Ticks do this. Granny says that a tick is like a taxi for the germs that cause redwater, heartwater and gall sickness in cattle and goats. Granny says I have to be a detective before I can be a vet. She says I must investigate where all the germs and pests come from and how we can prevent them from attacking our animals. I think this will be fun but Sipho says I am becoming very boring!