Dog Ticks?

Alfasudcrazy

Just one last thing


I have just noticed my female dobie has a tick stuck just inside her ear (easily accessed thank god)

I want to remove it but am worried I may not do it right. Anyone any experiences of ticks and is there any good nack of removing them cleanly.

Yes - I have read all the websites Nala - its the personal experiences thing again. :rolleyes:

peasant

There are tick removers available in good pet shops or at the vets.

Tweezers are not recommended, because they squash the body of the tick and pump all the blood (mixed with all sorts of bacteria and potential disease carriers) back into the dogs' blodstream.

We have a tick remover that grabs the tick by the head (not the body) and then you can twist it round and it just comes out. Works a treat ...once you get it positioned right, which sort of doesn't work that well, especially when the dog doesn't keep perfectly still.

I have scince resorted to pulling them out myself.

One reasonably long thumb nail inserted at the head of the tick (in a sort of digging movement) a quick pinch with the forefinger and a decisive pull ...tick out in under one second.

Don't squeeze the tick (see above), don't faff about or it'll just dig itself in deeper ...just pull it out.

Then make sure to burn it (squishing them will just squirt all the nasties around)


Best thing is prevention though.

Ticks wander around for quite a while before they settle down for a meal.
After a while you will develop an eagle eye for the littler buggers and just pick them off before they do damage.

Nala

Alfasudcrazy wrote:

Yes - I have read all the websites Nala - its the personal experiences thing again. :rolleyes:

Websites are written by people, who also have personal experience???

Irish-Lass

if you have sudocream or vaseline in the house cover the tick leave it for about 15/20 minutes then you should quiet easily be able to pull it out. When

anniehoo

My dog had a tick a few months back...ugh horrible little feckers!! I put vaseline around where the head is lodged...it cuts off the air supply to the little blighter so it pulls its head out and falls off!! It will fall off naturally anyway once its full..but that can take awhile and may lead to infection if the dog is at the wound entrance the whole time!

Alfasudcrazy

Thanks for the advice - got one of those tick removers at the vets and it worked a treat. The secret is to twist it around the head of the tick and resist any temptation to pull it. As Peasant said the dog must be very still when doing it.

€10 is not cheap though for two little plastic things - one for large ticks and one for small. They are like very miniature nail bars.

Well worth examining dogs often this time of year especially if they lie a lot on grass. I assume they become itchy after a while and the dog could bite it off partially (not good) and as said they are quite large carriers of disease/bacteria etc. :rolleyes:

peasant

Do not smear vaseline, olive oil, alcohol, etc, etc on a tick.

This will suffocate the tick, but just before it dies, it will "vomit" most of the blood that it just sucked back into the dog again ...together with stomach fluid and saliva which both can contain bacteria and diseases.
That's equally as bad as squeezing the tick.

Thankfully (so far) ticks in Ireland don't carry anything too nasty ...on the continent a tick bite can mean death or really debilitating illnesses.:eek: for both dogs and humans.

I know ticks are "eough" ...but get over it. Deal with them swiftly. Check your dogs daily and pick the little feckers off before they settle or before they have sucked too long. (and make sure to kill them ....incineration works best, they're tough little buggers)

Ticks, before they settle and suck and get all big and shiny, are pretty small spidery looking things:


Keep an eye out for them crawling all over your dogs. They like to settle in warm, soft areas or where very little hair grows. On dogs anywhere around the head (near eyes and ears in particular) and on the belly, "groin" and "underarm" areas are their favourite spots.


Ticks sit on high vegetation (grass, weeds, bushes) and "hop" onto passing hosts. So keep your dogs out of brushland and high grass and keep the grass at home short.

Gillie

peasant wrote:

Do not smear vaseline, olive oil, alcohol, etc, etc on a tick.

This will suffocate the tick, but just before it dies, it will "vomit" most of the blood that it just sucked back into the dog again ...together with stomach fluid and saliva which both can contain bacteria and diseases.
That's equally as bad as squeezing the tick.

Thankfully (so far) ticks in Ireland don't carry anything too nasty ...on the continent a tick bite can mean death or really debilitating illnesses.:eek: for both dogs and humans.

I know ticks are "eough" ...but get over it. Deal with them swiftly. Check your dogs daily and pick the little feckers off before they settle or before they have sucked too long. (and make sure to kill them ....incineration works best, they're tough little buggers)

Ticks, before they settle and suck and get all big and shiny, are pretty small spidery looking things:


Keep an eye out for them crawling all over your dogs. They like to settle in warm, soft areas or where very little hair grows. On dogs anywhere around the head (near eyes and ears in particular) and on the belly, "groin" and "underarm" areas are their favourite spots.


Ticks sit on high vegetation (grass, weeds, bushes) and "hop" onto passing hosts. So keep your dogs out of brushland and high grass and keep the grass at home short.

:eek:
Jesus you know a lot about this stuff!

My wife has a nack for getting them out. I "suck" at it!:rolleyes:

peasant

Well ...three dogs next to a field of tick infested cows ...you'd learn too

Alfasudcrazy

This is the product I purchased.;)

http://www.otom.com/

ash_18x

just found a tick on my dog yesterday, got the tick off, should i put something on the area where the tick was? the area seems raised and a bit swollen. any help please!?