Urgent advice! Pulled "light blue type bug " off dogs ear

marley123

so was petting my Dog about an hour ago, now he is always running in the bushes & gets little buds caught in his fur ( he is a retreiver so long haired ) so was pulling what I thought was a bud... oh no, wouldnt budge so pulled back the hair on his ear & there was a light blue thing attached to his ear about 1/4 of an inch in length - defo a bug as its legs were moving!! Really freaked out here, have the shivers...
I have 2 very young children so am worried something may have been passed onto them!! How do I treat this, do I get something from the petshop or head for the vet in the morning...have another dog & a cat - do I need to get them treated also??

andreac

Sounds like a Tick but it also sounds like you got it out properly if you saw the head and legs.

I would suggest a good tick and flea treatment you can get in the vets. Ticks arent that serious so no need to worry too much.

TooManyDogs

It sounds like a tick



Your vet can remove it, or you can remove it yourself. A friend of mine tickles them off, gently rub it in a circular motion and after about a minute it should lift it's head out and drop off!

marley123

andreac thanks for the reply... going to treat all the crew tomoro:( YUK, feel like there is bugs crawling all over me

marley123

I got it out myself:( Just concerned there may be more than one & worried of something being passed to the kids.

TooManyDogs wrote: »

It sounds like a tick



Your vet can remove it, or you can remove it yourself. A friend of mine tickles them off, gently rub it in a circular motion and after about a minute it should lift it's head out and drop off!

marley123

yuk yuk yuk... I feel worse after seeing the " enlarged picture"

TG1

I'd check him very carefully all over by feel rather then sight, I spotted one on my long coated dog a while ago, and upon further investigation found five more hiding underneath his fluff!
and that picture.... they're bad enough when they're normal sized! :eek:

TooManyDogs

Sorry about the picture!!!!

Don't worry about the tick bothering your kids, it's highly unlikely to transfer itself. As far as I'm aware Frontline will kill all ticks and fleas so you can spray your dog for any ticks you can't see

CookieMonster.x

My golden retriever gets them after walks in the forest etc. I just take them off myself with tissue and then flush it down the toilet and wash my hands.

dammitjanet

A piece of advice I was once given to prevent ticks is always be aware of freshly cut areas that had previously been long grass- for 4-5 days after they're cut there tends to be a lot of ticks in the area.
It may be nothing as I was told this by a fellow dog walker in my local park but even still I'm always careful- i really really hate ticks

Justask

:eek::eek::eek:

Im all itchy now :rolleyes:

WHY DID I CLICK THIS THREAD

Shazanne

My guy picked up a few of these on holiday earlier this year. I removed them myself but mentioned it to my vet on the next visit and he told me it's very important to remove them correctly. You don't just pull them out straight as it can leave the head behind (!) - you take them out at an angle and then make sure you have it all. I used an old tweezers for the job, which worked ideally.
Couple of weeks after I found a little lump at the site where one of the ticks had been but, according to vet, its not a problem.
My other dog never got any of them - even though they sleep together - so wouldn't be overly concerned about them passing on to children.

Dodd

If your kids play in the area where the dog picked up these ticks then your kids are likely to get them as well.
I stayed at a farm some summers as a child and got loads of them.

Cass

Helpful thread from not too long ago.

Shazanne

Dodd wrote: »

If your kids play in the area where the dog picked up these ticks then your kids are likely to get them as well.
I stayed at a farm some summers as a child and got loads of them.

When I was a Girl Guide (many years ago!!) and I used to go camping I would get loads of them as well. However, they seemed to be a different type of tick to what my dog got. They were smaller and blacker. And the First Aid person would removed them with a match! She would light the match, then blow it out and rub the hot part of the match on the tick's body! It would immediately lose its grip and fall off.
In relation to my dog, my vet agreed (and he's top class) that it is perfectly in order to remove ticks yourself if, as I said above, you do it correctly. You have to pull them out at an angle and with a slight twist and then check that the head and front legs are still attached to the body (of the tick, not the dog!!). Don't just yank it out and, for safety, check the area a couple of times over the following few days.

muckety

Frontline worked for my cat recently... this time of year seems to be the worst for ticks!

MacGyver

Cover the tick in vasaline and i mean cover it, make sure it cant breath at all and it should let go within a minute or two then remove it intact.

Carol555

Please be careful while removing the tick manually. Tick that is in pain (squeezed, burnt, suffocated) is very likely to regurgitate contests of it's stomach which can cause more harm than good. Some people pull them out with tweezers but it's very easy to break the tick's head off, which stays in the skin then and can cause infection.

You can get tick remover (google images link here) which is basically a small tool that looks like tiny tweezers or mini-crowbar, you put it around tick, twist and pull. I find them very good.

TG1

The tick removers are great, I think we bought ours in an ordinary pharmacy. They really reduce the risk of leaving heads behind (yuck!).
I always clean the area I've taken a tick from pretty well with salt and water too, just in case, and really keep an eye on it for a couple of days afterwards.

Shazanne

Carol555 wrote: »

Please be careful while removing the tick manually. Tick that is in pain (squeezed, burnt, suffocated) is very likely to regurgitate contests of it's stomach which can cause more harm than good. Some people pull them out with tweezers but it's very easy to break the tick's head off, which stays in the skin then and can cause infection.

You can get tick remover (google images link here) which is basically a small tool that looks like tiny tweezers or mini-crowbar, you put it around tick, twist and pull. I find them very good.

Excellent reply.