What is the Best Way to Remove a Tick From my Pet?

Hi,

Dr. Eric Barchas, DVM, wrote the following on What is the Best Way to Remove a Tick From my Pet?

I found it interesting information so I extracted part of it as follows :

“One day in class Dr. Patricia Conrad, parasitologist and expert in the field, described the best way to remove a tick. I wish I had known it sooner. I find that it removes entire ticks about 90% of the time.

Here, according to Dr. Conrad, is the best way to remove a tick from your pet:

Grasp the tick firmly with hemostats (aka tweezers) as close to the skin as possible. Pull gently but firmly straight away from the skin until the tick comes out. Do not twist. Avoid grasping the tick’s abdomen. This can cause regurgitation of stomach contents into your pet, increasing the likelihood of Lyme disease, Ehrlichiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and other scary tick-borne diseases.

Some other points: tick prevention is better than tick removal. In my experience, Frontline is the tick preventative with the best safety and efficacy profile. No tick preventative is 100% effective.”

Hopefully, you do not have to experience removing any tick yourself and prevention should be the choice of the day instead.

Frontline is definitely a proven product so do give it a try.

David

How to properly remove ticks from a dog

Knowing how to remove ticks from your pet is one of the things dog owners absolutely need to know how to do. However, a surprising amount of dog owners still don’t know how to properly remove a tick from a dog’s body. The process is annoying, but simple. Here’s how to do it.

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You’ll Need:

- tweezers
– a match or lighter (anything that produces a flame), or small jar of rubbing alcohol

Directions:

1. Locate the tick and figure out which end is the head and which end is the body.

2. Using the tweezers, carefully and firmly grasp the head of the tick, but don’t squeeze too hard, as you risk making the tick inject more disease-filled saliva into your pet. You want to grab the head of the tick as close to your dog’s skin as possible. DO NOT grab the tick by the body, or you risk removing the body but leaving the tick’s head in your pet’s skin.

3. Gently begin pulling the tick directly from the skin. Be careful to NOT twist or pull the tick out at an angle, making sure the tick’s head is directly perpendicular to the skin. Do not pull forcefully all at once either. Pull in gentle tugging motions until the tick is completely removed. Don’t worry if the tick has such a strong hold on your dog that when the head comes out, some of your pet’s skin or flesh comes out with it. Better that a minuscule amount of skin is removed from the dog than the tick’s head being left inside of your pet. Remember to rub some anti-bacterial medication on the site of the bite after you’ve removed the parasite.

4. To kill a tick, hold it over an open flame until you hear it pop, then you know it’s dead. You can also kill it by putting it in a small jar of rubbing alcohol. DO NOT rinse it down the sink, flush it down the toilet, or wrap it in tissue and throw in the trash. Ticks are incredibly resilient. Not only are you unable to kill ticks using those methods, but the tick may actually find a way to crawl back out and onto your pet.

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This is the best way that I know of to remove and kill ticks. There are products out there designed as special tools to help pet owners remove ticks easily, but I personally find a pair of tweezers are more than enough for me to get the job done. However, if you’re not great at handling a pair of tweezers, then maybe investing in a tick removal tool is better for you.

Also, don’t believe any of those myths that say putting nail polish, rubbing alcohol, vaseline or any other number of things on an offending tick will help it pull out of your pet’s skin on its own. Doing any of these things may cause more harm than good by irritating the parasite to burrow deeper, regurgitate and inject more of its poisons into your pet. Always remove the tick and kill it. That is the only way you know for sure it won’t continue to hurt your pet.

How to Remove and Prevent Ticks in Your Dog

Ticks, are irritating arthropods that prey on dogs. Their goal in life is to find a warm-blooded creature so that they can feed. Veterinarians and pet owners have been battling these tiny parasites for decades and the war continues. 

Ticks are members of the Acarina order and are not insects. Ticks and mites are in a class all by themselves. In the transmission of disease, mosquitoes and ticks are the primary concern, with ticks being the most important. 

Ticks are divided into 3 different families. Only 2 of these families are present in the US, the Ixodidae (hard tick) family and the Argasidae (soft tick) family. Within the Ixodidae, there are about 60 different species that have been reported in the US. Within the Argasidae family, there are about 20 reported US species. 

There are 4 stages in the life cycle of a tick: egg, larva, nymph and adult. This life cycle can be completed within 2 months. The larvae, nymph and adults all feed on blood and after a feeding, the tick falls from the feeding source and the larva will molt to a nymph, the nymph will molt to an adult and the female adult will lay eggs. Male ticks ingest far less blood than females. 

When ticks are in need of a blood meal, they seek out prey by heat sensors. When a warm object passes by them, they attach to this object by clinging to clothing or fur or falling from trees onto the object. Dogs are a common target for ticks. 

After the prey has been chosen, the tick migrates to an area that has little hair or does not present difficulty in feeding (the ears and skin around the ears or lips are common places). The tick inserts its pincher-like mouthparts into the skin and begins feeding. These mouthparts are locked in place and will only dislodge when the tick has completed the meal. Once the meal is complete, the adult female will fall from the prey and seek shelter. Eggs are born and the adult female dies. 

 Tick Removal 

• Many methods have been tried to remove ticks, many of which are not recommended. Applying a recently extinguished match or even a still lit match to the body of the tick will NOT cause the tick to back out and fall off. The mouthparts only let go when the tick has completed the meal. Also, applying fingernail polish will suffocate the tick but will not cause the tick to fall off. 


• The best recommendation to remove a tick is to use a tweezers or commercially available tick removal device and pull the tick off. Do not touch the tick since diseases can be transmitted. Use a tissue or paper towel to protect your fingers. Consider wearing gloves when removing a tick. 


• With a tweezers or tick removal device, grab the tick as close to the head as possible. With steady, gentle pressure, pull the tick out of the skin. Frequently, pieces of skin may come off with the tick. Do not twist the tick – pull straight up and out. 


• If the head of the tick remains in the skin, try to grab it and remove as much as possible. If you are unable to remove the entire head, don’t fret. This is not life threatening. Your pet’s immune system will try to dislodge the head by creating a site of infection or even a small abscess. Wash your hands. 


• Usually no additional therapy is needed, but if you are concerned, contact your family veterinarian. There are surgical instruments that can be used to remove the remaining part of the tick. 

Tick Control and Prevention 

Control and prevention of ticks is extremely important in reducing the risk of disease associated with ticks. This includes removing the ticks as soon as possible and trying to prevent attachment. 

Tick avoidance requires avoiding environments that harbor them. Extra care should be taken in the woods and areas with tall grass or low brushes. When traveling, be aware that certain areas of the country have a much higher incidence of ticks (i.e. the northeast). In addition, since they can be carried unknowingly from one place to another on clothing or the body, it is always possible for an individual or animal to come into contact with a tick. 

Ticks may be killed by spraying, dipping, bathing, or powdering, or applying topical medications to affected individuals with appropriate tick-killing products. Tick collars or products applied topically may act to prevent attachment of new ticks and to promote detachment of ticks already attached. 

There are many products on the market that control ticks. Some are over the counter; others are prescription, only available through your veterinarian. Whether one purchases an over the counter or prescription product, it is a good idea to consult your veterinarian first. 

 Some of the safest and most effective products that your veterinarian may recommend include topical spot-on products and certain tick collars. Topical spot-on products are generally applied on the skin between your pet’s shoulders once a month. Some are effective against other parasites as well (i.e. fleas, internal parasites). Systemic topical products include K9 Advantix® (imidacloprid + permethrin), Frontline® and Frontline Plus® (fipronil with or without methoprene, an insect growth regulator), Revolution® (selamectin), and Kiltix® (permethrin). An effective tick collar for dogs is the Preventic® and Preventic Plus® (amitraz with or with out pyriproxifen, an insect growth regulator). Tick products for dogs should NEVER be used on cats because severe toxicity and death may occur. 

 Disease Transmission 

Ticks are considered excellent carriers and transmitters of various diseases. Ticks within the Ixodidae (hard tick) family transmit the majority of disease. The brown dog tick and the American dog tick are the most common carriers of disease in the dog. This includes ehrlichia, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Lyme disease. 

Although all ticks have the potential to transmit disease, the vast majority of tick bites are disease-free. Still it is a good idea to check your pet frequently for any signs of ticks, after he or she comes back from a potential tick infested area, even if using tick prevention medications. Finding these pests and quickly removing them are important methods of controlling potential disease. The sooner ticks are removed from your pet, the less likely any disease transmission will occur. 

The best method of controlling disease transmission is through a combination of tick avoidance and using tick preventative medications. 

Your veterinarian can decide the best method of tick control for your pet, based on his or her risk factors (potential exposure, life-style, geographic location), and the need for any additional parasite control coverage. The advent of the many tick control medications has made tick control and prevention of disease easier and safer than ever.

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How To Remove A Dog Tick

Well, hello everyone! I admit it’s been a while. A really long while. But I’ve been busy the last few weeks of school and once summer vacation started about three weeks ago, I didn’t really have much time to spend online, since I wanted to make the most out of it. But here I am now! Woot woot!

Now I don’t really have much news except for the fact that I found out yesterday that a few ticks have infested my dog somehow. I found this fact out while I was happily brushing my dog’s fur and finding a grape somehow stuck on him. Needless to say, I was a bit puzzled and leaned in for a closer look. To my horror, the grape had legs, and it was not actually a grape.  

Pictured: not a grape, but a tick. A rather fat one at that and full of blood and shizz. ICK!

Therefore, now being blessed with first-hand experience, I now present to you a simple step-by-step guide on what one should do if one finds a tick on their dog:

Step 1: Determine if it really is a tick.

Ticks are usually grey, brownish or greenish in color. They sometimes look like grapes if they’ve been feeding for a day or two. Also, they have legs. That’s the important part, lest you try to remove dog warts or nipples (?) or an actual grape that somehow got superglued on your dog. Well, okay, you might want to remove that grape, too. Your dog is not a fruit bowl, after all.

Step 2: Gather materials you’ll need for tick annihilation! removal.

Once you’ve determined that what you’re dealing with really is a tick, resist the urge to recoil in horror and jump up and down while flapping your hands screaming “ew ew ew!” like I did. Instead, take a deep breath and proceed to collect the materials you’ll need to remove it safely. You will need:

- strong willpower

- pointy tweezers

- gloves

- container filled with alcohol

Step 3: Push aside some of the dog fur to expose the tick

Put on your gloves and part your dog’s fur around the area where the tick is. Do this gently and make sure your dog doesn’t move. Once the tick is exposed, grab your tweezers and pinch them together in the air a few times, in case the tick gets scared of your bad-assery and seriousness and just drops off on its own. If not, proceed to step four.

Step 4: Grab the tick near its head (where it is attached to the skin)

Do not grab the tick by it’s body! Because it could only squeeze some of it’s sucked up blood back into your dog and that is gross and risks infection. Also, there is a high chance that it will burst, sending specks of blood and its body juice flying into the air, all over your dog and onto your face, possibly in slow motion, for extra effect. But that is just vomit-worthy. So yeah, grab it by the head and not the body!

Step 5: Pull the tick firmly up and out.

Once you’ve gripped the tick firmly and properly, pull gently upwards. They’re really clamped in there tight, so  make sure your fingers don’t jelly-fy, and let go (This will lead to you having to do this over and over again so make sure you do it right the first or second time). Your dog’s skin may rise up as you pull the tick out, and this is normal, so you may wish to hold the area around the tick down as you pull. The tick will eventually let go and your dog may feel a slight tearing sensation, but this is normal and doesn’t hurt your doggie.

Step 5: Place the tick in your container filled with alcohol.

This will kill the tick swiftly. Resist the urge to fling the tick clear across the room in disgust like I almost did. This is because the tick may still technically be alive and will probably just reattach to your dog like an annoying ex that won’t leave you alone. If the tick you’ve extracted is still moving, with its legs all wriggly, you managed to get the whole thing out, head and all. If it just lays limp and doesn’t move, some of its mouthparts may still be burrowed in your dog. But do not fret, the remaining mouthparts will not burrow any deeper or grow a new body or something freaky like that. Your dog’s body will simply try to handle it in its own way and the tick head will eventually just drop off along with dead skin and shizz over a period of time. Be sure to keep the area clean, though and if there is any sign of infection, it’s best to let the vet handle it.

Step 6: Disinfect the area with soap and warm water.

This will ensure that the area heals faster and there won’t be any infections. It is normal for your dog’s skin to raise a bit and be reddish in color where the tick was attached and some of the hair around it may even fall out. Don’t worry though, since things will get better over time, and the area will heal itself.

So there you have it, folks! Six simple steps to remove a tick on your dog! If you think the whole thing was a little tl;dr, then here’s a quick video:

I guess I’ve been fairly successful in my encounter with this particular arachnid, unlike the last time I had to come face to face with another of its kind. Hope this would be of help to someone. Also, I missed you guys! I will most probably start visiting your blogs again tomorrow and will start following some new blogs, so expect comments and follows from me! Yaaaay!

Tick tock,