HELP: My dog has a tick!

[MrHat]

It's huge and nasty, is that what ticks look like?

I tried pulling it off, but it wouldn't come off without ripping it out of his skin!

HELP ME WHAT DO I DO?


ps. I've never cared for anything, ever.

[Samwise]

http://dogs.about.com/cs/disableddogs/qt/tick_removal.htm

[Paelos]

http://www.furlongspetsupply.com/how_to_remove_ticks_from_a_dog.htm

[MrHat]

OMG, my dog is going to get Lyme Disease.

I'm a terrible father.

[WayAbvPar]

I am going to have nightmares tonight. Ticks are fucking nasty.

[TheTijuanaBrass]

My cat seems to attract more than just a few of them during the summer. Not many days go past without him being the host of another one. Of course they have to be one of the few creatures that I find utterly disgusting. Not many other creatures give me pause, but ticks, man. Ticks!

Disgusting parasites. Kill them with fire once you've plucked them Sweet satisfaction.

[Paelos]

OMG, my dog is going to get Lyme Disease.

I'm a terrible father.

Dogs get them all the time. It's not that big of a deal.

[Raph]

"Small black or brown pimple?"

The female ticks we got on our dogs when I lived in the Caribbean were the size of raisins. They left noticeable splotches when they exploded/squished.

[Zetleft]

Light a match burn it then pull it off.  I actually got a tick on my neck once when I was in Arkansas visiting family (insert banjos and comments about wallyworld here).  The match trick didn't work on me and my dad just ripped off the tick... I didn't really like Arkansas after that.

[MrHat]

I heard nail polish remover works too.  Just put it around the tick where it's attached and it will come off.

can anyone confirm?

From you know, personal experience.

Ps. I have no matches and no tweezers.

[Samwise]

Burning it off sounds like a bad idea, since the dog's not likely to cooperate if you start poking it with a flaming match.

Go out and buy some motherfucking tweezers.  Christ.  Who doesn't have TWEEZERS?  If nothing else, they're standard equipment on any Swiss Army knife, since they're handy for pulling out splinters.  Or ticks.

[Zetleft]

To clarify you blow out the match before applying it to said dog.  Just has to be hot enough to get the Tick to let go so you can grab it.

[Righ]

Don't burn it, don't use solvents or alcohol, just pluck it from the head. Anything else increases the chances the tick will be damaged and leave part of its head in the dog. There are easier to use tools for ticks these days, but you want to do this before you get a chance to buy tools to reduce the chance of infection. Just get some tweezers and pull the tick out by its head.

http://www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~acarolog/tickgone.htm

[Rodent]

Like Righ says, just pluck'em straight off. Anything else makes it likely you will get tickbarf in your veins and increase your chances of catching something nasty.

Growing up in the tick paradise of Sweden you learned to pull'em out quick and make sure the head wasn't left behind, or suck it up and get borrelia.

[Wolf]

Hmm didn't just plucking it off made the chance of the head staying in the body? That's how I removed my dog's ticks (and a couple I've gotten when out in the country) - get a piece of cotton, pour some gas on it (like Zippo or sth), wrap the cotton around the tick, wait for a minute or two, than start turning counter-clock wise while slowly pulling. AFTER THAT BURN THE COTTON. BURN MOTHERFUCKER, BURN.

I don't know about the counter-clock wise turning, it might be a myth, but that's how I've always been told it has to be done. Anyways I'm sure they come off more easily with the gas... Nasty, nasty creatures...

[Rodent]

Pouring gas, oil or butter can make the tick puke, or so they tell me... Never did bother to try after that.  Rotating the tick about 90 degrees is something I have also heard though so it's probably all good.

Tweezers and a cremation ceremony sounds good.

[Signe]

Pouring gas, oil or butter can make the tick puke, or so they tell me... Never did bother to try after that.  Rotating the tick about 90 degrees is something I have also heard though so it's probably all good.

Tweezers and a cremation ceremony sounds good.

No one wants a sick tick. 

[Ironwood]

How does he smell ?

Oh, sorry, wrong thread.

[Righ]

Pouring gas, oil or butter can make the tick puke, or so they tell me... Never did bother to try after that.

Basically it can cause the tick to spasm, involuntarily releasing more venom into the wound, which of course increases the risk of infection and disease. It can also soften the tick and make it more prone to breaking off and leaving part of its head in the skin. It is NOT hard to remove a tick. Just pull them out by grabbing them next to the skin rather than further back on the abdomen.

A friend of mine in Scotland once showed me a clever trick for when you have no tweezers. You pull out a thread from your clothes (being an outdoors kind of guy, he did it with the knife he always carries, but you can unpick a hem thread easy enough) and make a slip knot loop with the thread. Put the loop around the tick and tighten it close to the skin. Then slowly you add more pressure as you pull up, and the tick comes free intact. That's a fair bit more tricky than plucking with tweezers, and I've never done it myself, but its good to know for when you're out in the woods without tweezers.

[Yegolev]

What?  Tick?  Man.

The inter-fucking-net is the last place I would go to for tick information.  However, I am somewhat surprised to see the usual information.  Go, go f13.net.

What works best for me is to grip in front of the head and yank it out.  Take some skin with you if you need to, just be sure to get the entire tick when you do it.  Suffocating the tick is the pussy way.

[kaid]

I wouldn't worry about lyme disease. If you can actually see the tick its not a deer tick which are the ones that carry it. The big nasty wood ticks are usually what people see. Tweasers are what I used to use when I was with the DNR and walking outside all the time. I had 23 wood ticks one day during the hight of tick season.

Needless to say I tried all sorts of inventive things to pluck/kill/dismember/staple ticks. To get them off before they are to burried tweasers work like a champ. If the wood tick is digging in the match that is blown out trick works. It can cause extra venom but at some people the risk of infection just due to the implanted tick is worse than the extra bug spit.

Once you get the tick out I recommend a large hammer applied often either that or fire. Staples do not work as good as you would expect and you cannot seem to drown ticks. Pliers also do not do a very good job even if you manage to make one of their legs shoot off.

While all this may sound cruel imagine coming home after a long hot day in the woods to find 23 wood ticks sampling your blood. That makes kaid a very unhappy and vengful person.


kaid

[Sairon]

I hope it's not one of those ticks from SG:Atlantis 

[MrHat]

Update:  The tick fell off randomly and I stepped it to death.  No head on the dog, so joy!

[kaid]

Well not so randomly basically once the tick is completly engorged with blood they drop off to slink off and have babies and smoke a cigar or whatever ticks do when they are not sucking my blood. The danger is some ticks can hold a lot of blood and can cause a nasty infection if they are implanted long enough.


Kaid

[Llava]

Why the hell did I read this thread?

Now I'm all itchy.  God.  I better not have any ticks on me, you bastards.  If I do, it's YOUR FAULT.

[Der Helm]

You guys know, that there are specialised "tick pliers" ?


that ist all ...

[Morfiend]

Jesus, grab the fucking tick and twist. It pops out, some times it pops in your hand, releasing all the blood it had saved up, which is kind of grose. But if you guys have ever had a tick (I have) they hurt like the motherfucking hell. Just make sure your not in biting range from your dog.

[Swede]

dunno if advertising is ok here - but my brother actually invented a tickremover for dogs (and for poor me here in the Archipelago of Sweden - I grab borelia once or twice every summer just for the fun of it..)

http://www.tickremover.com/

[Cyrrex]

I can't believe I just spent the last 5 minutes or so reading about ticks.  I also can't believe that I found it to be both very educational and mind-bogglingly disgusting at the same time.  I even clicked Swede's link, and thought to myself "man, now that is smart" - I hope your brother makes millions.  I now find ticks to be the second most disgusting creatures in the world (next to cockroaches....duh).

[kaid]

I detest ticks having to deal with them so often in the summer times. The really sucky ones are not the big creepy crawly bitey ones. Its the lil freaking deer ticks which are about the size of a . in a newspaper that are the ones that can really fuck you up.


I always through I hated leaches but my hatred towards leaches is nothing compared to my loathing of ticks.

That tick remover thing in the post above though looks good may have to order out for one.

kaid

[Signe]

dunno if advertising is ok here - but my brother actually invented a tickremover for dogs (and for poor me here in the Archipelago of Sweden - I grab borelia once or twice every summer just for the fun of it..)

http://www.tickremover.com/

If I buy one and send it to you, could you get him to sign it for me?  I'll keep it on my keyring in case I see a dog with a tick.  People will be impressed.

If it catches on, I'll buy some spandex and a cape.

[shiznitz]

Universal tick remover for humans: coat the tick in vaseline. Ticks breathe though their legs so an imbedded tick will eventually (a few minutes) pull out when coated in a smothering substance. Another option: soak a cotton swab in rubbing alcohol and then press the swab over the tick for a few minutes.

On dogs, though, just use tweezers and pull them out as close to the skin as possible.

[shiznitz]

Universal tick remover for humans: coat the tick in vaseline. Ticks breathe though their legs so an imbedded tick will eventually (a few minutes) pull out when coated in a smothering substance. Another option: soak a cotton swab in rubbing alcohol and then press the swab over the tick for a few minutes.

On dogs, though, just use tweezers and pull them out as close to the skin as possible. Re: dog Lyme disease, it is incredibly rare for a dog to suffer the debiliating effects that humans do. The infection just doesn't thrive in animals other than humans.

Lasty, common ticks (the larger variety) do not carry Lyme's disease. Only the flea-sized deer ticks do and it takes 24-48 hours for the tick to pass on the infection.

[Signe]

Good Lord!  Why do you know so much about ticks???  Are you V-Lily in disguise?

[Bunk]

This really does seem to be the type of thread that Lily should have made an appearance in. Mind you, ticks don't seem to be that big of a deal in the PNW. I personally have never seen one, and I've spent plenty o time in wildernessy places.