| How to remove a tick
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Next to fleas, ticks are probably the worst insect-enemy of your dog. These parasites attach themselves to your dog\'s skin. If they go undetected, ticks can stay attached for hours at a time. They use their mouth parts to suck blood out of your pet; that\'s what ticks feed on. At the same time, they spread many contagious diseases from host to host.
The sooner a tick is removed from a dog, the better. That\'s why you need to know how to properly remove a tick from your dog. And that\'s why it\'s so important to check your dog periodically. Especially if he/she travels into the woods. Ticks can especially be found in tall grasses, bushes, and in leafy trees and other thick growth and there you need to think of how to remove tick from a dog.
Since ticks are blood-sucking parasites, they are always looking for a warm-blooded host to attach itself to. It uses dogs, humans, and other mammals. These insects can only crawl; they can\'t jump or fly. So they also use their host as a means of transportation.
1} Gripping the body very lightly as close to the skin as possible, pinch and twist in an anti-clockwise direction while pulling outwards very gently.
2} Chances are you won\'t get it out first time, so repeat the above using a little more pressure. Do it quickly and confidently - just don\'t apply too much pressure at first.
The objective is to "pinch" as close to the skin as possible, and release the ticks\' grip by twisting and pulling - but without squeezing too hard and releasing toxins into the wound.
3} When you do manage to pull the tick out, there are two things you need to do next:
i} Dispose of the tick by either crushing it inside the newspaper {bit fiddly, and anyway - yukk!}, or by putting it down the sink or toilet, and covering it with bleach.
ii} Clean and disinfect the wound by smearing it with Germolene or Dettol antiseptic cream - you\'ll find it has left a raised "welt" at the puncture site, but this should clear up very quickly within 12 hours or so.
Several friends {who have picked up ticks while hill walking} have recommended holding a lit cigarette close to {but not touching} the body until it drops out, but although I\'ve tried this myself, I can\'t honestly recommend it for removing ticks from pets because of their fur.
The first time I found one on our Labrador; I cut a small hole in a piece of cardboard, and "popped" the body through the hole, hoping that the cardboard would protect the hair around it from singeing.
Bottom line: it didn\'t work. I held a glowing cigarette about a centimeter away from the tick, and then gradually moved it closer in small increments; however the end result was simply a carbonized tick - it didn\'t "fall out" as suggested.
The new, accepted, way to dislodge that tick is to go at it with sterilized tweezers. Assuming you have tweezers handy, swab them with alcohol or at the very least sterilize them over a flame. You will also want to try to swab the bite area with alcohol, but don’t smother the tick. AFTER the tweezers cool down, go at the tick more from the side, than the top. Try to get the tweezers between the skin and the tick\'s jaws, and gently pull, maybe moving the tweezers a little with a side-to-side motion if it isn’t budging.
The main ingredient here is patience. A steady pull over a few minutes time, will usually tire out the tick enough to release its grip. Be gentle, yet firm. You don’t want to yank the tick’s body from his head and create a bigger problem. There are opposing opinions on what to do if this does happen. Some folks believe that you should pick the mouth parts out like a splinter, some say leave it in and your body will expel them on its own. If this does happen, I would suggest keeping the area clean and calling your health care provider for further instructions.
How to remove a tick >
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