Tick Removal
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Ticks are blood-sucking parasites. Most live in damp
areas on plants and climb onto our pets or you to feed. In our area they
are most prevalent in the early spring and late Fall. Your dog or cat
can pick them up on their coat while running in long grass or woodland.
Once on your pet they take a bite of skin and hang on! When the tick
first gets on to your pet it will be small (about the size of a pin
head) but as they suck blood they start to swell and within a few days
they will be the size of a pea. This is often when you will notice them
and they can be mistaken for a bluish wart or growth. Once the tick has
finished feeding it will drop off your dog or cat of its own accord
after about a week. Most ticks found on dogs and cats are sheep and deer
ticks. |
While ticks are feeding, the skin around them reacts and can get quite irritated. Sometimes the skin becomes infected. Ticks can also carry diseases such as Lyme disease, Ehrlichia, and Anaplasmosis.
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Most animals will not remove the tick themselves even
if it is making them uncomfortable. The longer the tick stays on your
pet the more inflammed the skin will get. If there are only one or two
ticks on your pet then you can try to remove them yourself. It is
essential to take great care removing ticks to ensure that the tick
mouth parts are not broken off and left in your pet's skin. If they are
they can cause a serious infection or skin reaction (tick granuloma). If you are not sure if you can
remove a tick correctly, call us at 456-0852 for a Tech appointment to show you how
to do it. |
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The head and mouth parts of the tick must be removed from the skin along with the tick's body. You may well have had plenty of advice from well-meaning friends about the best way to remove a tick, eg burn it off with a cigarette end, suffocate it with butter, etc. We can dispense FrontLine 'spot-on' solution that can be applied to your pet's skin to kill the ticks. Once dead the ticks will drop off of their own accord. The only reliable method to physically remove a tick is to grasp it as close as possible to your pet's skin, with a pair of tweezers and twist and pull firmly away from the skin while rocking it back and forth gently. There are specially designed tick-removers that are very effective and inexpensive. |
In most cases any inflammation or swelling will go down over a couple of days.
If the skin is very red you can use a mild antiseptic cream to soothe it. If the
reaction looks very red or weeping and doesn't get better within 2 days, we
should check it.
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