Removed a tick the other day!

[The General]

There was a tick on the head of my mums dog... My mum thought it was a skin tag or wart... I knew the truth as soon as I saw that horrible little thing. Used tweesers to grab its head and pull it off. Not easy to do I have to say, those beggers really want to stay put! I think I will get one of those plastic removal tools, I know my parents will be! :)

[bulldogg]

They do look like warts.
Had one on my dog's ear when he was a puppy.
It was a total b*tch to remove, came off reluctantly with a sucking sound.
Those "tick-pens" with the little lassos seem to work ok for removal.

What was god thinking when he created ticks 'n mozzies?!

[Tantalus]

ticks are often a bluey black colour from all the blood they have sucked

which should help a little separating them from skin tags or warts

unless you have a spotty dog , dalmatians for example have black skin under the black patches, and i guess a wart in this area might be black

also if you look really really close you can see the legs of a tick even when it is attached

you might have trouble persuading the puppy to sit still llong enough tho

hope it helps

Tant

[BorderReiver]

I can recommend these

http://www.petvetcare.co.uk/acatalog/Shampoos.html

scroll to bottom of the page.

You get two sizes in a pack,one for small newly attached ticks and a bigger one for the sods that have been there a while.Just slip the v shape around the tick,rotate the tool once or twice and pull up.Off it comes fangs and all :cool:

[jamie_bigmac]

You need to be carefull with those things, they can some times leave their jaws behind which are very hard to see, they can then get infected inturn. so its best to try to kill them rather than remove them, despite how tempting it is to hear that sucking sound lol.

[Yggdrasil]

While i was on a short backpacking holiday in the new forest last year i managed tog et two small ticks on my stomach, most likely from the bracken. I lit a match, blew it out and put the hot end on the tick. This made it losen its grip and i could get them off. Painful.. but it works. I have my dad to thank for that info the week before i went.

~yggdrasil~

[Biddlesby]

Ouch.

Well I've never had ticks myself, but our dogs have had tons. We thought that since ticks breathe through their skin, covering it with vaseline would work. Unfortunately it didn't. Our second idea was to use a soldering iron, but the tick was too near the dog's eye.

Eventually we put some oil stuff on it and managed to pull it off with a twisting motion. It fell on the floor and somebody stood on it - amazing how much blood there was.

[bulldogg]

What to do if the ticks are UNDER the skin though?

[Tantalus]

I dont think applying anything to a tick such as alcohol, oil vaseline or heat is such a good idea :(

best thing to do is remove them with a twisting motion, preferably with a tool if you have one

reasons for this are as follows

ticks can carry lymes disease, and while in the process of suffocating, or burning up (or whatever you did to the outside bit) , they "can" (and probably "will" if you think about this) release whatever is in their mouths including their own saliva

this is where the lymes disease comes in, the initial bite is not usually the cause of infection, but the infection is transmitted later . Once the tick has had its fill and releases, a bit like a pipe, if everything is flowing one way then the infection is not passed back to the host. Stop the pipe flowing and there is a backflow, hence the infection

please note not all ticks carry lymes disease, but there is a risk

hope this clears up some

there have been a few discussions on lymes disease in here including how to recognise it etc etc

http://72.36.134.230/community/search.php?searchid=23995

Tant

[Moonraker]

While i was on a short backpacking holiday in the new forest last year i managed tog et two small ticks on my stomach, most likely from the bracken. I lit a match, blew it out and put the hot end on the tick. This made it losen its grip and i could get them off. Painful.. but it works. I have my dad to thank for that info the week before i went.

~yggdrasil~You really DO NOT want to do this. Trying to burn or otherwise dislodge the tick will make it vomit up it's stomach contents as it tries to make a quick exit, which is more likely to pass on the disease. Unfortunately there are a lot of old techniques which are still passed on which are now understood to be best avoided I am afraid.

I posted the latest official advice for removing ticks recently here on BCUK which has illustrations etc. Please read it for your own safety.

If you have any queries about, or suspect the possibility of contracting a disease from a tick bite (see the links on the thread for details) please contact your doctor right away. Ticks carry other diseases as well as Lyme Disease and several people on BCUK have contracted this potentially nasty disease which appears to be becoming more widespread within Europe, including the British Isles.

Tick Removal (http://www.bushcraftuk.com/community/showthread.php?t=5832)

Safe bushing :)

[tomtom]

reminds me of that chapter is Louis De Bernieres 'Red Dog' when i nice old lady trys to be help ful by sticking red hot pins in to a few ticks she found on Red's tummy.. they were of course his nipples OUCH

[Moonraker]

reminds me of that chapter is Louis De Bernieres 'Red Dog' when i nice old lady trys to be help ful by sticking red hot pins in to a few ticks she found on Red's tummy.. they were of course his nipples OUCH
Reminds me of an old girlfriend....... :rolleyes: