Ticks and their removal

Horrible, disgusting things - sucking the blood out of our lovely dogs ....

Here are 2 ways that I have used to remove ticks - the first one relies on you touching the tikc but it is the best way that I now of:

Put your finger on the tick's body and gently rub in a circular motion - like you are trying to make it dizzy if that makes sense. Do this one way either clockwise or anticlockwise but stick with the same direction. In less than a minute the tick will detach itself and drop off. Do it for 20 seconds and then give a tiny little tug to see if it is still fixed. repeat if necessary.

The second way is great if you don't like touching them. Get some vaseline and completely cover the tick and a little bit around it. This stops the tick from being able to breathe. Leave it like that for 30 seconds to a minute and then with with tweezers or forceps, grab the tick gently but firmly and twist ANTICLOCKWISE - a few turns and it will come away - with the head intact.

Just pulling at the tick will most likely cause parts of the head or mouth to remain in the dog and it could become infected.


Alternatively you could buy a "tick picker" but I don't know how useful these are as I always use one of the 2 methods above and it always works.

I put a link to this page on facebook (using the like button on the top left of this page) and one comment left by a dog owning friend of mine was useful.

If you know in advance you will be walking in a tick infested area, get some cheap Bob Martin spray containing Pyrethrin/Pyrethrum and *lightly* mist dogs' legs and undercarriage beforehand. It acts as a repellent. Also do the inside of your car if you have one... amazing how people will spend masses on ridding fleas/ticks from the home and forget the upholstery in a car is also a snug place for them to hide.

A thank you to Sue Brown.

Yuck so wheres the one that means you dont have to touch the tick? x

The second one Kim - you can apply vaseline on a cotton bud and then use tweezers to remove it.