Ticks
(still working out those matts!!) Liz |
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| I spend a lot of time handling my dog. I make sure -- under the guise of petting her -- that I rub her pretty much all over her body. Any lumps are most always ticks, and they need to come out. This ought to be enough: I don't think you need to shave unless the dog is badly matted, in which case your dog has other comfort issues that should have you shave him or her.
I haven't had real good success with Frontline, flea collars, or similar things ... Pippy just likes to roll in the grass too much. As to the country vs suburbs, it doesn't matter much: ticks are pretty much everywhere. Tick removal (personally, I like heating up an awl with a propane torch and then touching the tick's rear end ... they'll withdraw in a hurry in most cases -- make sure you step on it and kill it!!) is always ugly, but is always relief for the dog. Sometimes you just have to yank them out with needle-nosed pliers <gag>; but it's one of the things I do because I love my dog. If the tick's alive when you get it out, make sure you kill it. Sometimes you've gotten a mama tick with hundreds of little ticklets inside her. KILL THEM DEAD: put the tick in a dish, and use that same propane torch to fry it to ashes. Sorry for being so gross; but this is just one of the ugliest parts about loving a dog ... sometimes you've just gotta do this 
Peace, --Jim-- |
Quote: If the tick's alive when you get it out, make sure you kill it. Sometimes you've gotten a mama tick with hundreds of little ticklets inside her. KILL THEM DEAD
Am I the only one who thinks that sounds pretty fun? Especially after a really tough day? |
| Maybe a mayonnaise jar with and inch or two of rubbing alchohol for your detached ticks rather than stomping/flushing/burning?
I prefer to use tweezers over needle-nose pliers... they sound nicer. When you said you touch their rear end with a hot iron, at what size does this work, when they'er small or all blown up? How long do you touch them for? Any other info would be greatly appreciated! |
| Ron,
I use an awl (6" long) just because it comes to such a fine point ... it works on most ticks of any size ... there are times you need to be very careful with smaller ticks ... the needle-nose (or tweezers  ) works better with very small ticks. But to be honest, by the time I can feel them, they're big enough to burn safely. You don't need to make the tip of the awl glow (you risk wrecking it for its intended purposes), just get it hot enough where you can't stand to touch it. A soldering iron might work, too; but I've never tried that.
Usually just a second or two works -- no more than three. If it doesn't work after an application of two seconds once or twice, you'll need to pull them out. Once I actually burnt the tick to death before it could release, so use short bursts, and then when they drop on the floor, step on it! (Those little bloodsuckers move really fast!!) But it's much healthier and safer for the dog if you can ... uhm ... persuade ... the tick to release. This way, you don't risk leaving parts of the tick's head & hooks in the dog's skin. I understand that these take a while to work out of the skin.
I got this idea from an old survival/first aid trick I was told about eons ago, which involves burning the tick in the butt with a cigarette. The awl is much more precise. Pippy usually knows what I'm doing (ever been bitten by a tick? You feel it....) and holds still for me. If she won't, back to the pliers/tweezers. I wouldn't risk burning my dog. I like your idea about rubbing alcohol. Come to think of it, any solvent like acetone, paint thinner, etc would probably work, too. If there's any less worthwhile parasite in God's creation than a tick, I gotta admit I don't know what it is. Peace, --Jim-- |
| we went to scotland last year and mitch got covered in them .they looked like little black spiders running all over him. i dont think they had been fed in months .we went and bought a little plastic tick removing tool and it works great.i tried the warming method and i was no good at it we ended up with fried ticks stuck in mitch. when we got them out i stomped on them.
when we got home i was telling a female friend about them and she told me she had been bitten by one in the worst place you can think of.  |
sixpence wrote: when we got home i was telling a female friend about them and she told me she had been bitten by one in the worst place you can think of.
I didn't think that ticks lived in the underground Subway in New York?!?  |
very funny  |
| Thanks so much everyone!! We always rub the dogs down (I got used to it since I always check the kids too!) Although I have never had a tick in at my grams house in the subbarbs. in Maine the fear is deer ticks carrying lyme disease... We groom every day. and bathe often, espically in summer. I dont mind burning them to death, sad to say I think they deserve it. ( I know... i shouldent.....) ah well. I crush them or burn them or whatever I can do.
Liz |
| I've found ticks like the head better than the body! Frontline hasn't done much for ticks on my dogs - especially Presley (she's a tick magnet). I hate the little ba#^%)&rds! Make sure Huggs has had his Lyme's vaccine! I was hospitalized for 11 days a few years ago ver ill from an unknown illness - that after several weeks they discovered was most likely a tick borne illness - Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever! I live in Rhode Island - far away from the Rockys! I didn't know I had a tick bite! Kind of freaked me out thinking that I didn't know a tick was on me! Beware - there are more tick illness than Lyme's disease!
Sydney and Presley have had several picked off of them just this past weekend - and all deer ticks! Both are long haired - but I still notice they like their heads better than their bodies! The frontline is supposed to kill them - but it doesn't repel them (so they can still have time to bite before the frontline kicks in!). We had to resort to putting a tick collar on Presley last year it got so bad - but they aren't recommended around children (so that's kind of scary to think what they do to the dog!). Kristen (TICK HATER!) |
| When I took Merlin to an Island for a vacation back in March I noticed what resembled a shell stuck to his head. Never seen a tick before although I've had six dogs previously. I suspected that's what it was but was worried as I heard if you don't get them out correctly the head can break off in the body. Okay I might be wrong on this point but made an appt with the vet as I was worried about my baby boy.
The vet got it off quickly using this plastic tool and it popped right off..it was quite engorged..ewww Yuck! Merlin had to be placed on antibiotics as a preventative measure ( I agreed just to be on the safe side) So 65 dollars later for one tick. I have now joined the ranks as enemy of ticks.
Kristen, my friend also lives in Rhode Island and last year came down with Lyme's disease which according to him was quite nasty. It's the reason I had terror in my heart when I saw that "thing" on Merlins head. Be careful! My vet highly recommended the tick collar (sorry forget the name) that's available at vets for aprox 20 dollars next time I visit the Island. |
| The tick that carries lyme disease is the deer tick. The deer tick is very very very very very tiny, approximately the size of a fleck of black pepper. They are very nearly impossible to see on a dog.
The common dog tick can range in size from very small, but clearly visible, to quite large. Then when they're engorged, they blow up like a big greyish/greenish blob. 
The following is from Tufts New England Medical Center [This is all in reference to the deer tick]: Shown are the stages of I. scapularis, the tick that transmits Lyme disease in the northern and north central United States. Panel a shows tiny larval ticks, which are < 1mm in diameter. Panel b shows unengorged nymphal ticks, which are only 1 to 2 mm in diameter. This stage of the tick is primarily responsible for transmission of the spirochete to humans during the late spring and early summer. Panel c shows an engorged nymphal tick. Panel d demonstrates unengorged adult male (black) and female (orange) ticks, and Panel e shows engorged adult male and female ticks. 
Here is another view of the deer tick. Note that the scale is in CENTIMETERS, so in actual size, the entire picture is actually about 1/2 of an inch wide. 
Ok, here it is in actual size - 1.4 centimeters: 
Here is a good picture of ticks. There is good scale and both dog ticks and deer ticks in the same shot: 
Brown Dog Ticks A. Engorged Female B. Female C. Male Black-Legged Ticks (Deer Ticks) D. Larvae E. Nymphs F. Males G. Females H. Engorged Female Source: http://www.health.state.ri.us/disease/c ... /facts.htm There is a wonderful page of very detailed photos of different tick species here: http://entomology.unl.edu/images/ticks/ticks.htm While dog ticks are not healthy for your dog, it is the deer tick that carries Lyme Disease. You can easily see dog ticks. So unfortunately it is sad, and almost funny, but true: If you can easily see the tick, there's nothing to worry about. If you can't see a tick, be very, very afraid. |
| Yummy photos Ron. I'm pretty skeeved out now.
Not to change from dogs to humans but I lived in deer tick-infested woods for a brief period of time where we decided to clear a lot of brush so that we could have a place where our dogs could run. I would spray cutter all over myself and wore a wide-brimmed hat before I would go knee deep into the brush. It was like I had a coat of armor on as I never had one tick on me when I came in. Once we had this area cleared out we professional exterminators come out and spray once or twice a season. I think the product was called Dursban. This was several years ago so I don't know if it is still on the market but we rarely had any problems with ticks even in the middle of the woods. |
| I created a web page with all that info located here:
http://www.oes.org/html/how_2_identify_ ... ticks.html Currently, it's just about the same as my previous post in this forum, but I'd like to make it a little bit better. Anybody want to give suggestions on what else I could add to that page? Thanks! |
| awesome tick stories everyone!!! LOL and great photos. I live in tick infested woods... we do pretty good at finding them. When brushing huggs I have found a lot of dead ticks, from frontline?? Dunno... i like em dead better though.
Liz |
| What a fantastic post. I almost fell out of my chair when I read abou tburning them and stamping on them. We have almost 100% deer ticks here, and there is no way you are going to stamp those suckers. They are just too small and it wouldn't do any damage. They would probably crawl up and bite you and you wouldn't even know it. We even have seed ticks, that are about like the size of a period and will jump on you from leaves as you walk by. You will notice this blackish brown swarm of moving dots at first, before they spread out. I have been told those are nymphs of the deer ticks. They are worse than chiggers.
No, we always dispose of any tick bodies in rubbing alcohol and a flush. We use tweezers or our fingernails ... not like you are going to catch anything more once they have bitten you. Wash with alcohol, soap and water afterwards. Put some neosporin on the bite and it will heal faster. In fact, my daughters heal faster with a little hydrocortisone the first day and neosporin for the first week. It takes 2 weeks for a tick bite to heal on the average. With Frontline and a fine comb, we have never really seen any dog or cow ticks. Not even on Abbi's head. But because of the preponderance of mosquitoes, our area is sprayed arially two to three time a week. One fella down here was diagnosed with West Nile, so they are really going after the mosquitoes. So maybe it kills off some of the ticks too? A tick page is a great idea. I will see what I can contribute Ron. Sounds like a great project! |
Helen wrote: Quote: If the tick's alive when you get it out, make sure you kill it. Sometimes you've gotten a mama tick with hundreds of little ticklets inside her. KILL THEM DEAD Am I the only one who thinks that sounds pretty fun? Especially after a really tough day?  I must admit, after a tough day... this sounds like a lot of fun..... |
| What does a tick bite look like or feel like on a human? I wonder if my cat Winston has a tick under his chin. I pulled it off with tweezers once, he hated it, but it was all squished and didn't look like much, so I wondered if it was maybe acne instead?
Anyway, I don't even know if we have ticks in our area, I've never seen one I don't think. Unless that really was one on Winston. |
| There is a dog necklace on the market called Scalibor that is really good in the fight against ticks.
Check with your vet for it. (you will have to get a prescription) It is placed around the dogs neck and is active about 6 months. Tests have shown that it is really effective! |
 ok YUK!!!!gross!!!i have a tick story tho
when i was a little girl about 9yrs old,i lived in miami and had a toy poodle his name was Salty.Well anyways Salty started acting really quiet,and laid around alot.my parents took him too the vet after 1day of this changed behavior.the vet found a female tick on his juggler vain under his neck area.that tick had drained so much blood from him in 1 day that Salty became jaundice.The vet said he would need blood transfusion,and we did that he got blood from a greyhound,he still would not eat,I remember going to the vet after school and trying so hard too get him too eat,and finally Salty took this tiny bite of hamburgar,I remember feeling so wonderful that he took some food from me,that little guy was trying and fighting so hard/Well we went home I was feeling happy thinking he ate 1 tiny bite he was getting better.We got home closed the door behind us,and the vet called right has we walked into our house.Salty had died almost right after we left him.The vet said Salty wanted me too know that he knew I loved him.All from a nasty tick,right in the heart of Miami. |
| I am so sorry for your loss... It's obvious that you really loved Salty and still miss him.
Thanks for sharing this personal experience. |
| Oh, Tanya, I am so sorry! What a terrible thing to have happened! Poor little guy! I HATE ticks! We have them here in NYC also. Everytime Mopsey goes out I always pet her whole body just to see if there is anything on her. |
| Thanks guys,yes it was very hard as a kid,BUT i learned from that.i make sure every year i get Advantix for my dogs/cats,and i pick them over real good after play outside......its funny how we never forget our pets even has young childern.....once again Thanks for your sensitivity....*sp? |
| Thank you Ron!! for posting the identifying ticks page! My dog and I live in NYC. We went to a park in NJ, and got 5 ticks as souvenirs. I pulled them off and threw them out the car window as we were going home. I hadn't put Frontline on him before we went. At home, I washed and combed my dog and put on Sentry Natural Defense- tick/flea treatment. I just bought it the night before (I ususally get Frontline). That stuff smelled very strong- it's lavender, cinnamon, peppermint, cloves, etc. Like strong perfume, it was giving me a headache. I thought it did the trick. Four days later, I dreamt I had ticks on me. Ick. The next day, I woke with a tick on my chest!! I got Frontline for him and tea tree oil for myself- I heard that would help me. I looked at your photos and figure the critters were brown dog ticks. I read up and saw that all ticks can make you sick- so, I'll make dr appts for both of us. |
| I'm glad you found the page helpful!
I wouldn't worry about your dog, since you got them all off and then applied a treatment. I'd watch your bite site for a sign of infection before heading to the doctor's office. Joan and I have been bitten by ticks many times, and only once did I think I should see the doctor, although 4 days is a long time. Hopefully, you just picked it up much more recently, perhaps he has been lurking in your car, waiting for you to come back? The treatment of choice is Doxycycline 200mg as a prophylactic. It may give you a headache for a couple of hours. Remember, I'm not a doctor, this is just based on my own personal experience. If you're worried, see the doc. |
| Jim and others,
As I read the thread my previous life in entomology came flashing back. DO NOT use a hot needle or match stick to get the tick to back out. The tick actually vomits when hit with a hot instrument forcing the disease infected secretions into the wound. Also, do not use any sealer thinking the stick will suffocate. Ticks breathe only a few times per hour. The best answer has already been mentioned, grasp the tick as close to the head as possible, or use one of those tick flippin' spoons mentioned and SLOWLY pull straight back. DO NOT SQUEEZE while pulling, thus the problem with pliers you have no feel on how much pressure you are applying. Drop into the alcohol, do not crush with fingernail or under your shoe. Any stray blood spurt might enter your system thru a wound or your eyes........now that's an eeeuuuwww! susan |
| I actually stumbled across this board in google while searching for information on ticks. I don't have an adorable, cuddly Sheepdog like everyone else, however I have a small rust-colored tabby cat who had one on her nose, between her whiskers and her nostril. I was so freaked out that I wrestled her down and yoinked it out, but now I've found that leaving the head under the skin can cause damage. I don't know if I got its head out or not, honestly. It was a very tiny tick. She's ok, and there's no lump where it was feeding, so I hope I got it.
Count me into the tick hating ranks, and I hope I didn't cause her damage >_< |
| Taryn,
I'd keep an eye on your kitty... since it was so close to her nose tissues, you might want to take her into the vet to make sure all the tick parts got removed ok. You wouldn't want her to get an infection... Poor kitty!!! Hope she heals up fast! |
I'm still sad about Salty  Very sad story, but also what a wonderful name for a little poodle Amazing how a good name for a dog really gets to me.
And I'm still ticked off I didn't think of the name Fozzi Bear..... I think I need a Newfoundland now..... |
| I don't know in your area if they sell ADAMS tick and flee spray. Even though I use frontline plus I give all the dogs a quick spray of ADAMS making sure I cover their eyes when doing it. So far I hae not had one tick or flee.
It comes in a Blue spray bottle and you must do it outside as it smells bad but the odor goes away in minutes |
| Sorry I also get my lawn treated once a year. You have to keep the animals off of it for 24 hours after treatment. |
| Dont have a Sheepdog, found this site while searching about ticks. My tick story:
I got this nasty rash on my upper left chest area, (bullseye) so I went to my doc and he told me it was a tick bite. Treated me ect....Had no clue where I would have picked up a tick. Even though we live in wooded deer tick heaven Well about a month later my dog Dakota, a border collie/ lab mix got himself a nasty ear infection so off to the vet we go. He's up there in age (will be 13 this December) and has many lumps and bumps on him so while there I asked the vet to take a look at some of them. Most are fatty tumors some sists (sp?) then I direct the vets attention to this one on the left hindquarter. I dumbly ask 'Is this what they call a skin tag?' heh....no it was a gorged female tick! He plucked it out right there with his fingers put in under microscope to check for all body parts and let me see....ewwwwww talk about nightmares now  Anyway we checked him over for more and got antibiotic ointment for the ears plus a shot. Well two days later I figure I better check my kitty and low and behold I find this bump on her, dont look at all like the tick on my dog so I was wondering do ticks go under the skin at all? Or does the skin ever grow over the tick? |
| Eeewww.... glad you got it sorted out.
Do you use anything to prevent ticks or fleas? We don't have a tick problem, but I've heard a lot have used Frontline with success. |
whitewillow wrote: Well two days later I figure I better check my kitty and low and behold I find this bump on her, dont look at all like the tick on my dog so I was wondering do ticks go under the skin at all? Or does the skin ever grow over the tick? Just the mouth parts of the tick burrow into the skin. The rest of the tick hangs off like a bump. Eventually after the tick gets its blood meal it will disengage and fall off on its own.
You don't really want to let it stay on that long. You want to get a good pair of tweezers and carefully pull it off of your pet by grabbing it as near to the skin as possible, 
and being careful not to crush the tick, pull it straight up and out of your pet's skin. 
They do make a couple of different little curved tools that are supposed to make it easier to get under the tick and pull it straight out, but generally I haven't found it to be necessary. We're always feeling our dog for unusual "bumps". Good luck! |
| I have thrue all the time give all my
dogs 2 garlic-pills every day, and I have never had (knock on wood) flea, louse or ticks on none of my dogs |
| well I have 2 Shih-Tzus I live in NJ today I was petting Lil and found a tick on her back I got it out with tweezers then I found one on her head (the head wont cone out) poor lilo I tried so hard now she's all red and i was tryin to dig in to get it, she was a good sport about it but I feel so bad I'm picking her apart, she's going to the vet monday, so i checked them both tonight and found one on stich right on his ear, got that lil sucker out as i am placing alchohol on his head there is another freaking tick not even an inch away from the other one.... 4 ticks one day. Well as I am tellin my aunt the story... she tells me the ticks are coming from the fire wood stack I have in my yard... so be aware they hide in there,,,,
I completely agree these things are so nasty when I pet my lil fur balls and feel those things I get sooooooo grossed out I actually dropped lilo once bc I was so disgusted (its ok she was fine) but if anyone can tell me where to get those tick removing kits or a really great flea collar i'd appreciate it Thanks Erin |
ninamariie wrote: if anyone can tell me where to get those tick removing kits or a really great flea collar i'd appreciate it
Thanks Erin You can get a little scoopy thing to take ticks off. I got mine from my Vet. |
| Do not buy Flea/tick collars they are a waste of money. You need to buy Front LIne, which you can buy at your Vets and have them show you how to put it on your dog. Ticks are hard to get rid of, but with dillegents you can. You need to vacuum all of your carpet and furniture everyday and wash you floors. Vacuum around door casements and top of walls. It does not sound like it is too bad yet. Bear in mind that the Front Line needs to be put on your dog no earlier than two days after it's bath because Front LIne works with the oil of the dogs hair.
Good luck! |
| Hi all. Is there any way, other than pulling them off and killing them individually, to remove ticks? And how do you keep them off? Flea collars only seem to attract more, not to mention creams or powders.
Any advice? |
| I got so many on my dogs that I had to get them diped.You could kill them using frontline spray,or adams flea and tick spray to get them off.I then put on a tick collar that I got from my vet called Preventic.worked pretty good on my dogs.last year I had ticks so bad that I had 10 to 20 get on me just stepping a few feet into my yard. |
| Help! I just adopted my first dog and he's not an oes but this is the only place I found that looked promising. I woke up this morning and found a tiny bug on me. I went to look it up but I wasn't sure exactly what it might be. I went looking and found more of them in my bed. My dog sleeps next to me.   Can someone tell me what they are? I'm afraid he has ticks.... |
| It is REALLY hard to see the bugs clearly there. In general, ticks don't lie around in a bed. Once they get on the dog (or you) they tend to stay there and bite until they are fully engorged and fall off. The pics you are showing COULD be engorged ticks, but to have that many fall off all at once is unusual in my experience. Do YOU have any bites on yourself? I am not familiar with them, but could they be bed bugs? Link to pics of bed bugs and bed bug bites I'd need to see clearer, closer pics. |
| There is a tick collar that works, yet you have to get it from your vet in the USA or you can buy through the internet from offshore suppliers. Virbac's Preventic numbs the ticks mouth so it cannot latch on while poisioning it and dropping off DEAD. Good luck! |
| I find many ticks on my doqs when walking them down by the river. We live in west CA. The best way I have found to remove them is to take tweezers, get as close to the skin as possible and simultaneously try and close the tweezers and yank the tick off. If the head doesn't come out, which it usually does, the dogs skin naturally pushes it out over time. If that doesn't happen and you notice a sore around the area bring dog to vet . It might need antibiotics. The reason you want to remove them quickly is so that they don't regurgitate back into the host. Prevention wise...I would go with the recommendation of your vet. Some products work better for other dogs. We tried to use the cheap brand of prevention and it didn't work at all. So I know it costs more but name brand defiantly works better. If you find one alive the best thing I have found to do is use a piece of toilet paper or paper towel, pick it up without it touching your skin and flush it. They are very hard to crush so I don't trust just throwing them awa. |
| Our vet said since we (I live in Northern Virginia) had such a mild summer that the ticks would be terrible this year. he ask said that Frontline works on deer ticks only if applied every 3 weeks rather than once a month. I was in my bathroom putting on make-up the other day and bent over to give Bentley a quick up close to the nose kiss and hug and looked in the mirror and a tick was crawling across my face!! EWWWWW!!! I just keep the frontline on him and brush him out a couple times a week. |
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