My vet says you should "pinch" the skin where the tick is imbedded, take a tweezer as close to the tick's head as you can get and pull it out. My problem is, I can never get the entire tick out - the mouth parts (or whatever it is) always remains in the skin then there's a little white bump for a while. I read where someone coats the tick with Vaseline and claims the tick backs out. Another person swears nail polish put on the tick also causes it to back out. I have tried both of these things and they don't work for me.
Is there any trick to having a better chance of removing the WHOLE tick and not leaving anything in the skin?
Thanks
Tick removal.......
Re: Tick removal.......
This makes sense to me::::
11. How do you remove an attached tick?
Do not use alcohol, nail polish, hot matches, petroleum jelly, or other methods to remove ticks. These methods may actually traumatize ticks causing them to
regurgitate their gut contents. Essentially, you don't want to do anything to make the tick expel its gut contents into the individual or animal--this greatly increases
the chance for infective organisms to be transmitted. You also don't want to crush the tick after removal and get the contents of a potentially infected tick on your
hands.
The recommended way to remove an attached tick:
Wear gloves and use a tweezers. Caution is advised because most diseases that ticks carry can also be transmitted to people.
Grab the body of the tick with the tweezers and firmly pull the tick straight out, DO NOT TWIST OR JERK. Do not puncture the body of the tick.
If it looks like some of the tick did not come completely out (the tick's mouthpart has a barb on it to make removal more difficult), use an alcohol sterilized
needle to remove the remaining pieces.
Cleanse wound with soap and water, and then alcohol.
Save the tick in rubbing alcohol (the alcohol quickly kills the tick) for future identification and testing**, if necessary. Date the bottle. Drowning a tick in
water does not work--they can even survive flushing down
the toilet.
Mark the date on the calendar; this could be useful information if the dog starts showing symptoms consistent with tick disease.
Believe it or not, I keep an empty medicine bottle half filled with rubbing alcohol handy and drop the ticks in it to kill them.
**Testing of the tick for disease organisms can be done with a PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) test. Check with the laboratory that will be doing the testing
before placing the tick in alcohol as this may interfere with the test procedure. Save the tick in a sealed ziploc bag with a little moisture, without alcohol, until this
information can be determined. Many state health departments are equipped to handle this type of testing.
he above is from this site: http://www.mirage-samoyeds.com/tick.htm
11. How do you remove an attached tick?
Do not use alcohol, nail polish, hot matches, petroleum jelly, or other methods to remove ticks. These methods may actually traumatize ticks causing them to
regurgitate their gut contents. Essentially, you don't want to do anything to make the tick expel its gut contents into the individual or animal--this greatly increases
the chance for infective organisms to be transmitted. You also don't want to crush the tick after removal and get the contents of a potentially infected tick on your
hands.
The recommended way to remove an attached tick:
Wear gloves and use a tweezers. Caution is advised because most diseases that ticks carry can also be transmitted to people.
Grab the body of the tick with the tweezers and firmly pull the tick straight out, DO NOT TWIST OR JERK. Do not puncture the body of the tick.
If it looks like some of the tick did not come completely out (the tick's mouthpart has a barb on it to make removal more difficult), use an alcohol sterilized
needle to remove the remaining pieces.
Cleanse wound with soap and water, and then alcohol.
Save the tick in rubbing alcohol (the alcohol quickly kills the tick) for future identification and testing**, if necessary. Date the bottle. Drowning a tick in
water does not work--they can even survive flushing down
the toilet.
Mark the date on the calendar; this could be useful information if the dog starts showing symptoms consistent with tick disease.
Believe it or not, I keep an empty medicine bottle half filled with rubbing alcohol handy and drop the ticks in it to kill them.
**Testing of the tick for disease organisms can be done with a PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) test. Check with the laboratory that will be doing the testing
before placing the tick in alcohol as this may interfere with the test procedure. Save the tick in a sealed ziploc bag with a little moisture, without alcohol, until this
information can be determined. Many state health departments are equipped to handle this type of testing.
he above is from this site: http://www.mirage-samoyeds.com/tick.htm
Re: Tick removal.......
Thanks, that IS good advice, but I wish they came out in one piece easily. I don't think my dogs are going to stay still while I dig around in their skin trying to remove the mouth parts, know what I mean?
i think it is very rare that you can get the head out when
you pull the tick out because the head has barbs...theoretically if you pull and turn the tick counterclockwise it will relaease but it doesn work...there is no problem with the head staying in because it will be rejected just like a small spolinter..but disenfectan can do no harm