Replies

1. 
   Ken_Drake | Jul 01, 2001 05:28pm | #1

   *
   josh,

   Just grab hold of it and pull it off. Ticks don't bother a dog. They don't even realize that they have them because they don't itch or hurt, but you should remove it.

   Our neighbors abandoned their dog when the bank foreclosed on them last week and left the dog in the backyard for about a week without food or water.

   By the time we found the dog, it had about 400 ticks on it. You could hardly make out the dogs ears they were so covered up with layers of ticks. In between each and every toe their was a mound of ticks.

   I took the dog to a vet and four young lady technicians spend about 2 hours pulling the ticks off, one at a time. They were on her lips, her butt, and just about everywhere else you could imagine.

   One of the girls took the dog home and adopted it. I gave her some money to help out and paid all the bills, so everybody is happy at this point, including the dog.

   Some people just shouldn't be allowed to have animals as pets.

   Ken

1. 
   Carl_Shaw | Jul 01, 2001 05:32pm | #2

   *I was always told that you don't want to pull it off if the head is buried, you might leave it's head under the skin and cause an infection. But this was advice for people not dogs. Personally I would try putting a small glob of Vasaline on the thing and when it eventually comes up for air squash it. Or light a stick match, blow it out and put the hot end on the tick's butt. When it takes it's head out to see who gave it a hot foot do it in.

1. 
   Ken_Drake | Jul 01, 2001 05:52pm | #3

   *Carl,I've heard that stuff about leaving the head behind also, but I've pulled many ticks off from both my dogs and other peoples, and never saw one leave their head behind yet. And those 4 vet technicians that pulled the 400 ticks of that dog I mentioned earlier were just pinching them off with their finger nails and dropping them into a bucket filled with some nasty solution.They did put some antibiotic cream on the dog in many of the areas after they removed them as the dogs skin was pretty raw from having so many.I wouldn't bother if it was just one tick, but it wouldn't hurt.Ken

1. 
   Luka_ | Jul 01, 2001 07:21pm | #4

   *You need a ticking stick.Go over to the Knots main page and read all about them.

1. 
   Cliff_Popejoy | Jul 01, 2001 08:01pm | #5

   *I've heard it's not a good idea to try to get the tick to back out--the thing'll squirt all the crud in it back into the dog before it lets go.I've had good luck with a pair of tweezers, grab the tick right next to the dogs skin and give a fast pull. Most of the time you'll get the tick's mouth parts out too (sometimes with a bit of the dog's skin).Also there's a cheap gizmo that looks like a plastic measuring spoon with a narrow V-shaped notch in the end of the bowl opposite the handle. You slide the V-notch in between the skin and the tick and yank. It grabs the tick mouth in the bottom of the V. Works pretty good.About the vet tech putting the ticks on a nasty solution--ya, watch out, crush the tick or do something else that'll destroy 'em (like throw it in a glass of lite beer). I've flushed 'em down the drain, only to find that they've crawled back out the next morning...

2. 
   Frank_H._Biscardi | Jul 02, 2001 04:34am | #6

   *Guys,It is better not to crush the tic with your fingers because the rickettsia (germs) that cause rocky mnt. spotted fever and lymes can go through the skin. FB

3. 
   Jerry | Jul 02, 2001 07:46am | #7

   *I knew lite beer was good for something!

4. 
   CaseyR_ | Jul 03, 2001 01:17am | #8

   *For humans:http://www.lyme.org/ticks/removal.html For pets (University of Minn. Vet School):http://www.petcare.umn.edu/Health/ticks.htmlI was told to try and avoid removing a tick with your fingers because if you happen to squeeze the abdomin of the tick when it is filled with blood, you might squeeze some infected blood out into the wound the tick made. I bought a tick removal device at REI Coop that is a thin, small piece of metal with a narrow "V" in it to use in slipping under the tick to remove it. Fortuntely, I haven't had to use it yet.

5. 
   Ken_Drake | Jul 03, 2001 02:00am | #9

   *Casey,Thanks for the good links.I stand corrected on my advice, with the exception of the tick inside the ear lining. I don't think I would want to spray any insecticide inside of my dogs ear. I would pull that one by hand and apply a little antibiotic cream to the area, and then wash my hands thoroughly ( as per the advice in the link).Geez, where are the vetinarians when you need them? Don't they know that us carpenters don't know squat about ticks?Ken

6. 
   dad@old_providence_inc | Jul 03, 2001 03:46am | #10

   *Go to a vet. Ask for a flea and tick killer like frontline or advantage. It kills the ticks and fleas.A home building site is not the place for this question as the answers are as reliable as granny's

7. 
   CaseyR_ | Jul 03, 2001 06:30pm | #11

   *Sorry David, but I disagree. As shown by a past issue of Fine Homebuilding, dogs are considered part of the crew by a number of fine homebuilders. And anything concerning the health and safety of crew members is a valid topic for Breaktime. A lot of the questions here have "answers as reliable as granny's" and this one probably is of more general interest than many of the others.

2. 
   josh | Jul 03, 2001 06:30pm | #12

   *
   might not sound very building related. But it is in the ear of our working dog. Last month she ate some hardie plank and got sick, one time carried away a friends lunch, shes a good one
   but we found a tick in her ear last night
   any good tricks for ticks