GOOD MORNING ALL.THIS IS MY FIRST POSTING HAVING BEEN A MEMBER FOR ABOUT A MONTH AND HAVE FOUND SOME BRILLIANT INFO. LAST NIGHT, I FOUND WHAT I THOUGHT  WAS BLUE TAC (I DIDNT HAVE MY GLASSES ON!) ON MY LITTLE WESTIE.ON CLOSER INSPECTION I WAS HORRIFIED TO FIND IT WAS A TICK. I HAVE PHONED THE VET THIS MORNING AND SHE HAS RECOMMENDED STRONGHOLD. I VERY MUCH TRY NOT TO USE CHEMICALS.
I HAVE READ THROUGH THE POSTINGS AND HAVE SEEN VARIOUS THINGS RECOMMENDED AS I REALLY CANT REMOVE IT MYSELF (TOO GIRLIE ) BUT OBVIOUSLY WANT TO GET RID OF IT ASAP.IT IS ABOUT THE SIZE OF A PEA .
SHE HAS HAS HAD A TOUGH TIME OF IT RECENTLY,SKIN PROBLEMS (NOW UNDER CONTROL WITH INFO FROM THIS SITE,DESPITE MANY VISITS TO THE VET!) WITH THE WORSE PHANTOM PREGNANCY THE VET HAD SEEN FOR SOME TIME(AGAIN BRILLIANT INFO FROM THE SITE SHORTENED THE TERRIBLE DEPRESSION SHE SUFFERED)  AND THEN TWO WEEKS AFTER THE SYMTOMS  HAD DISSAPEARED SHE WAS SPAYED.ALL THIS IN ONLY 4 MONTHS.
SORRY, I HAVE JUST REALISED I AM WAFFLING.MANY THANKS IN ADVANCE OF ANY INFO.

As you may have read, my dog had a tick a few weeks ago :) I used Frontline Spot-on (as I always use this once or twice in the summer months anyway) and also kept covering it in Vaseline :) After a few days it died and shrivelled up and was then removed carefully to make sure that it all came out :) As it was near her eye I didn't want to risk leaving the feet behind and getting it infected.

Daisy

You should use Advantage or frontline from vets. We use surgical spirits on the tick with a cotton bud, it helps to losen the grip then we use tick nippers to pull them out. To be honest you should take your dog to a groomer to get rid of it. Phone them first though to make sure they know how to remove it. Ask them how they do it. If it's not done properly they can leave the mouth of tick inside the dog causing an infection.
A friend of a friend went to a vets & they put Advantage on the dog, gave it an injection and charged £70 & they didnt take them off, they told them theywould just die anyway. These critters grow up to 200 times the size of there normal body weight.

We've just come back from holiday with 3 of the unwelcome quests. As you may have read Sam had one a couple of months ago which I suffocated with vaseline but unfortunately the head was left in so it had to be taken out at a cost of £380. We invested in a tick hook and were just waiting for them to get big enough so we could hook them out but they just fell out of their own accord. It makes me wonder whether we should have just left the tick alone in the first place as now Sam will always have a little mark where the tick had been.

Dab some surgical spirit on the ticks body and then wait for it to shrivell up and die.

Always works!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You're not supposed to do anything to upset the tick!    It will make it inject its bacteria/virus laden saliva into the animal.

Unscrewing it with a tick remover is the best immediate solution, but all my dogs now wear Scalibor collars, which are brilliant, and they haven't had a tick since.   When we used Frontline, the ticks still attached themselves.

I'm very very careful now, as we lost my dear badly missed Phoebe to Lymes disease last summer.

Jo and the Casblaidd Flatcoats

I check my hound DAILY for ticks, grass seeds and the like and was horrified to find two of the disgusting things on my baby girl recently   She had one near her back leg/tummy which I pulled out with tweezers (turning anti clockwise whilst pulling, then checking it was all out) and then tortured to death in the garden.  The other one was by her eye so I didn't risk pulling it out immediately, under veterinary advice I dabbed it with Frontline and left it.  It was dead the next day so I gave it a tug and it came out.  Apparently spot on's (including Frontline) are not very good at killing ticks despite what the packaging says!  My vet say's that spot on's rely on the parasite to crawl through the diffused chemical - however as we know, ticks are very much immobile once they have stuck their filthy heads in! 
Sarah

I don't think stronghold is any good for ticks, or at the very least its not licensed for ticks! Frontline (the spray is supposed to be more effective) or advantix (don't use advantix if you have cats in the house). will kill the tick within 24 hours of attaching. You can also buy scalibor collars which are similar to the old flea collars. The best thing for ticks though is the tick o tom remover, which is like a gree hook, you grap the tick with the hook end, twist slowly and it relases its grip and will come out whole, head and all. (Quite often moving, so stamp on it quick, urgh!!)

We use tick nippers. Bit like tweezers. use the surgical spirits first, leave for a few mins to work. (loosens the head grip) then gently pull straight out. hope this help in the future.

mine are frontline sprayed monthly, the ticks still attach and I use the tick o tom to get them out which has to be the best thing EVER invented :)

I use advantage. havent had any probs so far. Im used to taking them out of customers dogs but if mine had them I think after I took them out Id stomp on them. How dare they invade my girl. Overprotective? yes guilty as charged. Haha.