Today I collected my boys from the kennels and they stank so I gave them a bath then they had a nice lay outside whilst they dried off....tonight upon grooming them I noticed a HUGE tick on my youngests head!!! It was white and massive so it must have been there since we dropped him off last week!!!

I removed it with cotton wool and it was still alive everything intact so I cleaned the area with antiseptic, what i'm wondering is if there is anything else I should be doing now?

I would just keep an eye on the area for a few days, to make sure that an infection doesn't set in. Also give them both a spray with Frontline.

Dawn R.

Thanks. Although there was a circular patch last night where it had been it has almost disappeared today so hopefully it is going the right way. Would you treat again with frontline even if they are given frontline once a month?

The woman I spoke to today in the pet shop said she would dab it for a few days with antiseptic cream - is this ok?

I have got some scissor type (they aren't sharp) things to pull it out with if they ever get them again!!!

I live out in the countryside and my dogs get ticks quite often. All I do is remove them. I don't dab anything on the site at all unless I see that infection is setting in, which it has only once, and I'm sure it's because the tick didn't come out in one go. I've not found a decent spray/bath/drop that stops the ticks from attaching since they took a very good bathing product off the market many years ago. (20 odd years ago ;-) )

I think we have just been really lucky that none of our dogs have ever had them. They are really awful aren't they, when it came off it flicked towards me and I was hysterical (hubby wishes he had filmed that moment!!)

mine normally pick some up during the summer, i use the little hook thingys from the pet shop if they are bigger, and the mikki tweezers if they are small, they come off very easily if you twist them off, i just dab some savlon on it and the mark disappears!

cant say ive seen a white one?? the ones i have found have been grey??!!

> cant say ive seen a white one?? the ones i have found have been grey??!!

The longer they are on the lighter they become so it must have been on from the day we dropped him off poor thing :-(

Hi we spend alot of time walking our dogs on the moors and they will get ticks quite often,i always go through both dogs on returning home to check for them,they are crafty little things they hide under the dogs chins and armpits,sometimes i miss one and in a few days its a big grey blob.we have two large GR girls so they have lots of places to hide. i just pull them out being carefull to get the head and legs,i dont put anything on it then,i just let it heal.

All night i could not stop itching with the thought of it and I have been paranoid continually checking the boys today!! :-O

I thought ticks usually dropped off after a few days, i don't think i've ever known one to stay on all week.

I don't know whether he actually had it on all week but it was huge!! LOL

This might be worth a try: http://www.neemgenie.co.uk/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=PG1&Category_Code=007&Product_Count=14

Thank-you perry for that link that looks worth a try to avoid the nasties :-)

Maddoz,

You are not supposed to twist ticks to get them off because you are much more likely to twist the body off and leave the head in place.  To remove ticks you pull them straight up - which also makes it more difficult for them to release toxins into the dog as they are being removed.

I would have thought you're more likely to leave the head in(and squeeze the contents of them into where they had attached) by pulling them off?!

The little tick hooks you can buy work by twisting them and they work a treat..if I don't have one handy I gently twist the tick and it comes straight off, head and all...blurghhh!!!

At work we use either one of the hooks or a pair of forceps them pop the little blighters in a bowl of meths to do away with them :)

All the tick removers that I have seen are of the twist and pull type. My vet told me never to just pull it out as the legs and head go in and spread out, so you are more likely to leave something in the animal if you just pull straight out. Twisting makes the tick panic a bit and withdraws itself, making it easier to pull out.

The O'Tom tick removers are great. They do twist the tick right out, legs and all. There's very good information about how to remove ticks on the Lyme Disease website.

Well i have pulled ticks out for years and not had a problem luckly,but they do leave a small lump for short while untill it heals.

Very good website on lyme disease i may well get the tick tool now reading that.

> There's very good information about how to remove ticks on the Lyme Disease website.

Thats the site we used, we used the cotton method as we didn't have any of the tools at the time :-)

i have always twisted off since pulling off left a head inside my dog and it made him really poorly!

since twisting have never left any part behind,  maybe ive just been lucky/unlucky!!! :)

If you don't have a 'tick tool,' I find dousing it in surgical spirit for as long as possible stuns/kills it and then you can gently pluck it out without anything being left behind. Some animals might be sensitive to the alcohol but I have never had any issues with dogs/cats/horses.

I have always been taught to grasp the head of the tick and pull straight up, with no twisting.  I use tweezers and don't know how they differ from special-purpose tick removers in terms of use; but the "upward and outward" motion as far as the tick is concerned should be the same; otherwise removing them is not being done correctly.

"If using tweezers, grasp the tick as close to the host's skin as possible and pull upward with steady, even, pressure. Do not twist or jerk the tick as this may leave the mouth parts embedded, or cause the tick to regurgitate infective fluids. Remove any embedded mouth parts with tweezers. If using a bespoke tick-removal tool, follow the manufacturer's instructions. "

and with regard to using any noxious stuff on the tick to remove it,

"Do not use 'petroleum jelly', any liquid solution, freeze or burn the tick, as this will stimulate it to regurgitate its stomach contents, increasing the chances of infection."

More into from the site below:

http://www.tickpreventionweek.org/remove/

This explains the difference between twisting with tweezers and twisting with a specialist tool.

The best thing to do for ticks (and what ive always done with success) is to dab surgical spirit onto it first, which makes the tick start to retract and then gently pluck it off the animal.

I once came back from camping with a tick on my tummy. There is a misconception that ticks are huge but this one was only a tiny bit bigger than a flea - still freaked me out though!!!!

ticks start off small but get bigger as they fill with blood.

> is to dab surgical spirit onto it first

I wouldn't apply surgical spirit. Anything that can upset the tick can cause it to regurgitate fluid into the host. Same with matches, petroleum jelly etc.