I have just found what I think is a tick on my dogs paw. He was holding his leg funny and when I looked to see what was wrong I found it. It is quite red around it and it must be sore as he won't let me near it. Should I  leave till in the morning and take him to the vets or is there anything I can do now?
jane

Whereabouts is it? If it's a red swelling between the toes it could be an interdigital cyst. Either way it'll wait till the morning. :)

Can you see any legs moving? I have never really seen any dogs act as if a tick causes them pain, mild irritatation but it doesn't usually look that sore. Occaisionally it may be a little red bump when removed. I would wait until the morning, before any attempts to remove it just incase it isn't one.

No it isn't between the toes it is just on the just above his claws on the outside of his paw. He is in some discomfort but I wouldn't say pain unless you try to touch it as he is using his paw to walk ok. He isn't his usual self this evening though.
jane

I hope you will let us know what it turns out to be.

Hi just to let you know it was a tick and had fallen off by morning. His paw was still a little red but he is fine. I have spent longer on grooming him today to make sure everything is ok and I didn't find anything else and he was fine when I brushed his paw. I didn't rush off to the vets but I will keep a close eye on his paw and if it is still red in the morning then I will take him along to see if perhaps it is infected but at the moment all is well, thank goodness. I was up at 5.30 worrying about him and he came downstairs without a care in the world!!!!
jane

I don't want to worry you, but that tick is somewhere in your house, when it's hungry again it's going to hop straight back onto your dog. Get some flea and tick spray from the petshop, put the dog outside and spray thoroughly everwhere your dog goes in the house. Whilst you're at the petshop, get some flea and tick spray that you can spray onto your dog and if you see anything on him that you think may be a tick in future, give it a good spray and keep spraying it every 30 minutes or so until it dies.

And once you've got it, flush it down the toilet.  They are resilient little bu**ers.

Not sure that would kill them they might pop up in some waterway to attack some other passing dog.  I take them out to the patio and blast them with a couple of minutes of the gas cooker lighter thingie :)

A couple of minutes?  Pyromaniac! :-D

Don't bother with any product from the pet shop. They're simply not strong enough to be guaranteed effective. Get something from the vet to do the job.

If you find a tick on your dog smother it with vasseline and leave it for a few hours this i have heard kills them cos they can't breath then it can be removed my snake had ticks and this worked a treat

>my snake had ticks

*~*dead faint*~*

Definately don't put vaseline on the tick, yes it may smother it, but this may also make it spit out what ever it has eaten, which can cause lymes disease. THe most effective way to remove a tick is to either put neat frontline spray on it (or on the dog) and it will just die or drop off and die, or by using a tick hook. I reccommend the o tom tick removers,just hook around the tick and twist.

Isabel - You can set a tick on fire but faint at snakes!!! ;)

A snake with ticks on it is surely capable of tipping the balance of tolerance :)  What I want to know is where was it being walked........................slithered..... to get them!?

LOL - fair enough!

What I want to know is where was it being walked........................slithered..... to get them!?

How your mind works Isabel!!! :)  That hadn't even crossed my mind!

Hi

If your dog seems at all unwell in the next few days go straight to the vet and tell the vet he has been bitten by a tick. The place he was bitten might not be red or sore looking by then but the bugs they carry will be circulating in the body.

Get doxycycline to treat tick borne problems. I am surprised that most people believe that the only disease carried by British ticks is Lyme disease.

The story of the spaniel in all the papers and on tv a month or so back died of babesia carried by the brown dog tick usually found on the mainland of Europe. As this dog lived in Kent near the channel tunnel it was speculated by all the media that this tick had travelled up the channel tunnel. This is not the case, I interviewed Prof. Sarah Randolph who is considered the foremost expert in this field and she told me that the brown dog tick is alive and well and thriving in the south eastern quarter of the UK and has been long before the channel tunnel was ever thought of, let alone actually built.

Professor Randolph also told me that the so called "exotic" diseases which most people think are in overseas ticks but not British ticks are infact carried by ticks foreign and British! The reason we hear more about ticks and tick problems is not so much because of an increase in the overall tick population but because more people are active in the countryside, jogging, cycling, walking the dog, ramblers etc.. in the places where ticks like to live. There is a site now which explains more about symtoms and treatments for tick diseases.

Thinking back ten to fifteen years ago even, where I live I was often the only person out walking in the fields with my dogs now there are footpaths worn around the fields by the increase in people walking their dogs around these same fields.

Hi all thanks for your replies. Toby's paw has been saw for a few days but he is fine in himself. I have been to the vet who said that the area where the tick was can be sore a for a while and to bathe it in salt water. We have been doing this and it is still sore although the redness has subsided. If it is still the same tomorrow he will be going back to see the vet. Toby has been frontlined in the last couple of days and areas in the house treated so fingers crossed we have got rid of the tick. However to be sure all 3 of my dogs are getting extra grooming sessions and I am checking their coats thoroughly.
jane

The snake came from a nasty pet shop the night before christmas it wouldn't eat and i am not sure where it had got the ticks it was a nice snake really.:rolleyes: