How To Remove A Tick From Your Dog | Chewtorials

Tick bites are dangerous for your dog, potentially exposing them to risk of Lyme Disease and other dangerous illnesses. If you've found a tick on your dog, follow these vet-recommended steps to remove it and ensure the health of your pup.

1. Make sure it’s a tick.

Skin tags can sometimes be mistaken for ticks, so before you take any action, it’s important to confirm that you’re dealing with a pest that needs to be removed, not a benign part of your dog’s body. Look for these tick characteristics:

8 legs
A black, tan or brown body (sometimes, after feeding on an animal, they can turn gray)
A size anywhere from 1 millimeter to 1 centimeter long

If you are unsure if what you are looking at is a tick, take your dog to the vet to have them check for you.

2. Gather supplies.

To remove a tick from a dog, you will need:

Fine point tweezers or a tick remover device
Latex gloves, or gloves made of a latex alternative, to protect your hands
Rubbing alcohol
Canine-friendly antimicrobial wound spray or ointment
A small jar or container with a lid

To keep your dog distracted and calm during this process, you may also want to have:

Dog treats
A favorite chew toy
A lick pad

3. Restrain or distract your dog.

It's best if your dog is calm and lying down when you remove the tick—if they make any sudden movements, it could botch the removal process. So do your best to keep yourself calm as you approach your dog. Ask them to lie down, and distract them with the goodies we recommended above—treats, something delicious to chew or lick, whatever will hold their attention away from the tick removal process. You may also want to enlist the help of a friend or family member to keep your dog still.

4. Grasp the tick with your tool.

The specifics of how to remove a tick from a dog vary slightly depending on the tool you’re using, so be sure to read the instructions that came with your tool. In most cases, you’ll want to grasp the tick as close as possible to your dog’s skin, using caution not to pinch your dog’s skin itself.

5. Remove the tick.

If you’re using tweezers, a tick scoop, key or card, pull the tick straight back from your dog’s skin with a slow and steady motion. Keep slowly pulling until the tick lets go of your dog’s skin. Don’t twist or jerk the tick away, because that can leave behind tick mouth-parts embedded in your dog’s skin, which can cause inflammation and infection.

If you’re using a tick twister, twist upward to release the tick.

6. Safely contain the tick.

Your instinct might be to fling the tick in the trash, smoosh it, or flush it down the toilet—we get it. But if your dog develops any signs of tick-borne disease, it can be helpful for your veterinarian to know exactly what bit them and what illnesses they were carrying.

For that reason, it’s a good idea to keep the tick in a safe and secure container for several weeks after the bite, while you monitor your dog for symptoms. You can do this by dropping the tick into a small, sealable container or jar containing rubbing alcohol to kill it, and write the date you removed the tick on the container.

Whatever you do, don’t crush the tick with your fingers. This can expose you to infectious organisms in the tick. And remember to wear gloves when handling the tick for removal and containment.

7. Check the site of the tick bite.

Examine the skin where you removed the tick immediately after removing it. If you have been successful in removing the whole tick, gently cleanse your dog’s skin with a small amount of pet-safe disinfectant or soap and water, then apply a small amount of canine-specific wound spray or ointment. Monitor your dog for 15 minutes after applying spray/ointment to make sure they don’t lick it off. You may want to briefly use a cone collar if your dog is persistent about licking the area.

Remember to wash your own hands well with soap and water, too, as well as your removal tool and any other items that may have touched the tick during this process.

If there are any embedded tick mouth parts left behind in your dog’s skin, call your veterinarian and make an appointment with them to remove the tick’s head and mouthparts.

8. Watch for symptoms for several weeks.

Monitor your dog for any signs of tick-borne disease for several weeks. Signs of illness include:

Lethargy
Fever
Lameness (i.e. inability to walk)
Swollen/sore joints
Swollen lymph nodes
Loss of appetite
Neurological problems

If you notice any of the above, call your vet for an appointment and take the tick with you to your visit.



#howtoremoveatickfromyourdog #removingticks #ticks #pethealth #dogadvice #chewtorials #chewy

[omarbernal]

Whoa! Need gloves? Lol that does not let me grab it

[caitlinwiththechevy]

I take a dab of dawn soap and stick it right under the ticks butt and they don’t like it and wiggle halfway or completely out. Then once they wiggle halfway out, I grab that sucker and pull at an angle. That pulls the dead top layer of skin with him (doesn’t hurt bc the skin is already dead around the head) and ensures the ticks head comes out with the rest of the body. Then I bag the tick and compare it to pictures of deer ticks and lone star ticks. Never had either but I always check. Then I burn that sucker with my lighter. A dead tick is a good tick 😂

[dougaldouglas]

No problem here as my little one has what looks like miniature ants.