ticks

Hi my dog had a tick on her ear yesterday i frontlined her two weeks ago aswell.

any way it looked like a piece of sweetcorn so i read how to remove it we put alchol on it and removed it as close as possible with tweezers. The thing popped on my OH hand - yuck and it looked like we had it all out but my dog yelps when i was cleaning her ear - if the head is still in there would it be visible? i can not see anything but shes crying if you touch her ear

i will take her to the vets tomoz but there not open today
thanks

Hi, you shouldn't put anything on ticks, as it can cause them to expel the blood back into the animal, and can spread disease. Was the tick alive when you got it out? If not you may have left the head in. When you are at the vets pick up a tick picker, they are really easy to use and remove the tick alive, then you can dispatch it yourself! Hope all goes well at the vets, I'm sure she'll be fine.

you have my complete sympathy as I've posted a couple of tick threads myself in the last 12 hours!
No..you would not necessarily see the head. I would be concerned if she is yelping when you touch the area..Cosmo had one on his face and isn't bothered if you touch it (touch wood at the moment at least...)Did you swab it with antiseptic? Did you see the head?
I would try to keep the area clean today and just keep a close eye before a vet visit tomorrow.

Frontline doesn't stop the ticks biting unfortunately and I have heard it is losing it's effectiveness in the fight against ticks. A friend's dog picked up a tick after being frontlined a week before. It clung on. She put a pippette of frontline on the tick...it still survived. I would never recommend doing that anyway...but shows how strong some of them are.

no it was dead i read on lots of different sites to put alchol on it as it would retract its head.

so if the head was in her ear would i not be able to see it?

hi thanks ramble, yeah ive used antiseptic on it last night and this morning she is a big wimp anyway with anything but it is still bothering her ill take her tomoz.

whats the best thing then to stop them from getting it in the first place?

thanks x

You can try a different spot on..have a chat to your vet. I don't use spot ons as I have had dogs with bad reactions to them, so they worry me,but that is a personal thing. I've put up another thread asking for homeopathic preventions and tick removers. They are horrid things. We have been so lucky that this has been our first as we walk in ticksville regularly.Eughhhhhhh.

Just wanted to say, I immediately googled tick removal when I realised Cosmo had picked one up. There was so much contradiction between sites...one site said put alcohol/aftershave/vaseline or something on before pulling it out, another said not to...one said to twist (even when using tweezers) another said not to...so hard to know what to do for the best.
I opted for not putting anything on and pulling it out with no twist. It took a lot of attempts and I did squidge the body which worried me...only a little but it still squidged. I did (I hope) get it all out though, but I assure you that was more luck than good judgement...and a bit of anger and stubborness in a 'the little s isn't going to beat me or hurt my dog'

So many different things being said though...very confusing...

hi
if it is still bothering your girly tomorrow defo take her to the vets,as this shouldn't be the case.
unfortunately the most effective products for ticks are chems,so if you wouldn't mind going down that route,and ticks are your main problem,i would advise using one of these during high tick season,imo if its safe enough to use on pregnant bitches then it has been tested to a high standard as this data is not often available for parasite control of this type.
http://www.bada-uk.org/petsproblems/...onscalibor.php
weigh it up,is she really getting that many ticks?? if not,one of these on your keyring will do the job

http://store.everestgear.com/eqtic101.html
hope that helps a little

Good luck at the vets, our one gave Beau an antibiotic jab to be on the safe side after he got his first tick and he was fine

vaseline suffocates, alcohol makes them 'drunk' but doesn't kill them,it just helps them let go of their grip slightly
......oooo drunk happy ticks ....I'm too kind!! lol.