What to do if your dog has a tick: removal methods, first aid for the animal

Why are ticks dangerous for dogs?

These parasites feed on blood. To do this, they have a specially shaped mouthparts - with a proboscis and hook-shaped spines. With these spines, the insect pierces the dog's skin and is held there, and with its proboscis it sucks out the blood. During a bite, the parasite injects a secretion that reduces pain. This saliva may contain microorganisms that cause serious illnesses: ehrlichiosis, borreliosis or Lyme disease, babesiosis or piroplasmosis. All these diseases are severe and cannot be cured at home. At the first symptoms, be sure to contact your veterinarian.

Regardless of whether a tick is a carrier of pathogenic bacteria, it should not be left on the dog’s body:

1. It will disturb the animal.
2. It can go deep under the skin and cause inflammation, like a foreign body.
3. A tick that has drunk blood is easy to crush. If it is infected, the infection can spread not only to the animal, but also to the owner.

Basic mistakes

A common belief is that the tick must first be doused with oil or nail polish to cut off the oxygen supply, the tick will die and come off on its own.

On the one hand, there is some truth here. The tick actually breathes through its abdomen, and it will actually die if you pour oil on it. Only now he won’t unhook and won’t loosen his grip, but on the contrary! His grip will become stronger and it will be more difficult to reach him. Dying, in a state of agony, it can burrow even deeper into the skin.

And most importantly, during this process he will begin to actively splash saliva inside the dog, and in the saliva of the parasite, as we already know, there are dangerous microorganisms!

Dousing a tick with oil, nail polish or gasoline can only make things worse.

When and where to look for ticks in fur

In summer and autumn, when parasites are active, you need to examine your dog after every walk.

Short-haired dogs are especially susceptible to ticks, but long, dense hair will not protect against parasites. They just choose areas where the fur is a little shorter. This could be: the muzzle, ears, belly and groin, paws, especially between the toes, next to the pads.

The pet's body must be carefully examined as a whole, without missing individual areas. You can use a comb to part the fur and look as close to the skin as possible. To detect the smallest tick that has not yet had time to suck blood, you can take a magnifying glass.

How to rid a dog of a parasite

To remove a tick you need to prepare:

• wash and disinfect your hands, wear sterile or disinfected gloves;
• calm and secure the dog, it is advisable to wear a muzzle, even if the pet is very peaceful: no one knows how the animal will behave in a stressful and painful situation;
• It is advisable to carefully trim the hair at the site of the bite;
• prepare an antiseptic for treating the wound.

If your dog is nervous, he may be feeling pain from the parasite. To soften it, you can treat the skin around the bite with lidocaine.

What not to do

To remove ticks from dogs, different methods are recommended. You can't just pull it out. There is a high probability that you will tear off the body of the tick, but the head will remain in the dog’s body. Removing one head is much more difficult at home. And if it is not removed, it will become a source of inflammation.

To remove ixodid ticks, some people advise pouring gasoline, oil, or other viscous or caustic liquids over them. This, of course, will kill the tick, but in agony it can go even deeper under the skin, secreting an increased amount of saliva with pathogenic bacteria. That is, it will only get worse.

You should also not remove a tick simply with your hands. In this case, you can not only tear the insect apart, leaving the head, moreover, when removed, the tick’s body, inflated with blood, will tear. If the tick is on the head, then infected blood can get on the mucous membrane in the mouth, nose, and eyes. It can get on wounds on the body of a dog or person. And because of this, the infection process will worsen.

So, you can’t pull out a tick:

• filling it with oil, gasoline, etc.;
• pulling it out in one motion;
• removing it by hand, without special tools.

The main task is to remove the entire tick without damaging it or leaving parts of it in the animal’s body.

Features of ear mites

Otodectosis is a disease caused by a microscopic parasite that lives only in the dog's ears. It is possible to see a tick only under a microscope, but traces of its vital activity are clearly visible, this is a black coating inside the ear. The animal often scratches its ears, as ear mites in dogs cause itching.

These parasites pierce the skin in search of food: Lymph and blood. It is possible to determine otodectosis after two weeks of damage to the ears.

Symptoms become noticeable:

• Anxiety;
• The dog rubs its ears;
• Often scratches ears with paws;
• Tilts his head to one side.

Having examined the ears, you can see black and dark brown plaque, an unpleasant odor, and wounds from scratching. Treatment is carried out using several methods: external and injection.

The external method involves treating the ears with ointments or sprays after thoroughly cleaning the ears of plaque with ear sticks. Injection is used in advanced cases.

The dog is injected subcutaneously with drugs that are lethal to parasites. When cleaning the ear, you must use hydrogen peroxide or chlorhexidine. Then treat with a special preparation: “Stomazan”, “Bars”, “Amitrazine”, “Butox” or any other special agent.

Methods for removing ticks

There are several methods on how to properly remove a tick:

1. With tweezers . You can use a regular one, but a curved one is more convenient. It needs to be heated over a fire or disinfected in some other way. The tweezers should be held as close to the dog's skin and parallel to it as possible. The parasite is grabbed not by the abdomen, but by the head. It is not pulled out, but twisted, like a loose tooth, rotated from side to side.
2. With a thread . This is a more complex method. A loop is formed from the thread, which is used to wrap around the swollen parasite, like a noose. You also need to pull it out gradually, rocking it from side to side. The method is dangerous because the thread can easily crush the insect and cut off its head.
3. Using a syringe . To do this, you need to place a syringe without a needle and with a cut off tip to the dog’s body so that the tick is inside. By pulling out the piston you will create a vacuum. If the tick is not held too tightly, you can pull it out entirely. This method rarely helps, but you can try.
4. Twister . This is a special device that looks like a small nail puller. It is found in stores under different names, but their operating principle is the same. They need to pick up the tick and slowly pull it out, making light twisting movements. The advantage of this method is that the parasite remains in the twister, and you don’t have to worry about crushing or tearing it. All dog owners who walk their pets in parks and forests should have such a device so that after a tick bite they can pull it out themselves as quickly as possible.

Further actions

After the tick has left the dog's body, it must be taken to the laboratory for examination. This will help determine whether the tick was contagious. If not, then you can simply breathe a sigh of relief, and if the tick was contagious, then it is necessary to begin treatment immediately, before symptoms of piroplasmosis or borreliosis begin to appear. The faster this happens, the greater the animal's chances of life.

You need to monitor your dog's condition in any case. If she has become lethargic, inactive, and does not eat well, then she needs to be shown to a veterinarian.

IMPORTANT! Dogs should not be vaccinated for a week after a tick bite. It is worth moving them and not traveling out of town during this time, so as not to expose the animal to the risk of being bitten again.

If you find a dead tick on your pet’s body, the actions to take with it are the same. The tick needs to be taken to the laboratory, and the dog to the veterinarian. This is done because the dog could gnaw the tick with its teeth, thereby becoming infected, since the infection enters the blood through the esophagus.

How to remove a tick under the eye

Dogs also have thin skin under their eyes. The difficulty in removing ticks from this area is that the dog most likely will not allow any manipulation of itself. She will jerk her head, because of which, firstly, you can get tweezers, a twister or a syringe in the eye, and secondly, you can crush or tear the tick. To remove the parasite, you need one person to hold the head tightly, and the other to pull out the insect.

If you have a helper and can secure the dog's head, try to remove the pest yourself. If you are afraid that you are not a good judge and may harm your pet, it is better to contact a veterinarian.

Capsules with vitamin E and almonds

In case your dog has ticks near his eyes or ears. This home remedy to eliminate them is what you need. Both almond oil and vitamin E are products that are gentle on your pet's skin and will not cause irritation when used in natural solutions. It is very important to avoid almond essential oil here.

To make this natural tick repellent:

• Mix 20 ml almond oil with a vitamin E capsule.
• Inject the solution into a dropper jar.
• Place a few drops on the affected area of ​​your ears and massage very gently.
• It is important that you avoid introducing the mixture into the animal's ear canal and try to apply the product only in the outer area.
• To apply it to your eyes, dampen gauze or a damp cloth with repellent.

This is how we should take care when applying near sensitive parts of the dog.

What to do if your dog won't let you remove a tick

If an animal is worried, it means it is in pain. It is necessary, firstly, to calm him down, and secondly, to numb the site of the tick bite. Near the parasite, you can anoint the skin with lidocaine, which is sold as a spray or in ampoules. There is no need to inject it, just apply it to the skin. This is a local anesthetic; it will not harm the animal and will not in any way affect the process of removing the tick, but will reduce pain.

If possible, it is worth carrying out the procedure together, so that one person holds the dog, fixes it, does not allow it to move, and the second is engaged in extracting the parasite. This will be faster, easier and safer for your pet.

You should not give your dog pills or other sedatives without the advice of a veterinarian.

Once the tick is pulled out, it must be disposed of. If possible, you can put it in an airtight jar and send it for analysis to make sure it is not infected. This must be done within two days while he is alive. If it is not possible to send for analysis, the tick must be destroyed, taking precautions. To be safe, you can burn it.

When you have removed the tick, make sure that no parts of it remain on your pet's body. The wound must be washed with chlorhexidine, hydrogen peroxide, iodine or any antiseptic. It is not recommended to use green stuff.

What to do with the dog after removal? Observe her well-being and behavior. The incubation period for diseases transmitted by ticks can be 5–10 days. During this time, it is forbidden to vaccinate the animal and overload it physically. If a dog refuses food, gets tired quickly, lies in a certain place for a long time without showing usual physical activity, the whites of its eyes and skin have turned yellow, and its breathing quickens, you should immediately contact a veterinary clinic. Diseases caused by ticks can be fatal quite quickly.

Heyletiella

This is a family of mites with several species. All of them are extremely contagious and dangerous for both animals and humans. The disease is caused by cheyletiellosis (wandering dandruff).

You can become infected through contact. In addition, flies and fleas carry ticks on their paws. Cheyletiella are very small. Their body length varies from 0.25 to 0.5 mm. Once on the skin of its victim, the parasite begins to actively multiply. Symptoms of infection:

• small reddish pimples on the skin;
• dandruff (contains live mites);
• peeling;
• itching (sometimes may be absent).

If this type of tick is found on a dog, what should you do? First, you need to minimize tactile contact with the animal. You cannot pick him up or allow him to lie on your bed or on the sofa. It is recommended to bathe the dog periodically using shampoos:

• "Sweetheart";
• "Gamma";
• "Demos Lux".

Another treatment option is to treat the animal with solutions of the following drugs:

• "Butox";
• “Unoiled.”

You can also use aerosols:

• "Acrodex";
• "Ciodrine";
• "Psoroptol."

With any treatment regimen, you need to inject the animal with Gamavit or its analogues.

What to do if your head comes off

If the tick's head or part of it remains under the skin, these remains must be removed. If possible, it is better to contact a veterinarian who will make an incision, remove everything and treat the wound. But if this is not possible, you can remove the head yourself using a fire-heated needle. They pick up the head like a splinter and pull it out. The main thing during this procedure is that the dog does not get nervous. You can treat the area around the wound with an anesthetic, such as lidocaine spray. After removing the head, the wound must be washed and disinfected.

If, some time after extraction, a lump forms at the site of the bite, this indicates that the head or part of it was not completely removed. An inflammatory process with suppuration began in the wound. In this situation, you need to go to the clinic to have the wound cleaned. You may have to make an incision to do this. To avoid this, the entire tick must be removed, and after removal, make sure that no parts of it remain inside the animal.

Prevention methods

To avoid having to remove the tick from the dog’s body, it is worth protecting the pet. For this purpose, there are acaricidal drops on the withers. Anti-tick tablets and special collars impregnated with tick-repellent compounds are also sold. If your dog is walking on a private dacha, it is worth treating it yourself against ticks. For this you can use, for example, Medilis-Ziper.

Working aqueous emulsions are prepared immediately before use. To do this, the product is mixed with tap water from nearby bodies of water, stirring constantly and evenly for 5 minutes. The finished emulsion should be used within 8 hours. To apply the product, spray equipment is used, designed to spray solutions and emulsions of insecticides over surfaces. The effectiveness of the product against ticks in the grass litter is about 1–1.5 months. If there is a significant amount of precipitation, the effectiveness of the product may decrease. If necessary, due to the presence of ticks in the treated area, it can be re-treated.

Also, before a walk, you can treat the fur and collar or clothing (if the dog walks in clothes) with a repellent, for example, produced by MediLIS Laboratories LLC with the acaricidal-repellent agent Medilis-Comfort. Clothes and other fabric and leather products should be processed in the open air (outdoors). Place clothing and direct the product stream in the direction of the wind. Spray on products from a distance of 20 - 25 cm from them, holding the package in an outstretched hand at the rate of 1 press on the spray head per area of ​​10 cm X 10 cm (1 dm2). Dry the clothes (at least 2 hours) and put them on. Re-process clothes after 15-20 days or after washing. When using chemicals, you must strictly follow the instructions and do not allow the dog to lick itself after application. Medilis-comfort, produced by the manufacturer in a convenient aerosol package, is effective against fleas, midges, midges, mosquitoes, horse flies, mosquitoes, adults, and Ixodes ticks.

What to do after extraction

Under no circumstances should you treat the wound before removal, but after it is very necessary. Any antiseptic or alcohol will do. You can use brilliant green or iodine, but they cause a burning sensation and the dog will try to lick them off. If the parasite was caught alive, it should be placed in a jar with wet cotton wool. And store in a cool place. After a maximum of 48 hours, it must be sent for examination. If the tick does not survive, then you need to give it away as soon as possible. But not all laboratories take a dead specimen. DNA is not stored for long and every minute there is less and less chance of determining whether it was infected.

After this, watch your pet. The slightest deviations: apathy, lethargy, refusal to eat, vomiting, changes in the color of urine - a reason to run to the veterinarian. In this case, the clock counts. You can protect your dog from attack using various means: collars, drops on the withers, repellents. Even a suit can save your pet. And of course, an inspection after every walk, then your dog will never experience the misfortune of diseases brought by ticks.