Mary Allen
Do you have to turn the tick to the left or to the right? There are many myths about how to properly remove ticks. Don’t believe them, some tricks are actually dangerous to your health! What you should and shouldn’t do if your dog or cat has a tick, read here.
Detect Ticks
Spotting ticks is not easy, especially with thick fur. You can usually feel adult ticks that have already sucked their fill, as they can grow up to a centimeter in size. However, tick larvae and nymphs can hardly be seen with the naked eye, especially not in long and dark fur. Our tips:
- Look especially on sparsely hairy parts of the body with thin skin, such as the head (fold up the floppy ears!), armpits, and inner thighs. Ticks like to stay here.
- Check your dog or cat thoroughly for ticks after every walk but at the latest every evening during the tick season.
- You can start by stroking the fur with your flat hands and watching for telltale “nubs”. Then you should part the fur and stroke it against the grain to take a closer look at the skin – also on the stomach and legs.
- If you have discovered and removed an adult tick, then it makes sense to administer an anti-tick agent to kill hidden larvae and nymphs as well.
As soon as you discover a tick, you should also remove it. It usually takes several hours or even days for a tick to transmit pathogens. Rapid removal therefore often prevents infection with dangerous pathogens.
Gently Remove Ticks
When removing a tick, try to cause it as little stress as possible. When stressed, ticks secrete bodily secretions that can transmit pathogens to your pet. The quickest and most stress-free way for everyone involved in the following:
- It is best to use tick tweezers. With it, you can safely capture the tick without squeezing it.
- Grab the tick as close to the skin as possible and pull it out carefully and evenly. It may take a few seconds for the tick to detach as it is attached to the skin with a layer of putty. After carefully breaking this layer, it comes off very easily.
- Kill the tick by placing it in a jar of hard alcohol or by freezing it. This way you can show them to a vet if necessary. He can determine the type of tick and possibly send the tick to a laboratory to see what pathogens it is carrying.
What Not to Do
Tick bites — (experts refer to them as tick bites) usually heal easily and are only dangerous to the animal if pathogens are transmitted or if so many parasites suck blood that anemia develops (which is not normally the case with pets).
It sometimes becomes problematic when parts of the tick get stuck in the animal. Or when the tick secretes saliva when removed and thus infects the animal with dangerous pathogens. Therefore, pay attention to the tick:
- not to be removed with your fingers, as this will crush it and pathogens can be pressed into the bite site.
- not to be removed suddenly, as parts of the tick could then get stuck in the animal.
- not to be treated with oil, glue, alcohol, or the like. The tick then let’s go, but before that, in fear of death, it secretes a lot of possibly contagious secretions into your animal.
- not to turn, neither to the left nor to the right. This is because ticks do not have a thread on their pricking tool and turning it means that parts of the tick are more likely to get stuck in the animal.
After Removing
Once all the ticks you have seen have been safely removed, you should use a tick repellent to be on the safe side. In this way, you can be sure that ticks, larvae, and nymphs that you have overlooked are also killed.
If you see redness around the bite, it’s best to go to the vet to be on the safe side. The so-called reddening can indicate a Borrelia infection, which should be treated immediately with an antibiotic. However, Lyme disease can also occur without a reddening being visible beforehand, this only occurs in about half of all infections.
If your animal shows signs of illness such as fever, loss of appetite, or fatigue after a tick bite, you should definitely consult a veterinarian. It could be a tick-borne disease like Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, or babesiosis.