4 year old black lab.
After its bedtime walk last night I noticed a creamy small blob on his forehead which was pretty much attached strongly. For some reason I had thought that ticks were black but some quick googling suggested differently. It seemed more flat than images online. However with a pair of disposable tweezers and some brute force we got it out. Placed it in a clear tub but no movement from it at all (don't know if that is good or bad).
What should we do now? And more worryingly, with hindsight he had something like this on one of his paws about 8 weeks ago but it didn't seem to bother him and its not there now?
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The danger is leaving its head buried under the skin. There's specialist removal tools available, cheaply.
AFAIK they latch on to an animal, take their fill of blood and then drop off again.
I use a treatment applied to the back of the neck, every few weeks, on the cat that deigns to share our house. Don't like doing it, but I think it's the lesser of two evils.
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>> 4 year old black lab.
Funny you should say that, I have just phoned the vet and we are off to get half a dead tick removed from FiFi 2s shoulder later this morning.
Fifi 1 had a near death experience with a tick, mostly my fault. She had one on her neck, I not knowing what it was, tried to get it off, squashed it in the process and it vomited its contents into her bloodstream. The result was toxic shock, near death and a £2.5k emergency vets bill (insured)
So as part of the doggy first aid kit (yes I have assembled one), is two size tick hooks, and Frontline.
Rest of our time with dogs has been fine tick wise, lots of hand grooming after runs in fields in tick areas to see if they have them, use of tick hooks to get them out, with antiseptic spray and or mag sulphate to treat the puncture. Not many as font line did the job mostly ok.
Went to the New Forest last Thursday (you can't imagine the nasties for dogs that lurk there within, horsefly, alabama rot, and of course a plethora of ticks) Anyway it appears Frontline failed me, I missed the tick, FiFi2 didn't and she has scratched off the body and left the head. This is the worse case scenario. Now I could get it out with fine needle nosed tweezers, but I want the vet to do it so she can wash out the puncture mark and give FiFi2 a AB jab.
Specific advice to Bobby? cut off hair around the bite area so you can monitor it. If it gets red or inflamed or starts to weep, off to the vet for an AB jab. I assume you know how to take a dogs
temperature, so do that daily and if it starts to rise - Vet.
How to prevent ticks? Avoid the Tick areas? Not practical, no point having a lively gun dog, so as Front Line has failed, I am going to try Garlic powder in her food. And of course lots of hand grooming after runs to weed the little ruggers out.
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Cheers for advice - what sort of timescales are involved for reactions?
The one that was on his paw a few weeks ago, is it safe to assume that has fallen off or whatever as there appears to be no effects and certainly no change in his behaviour?
Re you squashing the tick, the one that I was removing last night seemed a lot flatter than the images online. Hope that doesn't mean its contents were already spewed in!
I have never taken a dogs temperature and I don't think I want to start now - maybe the wife can do that!! Interestingly the missus is a nurse and it was left to me to deal with the tick as she couldn't face looking at it!
Will trim the hair around it and keep monitoring
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>> Cheers for advice - what sort of timescales are involved for reactions?
7 days max on the puncture, 14 days for anything else - you need to watch for listlessness, change of attitude, off food etc etc. (off food is an issue with labs, its hard to tell they continue to eat after they have died.)
Keep the tick, if there are any reactions the vet will want to see it. Lymes disease is the obvious risk.
>> The one that was on his paw a few weeks ago, is it safe to
>> assume that has fallen off or whatever as there appears to be no effects and
>> certainly no change in his behaviour?
Yes thats fine - past history - no problem there.
>> I have never taken a dogs temperature and I don't think I want to start
>> now - maybe the wife can do that!!
Its easy, you get a cheap digital medical thermometer, grab the dog by the base of its tail, lift its back legs off the floor and stuff it up their ass. Dogs are very very susceptible to long term damage from overheating. They have a different (narrow) natural temperature range to humans.
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 29 Jun 15 at 09:57
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>> >> 4 year old black lab.
>>
>> Funny you should say that, I have just phoned the vet and we are off
>> to get half a dead tick removed from FiFi 2s shoulder later this morning.
And back, Vet plucked out he tick with tweezers, examined the area with magnifier, nothing left in bite so sent on our way 20 quid lighter
She said its the THIRD tick incident of the day, and its the worse time for ticks she has ever known. A result of climate change.
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>>sent on our way 20 quid lighter
I would have ticked her off about ya know!
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Milo my 15 year old R/Ridge had loads of ticks o'er the years. I don't faff about with 'em though and just twist 'n pull them them out with one of these:
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/OTOM-TICK-TWISTER-REMOVER-2-X-PACK-DOG-CAT-PEOPLE-HORSE-PET-/251140859454?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3a7929663e
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Dog, and accompanying kids, used to get ticks when out and about in Malaya. Apparently a lighted fag end applied gets head and all out. Not having fags to hand, we used salt. That seemed to work OK.
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Cheers Dog, might just get a couple of them ordered now to have it on hand.
Zero, what else would be useful as a "first aid pack" type thing - you mention sprays?
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You should never use salt, aftershave, fag end, or anything like that on a tick. They can regurgitate their stomach contents into the dog's bloodstream which cam cause problems for your dog. As has been previously mentioned you can get tick removers quite cheaply which will safely remove the whole of the tick from your dog.
Scalibor collars are probably the best means of keeping ticks away from your dog. You can now buy these more cheaply on Amazon instead of getting them from your vet.
www.msd-animal-health.co.uk/products_public/scalibor/010_overview.aspx
Last edited by: Robbie34 on Mon 29 Jun 15 at 11:30
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>> Cheers Dog, might just get a couple of them ordered now to have it on
>> hand.
>> Zero, what else would be useful as a "first aid pack" type thing - you
>> mention sprays?
Ok, you don't need much, just a smallish pouch that contains
Sharp scissors (to cut away hair from wounds)
*Some Ampules of Saline or Sterile Water (to wash out wounds - they WILL have mud and crap in them)
*Syringe and largish gauge needle ( to help wash out wounds, and pick stuff out of it)
Needle point Tweezers
Tick twisters
Leucillin Antiseptic spray (for cuts and grazes)
Piriton (for bites and stings - dose as children)
A largish wound dressing/pad
*your missus, like mine will have easy access to those.
And finally, the secret ingredient - Cohesive Bandage, as used on Horses www.rideaway.co.uk/shires-cohesive-bandages
Dogs are very robust, they will get cuts, bites, stings, twists, breaks and sprains. Anything like that happens to dogs and they get a massive boost of adrenaline, and will limp out of, survive most trauma well enough to get to a vet. The only thing that will do your dog in quicker than you can say boo, is overheating and blood loss. Overheating you avoid, and you fix blood loss with pressure using the wound dressing and the cohesive bandage. The bandage will also provide limb support if needed.
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 29 Jun 15 at 13:00
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Excellent, cheers for the list, will start the ball rolling straight away
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It's worse when a tick gets into you. Even using the proper tweezers it hurts quite a lot twisting the damn thing out. Got one between two of my toes in Oz.
Leeches are much better. You don't feel a thing unless you just pull them off. Then you get an itchy place. If you leave them alone they let go when they're full of your blood.
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Blimey....I'm glad we're a dogless zone here now !
Don't forget to thoroughly clean the thermometer after each use, SWM's toothbrush will do an excellent job of it !
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Dogs & Ticks - bathtub tom
