A How-to Guide for Tick Removal From Your Pets
Ticks are unpleasant for everyone, catching a sneaky ride on both you and your dog. Because ticks can carry several different types of dangerous diseases, it’s important to remove a tick promptly as soon as it is found. You should prioritize conducting tick removal properly to avoid tearing the tick and spreading possible infection.
Once you know how to remove a tick, the process is fairly simple and easy to repeat when necessary.
How to Remove a Tick From a Dog
The most common tool used for tick removal is tweezers. Most people have those on hand, so it is effective, but there are also tweezers made just for this purpose. Be sure to use ones with a fine-point tip instead of a blunt tip to avoid crushing the tick.
Carefully spread the dog’s fur, revealing the tick as clearly as possible. With the tweezers, grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible. Gently pull up in a slow, steady motion. You want to prevent the mouth parts from breaking off and staying embedded in the dog. It’s a common misconception that ticks embed their heads in the skin. Ticks have only one body segment with no definable head. What gets inserted is the harpoon-like barbs of its mouth, which you don’t want to leave behind.
How to Remove a Tick: What Not to Do
To ensure your dog does not suffer from an infection or other complications with the tick bite, there are a few important things to remember.
Do not use your fingers
This risks popping the tick or further injecting infectious material into the skin.
Do not yank
This will separate the mouth from the body and leave it in the skin
Do not leave the bite untreated
Tick bites should be disinfected to avoid the risk of infection after the bug has been removed
Consider Using a Tick Removal Tool
For those that live in areas with a heavier tick population, you might want to invest in a tick removal tool. They are lightweight and portable, allowing you to act in time. It is crucial to pull the tick out from your pup as soon as you see one. Using these tools can also keep the tick’s head and mouth intact, ultimately minimizing the risk of infection.
Get Joy Telehealth
Once you have removed the tick, if you are still concerned you can get on-demand access to a veterinary expert with Get Joy Health. All customers have free access to this service to help keep your dog active, healthy, and happy. In fact, we are offering free access to our televet services to any and everybody through the end of 2022!
