What are ticks?
Ticks are tiny parasitic creatures that latch onto your dog’s skin and suck their blood. Nope, it’s not a horror movie – it’s true! They are spider-like with eight legs and can vary in size between 1mm and 1cm.
Your dog is most likely to pick up a tick in the woods, tall grasslands or heath. However, if your garden is particularly luscious and green, you might find ticks there too. Ticks are particularly prominent in the summer months, but that’s not to say you should let your guard down in winter.
Removing ticks from a dog can be tricky. They use their eight legs to burrow deeply into hard-to-find areas of your dog’s flesh. They will suck their host’s blood over a period of several days, causing them to swell and grow. This process involves an exchange of fluids. As a result, any previously diseased blood still present in the tick’s saliva can enter your dog’s bloodstream. This is how a dog can catch dangerous diseases from ticks.
Although it might be tempting to dive in with the tweezers, we recommend taking a few moments to read the following before attempting to remove a tick from your dog.
- Clean the area with an antiseptic solution, such as rubbing alcohol
- Always use clean tools – use the same solution to sterilize the tweezers. This will help to prevent any further infections.
- Use fine-pointed tweezers or a dedicated tick-removing device, such as a Tick Twister. Never use your hands as this could cause the spread of infection.
Once you have prepared the area for removal, you will need to take a secure grip on the tick. A twisting motion will ensure the tick’s whole body is removed. If you’re in doubt about whether you’ve got the whole tick, don’t hesitate to visit your vet. The longer the tick is burrowed in your dog’s skin, the higher the risk of infection or disease.
After you have removed the tick, clean the area gently with rubbing alcohol. For the next few days, keep a close eye on your pup to make sure they have not picked up any nasty infection or diseases.
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