If you and your dog spend any amount of time in the great outdoors, the chances are good that eventually, one or both of you will come home with a tick. After all, they stand on the tips of grass blades, just waiting for someone to brush past, some unknowing host who, they hope, will never even know once they’ve come aboard. So you want to get into the habit of checking everyone’s clothes and coats at the end of each day (even in the most unsuspecting places) for the slow-crawling arachnids, because if checked quickly, the ticks may not have enough time to actually attach themselves to the host’s skin and start sucking. Even with protective attire (ideally, light-colored clothing, long pants, tucked into socks), there will be times you’ll miss a tick. and a few days later, in patting a hand along your dog’s coat, you’ll find a strange, wobbly bump. Look closely, parting the fur back, and you’ll see it: nice and fat, something you can wiggle back and forth (as fun as that sounds).
I use tweezers. That’s what the CDC recommends. I inflict paranoid hysteria on the kids in warning them that, if they try to remove a tick with their hands, any agents of illness that could possibly be in the tick may infect them. Our skin is a breathing, holey membrane and tiny things pass invisibly across its pores. You could also cite the various illnesses the tick is often a vector for:
- Lyme disease
- Rocky Mountain spotted fever
- babesiosis
- ehrlichiosis
- Q-fever
- Southern tick-associated rash illness
- tick-borne relapsing fever
- tularemia
- Colorado tick fever
Not to mention how gross they look, just dangling there by their mandibles, arms splayed back in a sinister swan dive.
When using the tweezers*, I find it’s most effective to very gently grasp the HEAD of the tick between the pincers, very close to the skin, and with a gently grip, carefully and slowly lever upwards as the tick lets go of its bite. If you yank straight upwards, chances are good that the tick will separate in two parts, leaving the head still tenaciously attached to your beloved host. If you squeeze the tick’s body, it could puke nasty fluids back into the host, or worse, explode! You want to remove the entire tick, of course, and you want to remove it without squeezing it or crushing it or puncturing the tick–if this happens, any harmful agents in the tick’s fluids will disperse. Have a tissue on hand, in addition to the tweezers, to safely handle the tick.
Once the tick is removed, suspended in the tweezer’s grasp, it should be preserved in some manner (in case you or your dog gets sick later) so that you can bring it to your veterinarian for analysis. You can put it in a sealed plastic baggie or jar with the date of the bite on a piece of paper.
FINALLY, with a sigh of relief and a bar of soap, wash up and apply antiseptic to the bite wound. Then, to satisfy your curiosity, try to identify what kind of tick you’ve isolated at one of many well-referenced guides online. And keep your fingers crossed!
Just remember, in removing the tick:
- Avoid trying to burn the tick off with a match.
- Don’t try to smother the tick with nail polish, vaseline, or other witchcraft.
- Tell your pediatrician if your child gets sick soon after getting bitten by the tick; this is important especially if, within 1 or 2 weeks, he develops a rash, fever, chills, headache, fatigue, or swollen gland.
- Do not leave the tick’s head stuck in the skin–if you do, get the pediatrician or doctor (or veterinarian, whoever the case may require) to finish the job.
- Do not squeeze the tick as you try to remove it.
*Addendum!
There is a commercially-made alternative to tweezers for the removal of ticks:
Ticked Off
There is also another brand, met with wide success in the UK (but only available for purchase there, at this writing):
The O’Tom Tick Twister
and follow the adventure:
The advice now is NOT to twist the tick when removing with tweezers as the nose of the tweezers exerts too much pressure to the mouthparts of the tick and they can break off. The advice is to gently lift/lever in an upward motion, as advised by the CDC
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/Lyme/ld_tickremoval.htm
There are various tick removal tools available, not all are as safe as they claim to be. The Tick Twister, is one tool that you CAN twist the tick with as it cradles the body of the tick and does not exert pressure to the mouthparts. This tool performed the best in a study of various tick removal devices which was published in the Veterinary Record.
I found this site really informative:
http://www.bada-uk.org
Thanks, Nina! I really appreciated your timely correction. I went in and changed out the “twist” for “lever” because you’re absolutely right and that describes the action perfectly. And I linked to the (UK) O’Tom remover, as well as a commercially-made remover (that’s more widely available) I’ve seen used by veterinarians on YouTube (sold at TickedOff.com)–they really do work well, seeing them in action.
In this blog I try to emphasize what you’d do with the minimum of supplies at hand. Still, with the prevalence of disease and the technology at hand, one can’t argue that it’s not better to, as the Boy Scouts advise: Be Prepared! (with the best tools possible for the job!)
Hi Steph,
The Tick Twister is available in the US (http://www.ticktwister.com)and in many other countries. In Europe it is called ‘O’TOM’ but in the US it is called ‘Tick Twister’. I personally prefer this tool because it is so easy, even on a wriggling pup. Many of the other tools seem to leave the mouth parts in. This tool was designed by a French veterinarian. You can see it in action on the BADA-UK YouTube channel. That’s how I found their website.
I’m soooo careful about tick removal because I got Lyme disease and was really badly affected. I’ve also got a friend with a Springer Spaniel who lost her spleen due to Babesiosis and Lyme disease. The dog was in intensive care for weeks and almost died several times.
Keep up the good work.
Nina.
Oops, forgot to give the YouTube link.
http://uk.youtube.com/profile?user=badauk1
[...] How to remove a tick Lyme disease; Rocky Mountain spotted fever; babesiosis; ehrlichiosis; Q-fever; Southern tick-associated rash illness; tick-borne relapsing fever; tularemia; Colorado tick fever. Not to mention how gross they look, just dangling there by … [...]
[...] How to remove a tick When using the tweezers, I find it’s most effective to very gently grasp the HEAD of the tick between the pincers, and with a gently grip, slowly twist upwards as the tick lets go of its bite. If you yank straight upwards, … [...]
real tick-removers are *much* easier to use than tweezers, at least much easier to use correctly — it’s so hard to remove the head without accidentally squeezing the tick with tweezers.
we live in the woods, which is wonderful, but ticks — blarg!!! every time i see one i almost pass out.
my best tick remover isn’t either of the ones you mention; unfortunately it doesn’t have a name on it. but it works like scissors rather than just a spoon with a V cut into it — makes it very easy to snug up between the tick and the skin. (i have several like that, too — one on each set of keys! — did i mention we see a lot of ticks?) it also has an attached magnifying glass. i bought all of our tick removers from camping stores in the u.s.
you might also keep an eye out for the bullseye rash that indicates lyme disease, although not everyone gets the rash.
Oh this brought back so many memories of my mom using a hot match to remove ticks! I need to take a “Silkwood” shower now.
Love the blog by the way!
did you know… that if you dab the tic with a cotton ball with finger nail polish remover on it it will come off on it’s own :o)
it works…I have a very happy bunny now :o)
~simply~
[...] you get back, check your dog for ticks! Also, check for burrs and foxtails. If your dog stops on the trail and holds up a paw, check them [...]
Do we require any type of medication after the removal of ticks?
Hi Johnson,
After removing ticks, the first thing you want to do is wash your hands and apply an antiseptic to destroy contaminating microorganisms. You ought to monitor yourself up to 30 days for signs and symptoms of tick-borne diseases such as the occurrence of a skin lesion at the site of the tick bite (which may suggest Lyme disease) or a fever (which may suggest human granulocytic ehrlichiosis [HGE] or babesiosis).
Remember also that, just like any skin lesion, a wound can become infected by a secondary pathogen such as Staph aureus and Group A strep., especially if there are still tick parts within the lesion.
If you have any further questions online I’d go to the eMedicine article on tick removal and read under “complications” down at the bottom. If you have anything that causes suspicion, then contact your doctor.
Steph
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