How to Remove a Tick

Contrary to popular belief, removing a tick from your dog is not easy but it is also not at all complicated. All you really need to have is attention and care and follow the advice we are going to give you. Ticks should be removed with special tick removal instruments or with a pair of fine tipped tweezers. This is because they will allow you to remove the tick from your dog without squeezing its body. It is highly important to avoid this because you do not want the tick's body to be crushed and have harmful bacteria enter in your dog's bloodstream, thus leading to huge complications.

First off you will need to grab the tick by its head or mouth parts. Do not do this on the body and without jerking just pull steadily and firmly exactly outwards. Never twist the tick while you are pulling it out of your dog's skin. Remember that popular methods of making the tick back out like a hot match, alcohol or petroleum jelly is not recommended as it will not aid in making it back out and can even lead towards it depositing even more saliva in the already existing wound. When you take it out just put it in alcohol in order to kill it. Ticks to not die if you flush them down the toilet! Use a disinfectant to clean the bite wound and then apply a small amount of antibiotic ointment to soothe the effects of the tick on your dog. Never forget to wash your hands and do not use your fingers to dispose of the tick and do not squash it. The contents inside it can transmit disease.

If the tick is removed you might notice in some cases that a skin reaction appears. It is not uncommon and a little hydrocortisone spray will fix this problem. The only problem is that it might take up to one week or even more for your dog to completely heal and the tick bite might even leave a permanent scar or hairless region because of a reaction to tick saliva.