Beware of ticks!

**Clydetz** · 05-05-2008, 05:44 PM

Casper & I were out pretty early today for our usual walk in the park. Weather was beautiful and it was a great walk. Got back to the truck where Casper enjoyed a drink of water as I was enjoying my cup of coffee. Casper was sitting in the passenger seat watching the people & dogs going by while I was scratching his neck. I felt a little 'bump' and wound up finding a tick under his fur on his shoulder blade. The tick wasn't attached but if I didn't find it then, I'm sure by the time we got home it would have been. Time for a new dose of 'Frontline'.

**mack1** · 05-05-2008, 05:53 PM

Glad ya caught it!!!

**Katwyld** · 05-05-2008, 06:11 PM

Yeah, good thing ya got him.... poor Casper...

Great, now I've got the creepy crawly feeling. Damnit! Time for frontline for me, too!

**2fulhundin** · 05-05-2008, 07:43 PM

One of my mother's 6th grades is goingto miss the end rest of school with lymes disease. he had what his parent sthought was flu then his leg swelled twice the size which got parents naturally concerned. was in childrens hospital for 10 days with it..
another local elementary school had to close the playground due to ticks.. they are thick as theives..

**Clydetz** · 05-05-2008, 07:43 PM

It would have been tougher to find that tick but luckily Casper got a 'haircut' last Tuesday and his fur is pretty short now. Looks like it's time to carry a pair of tweezers and cigarette lighter in my pocket!

Sounds like this is going to be the Year of the Tick, 2fulhundin. Hope that 6th grader gets well!

**RoadFish** · 05-06-2008, 02:07 AM

It is tick season here too! What are your thoughts on the best of the anti-parasite products out there and the best way to remove the ticks once embedded?

**TacoMan5000** · 05-06-2008, 11:27 AM

I was already aware of ticks, but thank anyway. I used to get 'em when I spent a lot of time in the woods; between my fingers once, and one time in my groin. I needed help to get that sucker out.

**Clydetz** · 05-06-2008, 12:59 PM

I haven't got any idea what kind of tick product works for people but for the last few of years I've been using Frontline for the dogs. I can still remember my mother removing embedded ticks from us kids and mostly the dogs by smearing the tick with Vaseline, waiting a few minutes and removing it with a strawberry huller. Then the tick would be rolled up in a piece of toilet paper and burned! I once removed over 50 ticks from a stray dog I found at work by 'picking' them off with my fingers & sticking them on a ball of masking tape. Then using a spray of isopropyl alcohol to loosen up the ones that didn't let go so easy. Added them to the ball of tape then jumped up & down on the whole bloody mess!

strawberry huller:

**Cadi Con Carne** · 05-06-2008, 02:29 PM

I use tweezers and matches. Light a match, then blow it out, and put the smoking head to the tick. It'll cause the tick to back out, then tweeze. Use a second match to torch the tick.

Remember, don't just pull a stuck-in one. That breaks off the mouth parts in the skin, and that can get nasty.

I've got the ickyshivers now, too. Arachnids and I don't get on all that well. Buuuuh...

**Katwyld** · 05-06-2008, 09:55 PM

Used to use alcohol... used a cigarette once (one was in the ex-husband's head... TOP of his head... and the idiot was trying to get it out himself... didn't really care if I accidently burned him with the cig, but I didn't, so...)... Mostly taken them out on snakes, though, so...

**Dr Mabuse** · 05-06-2008, 10:22 PM

touching a match to a tick causes it to vomit into the host... this is the opposite of what you want... normally disease infection usually occurs after 24 hours of attachment... using a match changes all of that as the tick vomiting injects whatever pathogen it has... also petroleum jelly and iodine and etc. are poor ways to remove a tick...

use tweezers, or similar device like forceps, carefully go to the head or mouth of the tick, NOT the body... grasp and pull it STRAIGHT out, don't twist it... visually inspect for any mouth parts in the wound, though if you are careful in the use of the tweezers this is rare... then clean the bite with alcohol or other antiseptic, alcohol is best as it cleans the area and removes the cement ticks secrete from their mouth to 'lock down' the attachment, or bite... don't touch the tick with your hands...

if it is on your child... many doctors want you to drop the tick in isopropyl alcohol, which both kills and preserves it, and bring it in to the office for inspection, now that tick-borne diseases are fairly common...

**norcal13** · 05-06-2008, 10:47 PM

is limes disease real prevalent out on the right coast?
or is it just regional?
seems about once every year or so i hear about someone or their dog getting it out here.

**Katwyld** · 05-06-2008, 11:29 PM

Maybe there's more ticks out here?

**Fenlore** · 05-06-2008, 11:32 PM

I'd like to volunteer to check all lady devils for ticks... you can never be too careful

**Clydetz** · 05-07-2008, 10:23 AM

In response to norcal13... I believe lyme disease got its name because it was first diagnosed in Lyme, Connecticut. In order to be infected, you have to be bitten by a tick carrying a certain species of bacteria. It's the bacteria that causes the disease... the tick provides the avenue for it to enter your body.