Dogs that regularly walk outside are at risk of being bitten by a tick. This insect can cause great harm to the health of the animal, and in some cases even lead to its death. Therefore, every time after a walk, the dog must be carefully examined, and if a tick is found in the coat, it must be removed as soon as possible. In this article, you will learn how to remove a tick from a dog if there is no way to quickly contact a veterinarian.
You need to carefully pull out a tick from a dog.
Finding the parasite on a short-haired dog is not difficult. If your pet has long hair, brush it with a thick brush. Pay close attention to the paws and areas between the toes, neck, head and abdomen. These are the places that parasites like most of all. It may be possible to detect the tick before it has time to bite the dog. In this case, it must be carefully removed.
How to get a tick out of a dog if it has already burrowed into the skin? Some helpful tips:
first of all, it is necessary to wear gloves, since the tick can be a carrier of infection;
Roughly tearing the tick off the skin is prohibited! The parasite pierces the skin with its proboscis, and then straightens the thorns under it. If you simply tear the tick away from the body, the proboscis can remain inside and continue to poison the animal;
the tick must be removed entirely. The remaining parts of his body on the skin can cause inflammation. For the same reason, the tick cannot be squeezed.
The parasite must be removed along with the head and proboscis – this is the best guarantee that the consequences of a bite can be avoided.
You can remove a tick from a dog at home as follows:
First you need to generously grease the tick with oil, petroleum jelly or gasoline. The parasite breathes in the body, and thus the oxygen supply will be blocked. After 20-30 minutes, it will relax the proboscis and fall off.
If this does not happen, you need to prepare tweezers and a magnifying glass. We gently but firmly grasp the tick with tweezers as close to the skin as possible. It is necessary to carefully rotate it in both directions – in this way the proboscis is unscrewed from under the skin.
The tweezers should be pulled strictly vertically, with a confident movement.
After removing the tick, you need to examine it with a magnifying glass – whether its head, trunk, legs are in place. If some parts are missing, it means that they remain in the wound and they must be removed from there. You can use a disinfected needle.
The bite site is thoroughly disinfected with an antiseptic.
In veterinary pharmacies and pet stores, you can purchase special devices for removing ticks, they will greatly simplify the procedure.
“If you’re afraid to pull out the tick yourself, it’s better to contact your veterinarian,” the veterinary clinic advises. – Removing the parasite is an inexpensive procedure, it costs about 100 rubles plus the cost of admission. If it was not possible to completely remove the tick, you need to process the bite site twice a day. In addition, it is worth additionally donating the pet’s blood for possible infections. After a bite, a complication may develop – piroplasmosis. This is a serious parasitic disease, from which the pet dies within a week after the first symptoms appear, if you do not seek help in time. “
If the dog has been bitten by a tick, you can’t hesitate, but you shouldn’t panic either. From the moment of the bite, there is 24 hours before the insect begins to secrete its venom. Therefore, you should not neglect the inspection of the dog after walking in nature.