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Post by hooligan on Oct 17, 2011 7:25:00 GMT -5
Jack seems to have picked up a tick. Never having seen one before, it took us a while to figure out that this is what the little "growth" on his neck probably is. And because neither of us is confident about removing it competently, Jack is off to the vet thus morning to have the darn thing taken off (if it is, indeed, a tick).
Of course, we're now paranoid about lyme disease, etc., and will be asking our vet what to watch out for.
Has anyone else had experience with ticks? Any advice to offer?
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Post by ladydon on Oct 17, 2011 22:38:26 GMT -5
I hope it's not ticks. I hate them with a passion! Growing up in a tropical country ticks are quite common...its almost impossible for you to have a dog and not have ticks. It's less gross to remove them when they haven't fed yet...they get really fat once fed and feel squishy. The smaller ones are brown in colour and the thick fat ones are grey in colour. How I removed them I simply parted the hair first. Now you can remove them either with your fingernails (if you're not squeamish), tweezers or some tick removal hook. Make sure you see where they are attached. If you are using tweezers go right underneath the tick and clamp on between the head of the tick and the skin...basically you're aiming for that contact between the ticks mouth (its hooks) and the skin of the dog. You don't want to hold on to the body of the tick because it can burst while you're pulling it out and well...it's gross and also, by grabbing it around its mouthparts, you are making sure that you pulling out the entire tick and not leave anything behind. Same concept if you use your fingernails...you will get blood on it though. Once you got a good hold of the tick just yank it straight up. Some ticks are easy to remove and some latch on for dear life so you may feel a slight tug...just try and make sure to get it out on your first try. It gets pretty uncomfortable pulling the same tick 10 times. Once it's pulled out, you may see blood and I just use soap and water to clean it...dogs hate the stinging sensation of alcohol so I try not to use it. You can the put the tick in a bottle filled with soap and water...you'll see them try to swim legs kicking and all but they'll eventually drown. It's gross but we used to have hundreds in a bottle. Definitely talk to your vet with respect to Lyme disease. Most cases, some ticks don't carry any diseases but having it checked won't hurt either. Our dogs turned out fine...no diseases....just that they took turns for weekly tick inspections.
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Post by hooligan on Oct 18, 2011 8:47:45 GMT -5
Thanks, Svetlana. The thing was, indeed, a tick, which is now "living" in a sealed jar in our kitchen. I had checked out dog ticks online and both the U of G and a federal gov't website recommended keeping the tick(s) in case a dog later started displaying disease symptoms, which can apparently sometimes take months to show up. If symptoms do appear and you have the tick, it can then be analyzed to pinpoint the particular disease it transmitted, and this can smooth the process of dealing with things.
Our vet reassured us that -- at least in southern Ont. -- the chances of Jack's contracting a tick-borne disease are low . . . but you never know. So for the time being, we have a new family member. LOL.
When we first noticed the thing, we thought it was a skin tag of some sort, and it was only later that we began to strongly suspect that it was a tick. After reading online warnings about being careful to get the whole thing (and not to leave the head embedded in the skin), we didn't feel at all confident about removing it ourselves; hence, the visit to the vet. She did an expert job of removing it -- and as usual at the vet, Jack was very calm and patient while all this was going on. Jack is always so well-behaved at the vet's that I'm sure she doesn believe us when we tell her that he's a hooligan.
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Post by hooligan on Oct 18, 2011 9:05:59 GMT -5
Oh, I meant to add . . . this tick episode means even more agonizing next spring when we have to make the decision about whether to include a flea- and tick-prevention component to Jack's heartworm regime. On the grounds that I've never had a dog with fleas and that I had never even seen a tick, I've always gone with heartworm prevention alone. I just don't like loading my dog's system with chemicals.
Our vet said that if Jack had been on the tick preventive, the tick would have died and dropped off, perhaps without our even noticing it (and eliminating all worries, no matter how small, about tick-borne diseases). Now, I'm not sure what we'll do when the issue comes up next spring. Sigh.
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Post by ladydon on Oct 18, 2011 18:52:20 GMT -5
You did the right thing contacting your vet. It's better to be safe than sorry. I always bring Diesel everywhere with me especially parks so he definitely had to have the flea treatment. It's easy...once a month from May-Nov and its non invasive...you just have to get Jack not to move around while you are administering it. Any ticks that latch on will just fall off. Definitely consider it as it would be better for him to be tick free than having to pluck those blood suckers time and time again.
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Post by dobermoms on Oct 18, 2011 23:56:33 GMT -5
Just our thoughts...with the two dogs at The Bend all summer, we take it one step further than the monthly treatment which gets put on the back of their neck. From the vet, we purchased a "tick" collar or $22 or thereabouts. We just put it on them like a regular collar, and it helps protect their entire body from ticks. It lasts the entire summer, and only comes off before contact with water..ie swimming. As there is long grasses beside our trailer--we are tucked away against a farmers field and bush, their are always ticks lurking there. Dante had one in his ear at the beginning of the season....I then remembered quickly to pick up the collars, and never had any more issues with them for the remainder of the season.
Ask your vet about them, and only buy them from your vet as they must work together with the type of flea treatment that they're getting.
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Post by hooligan on Oct 19, 2011 7:45:28 GMT -5
Yep, tick prevention is definitely something we'll be considering next spring. Maybe we've just been lucky, but ticks have never even been on our radar -- even though Jack (and my previous dogs) have always been hiked in the bush. Kerrie and Barb, did you remove Dante's tick yourselves? Coincidentally, we were at training yesterday and heard that a number of the GSDs that had recently competed at the WUSV (schutzhund) world championships in Ukraine had come down with piroplasmosis, a life-threatening tick-borne disease. (In fact, the rumour mill has it that at least two -- and as many as five -- of the dogs have died, though this is unconfirmed.) One of the Canadian dogs is among those who are sick, though the cause of his malady is so far a mystery. Tests have ruled out piroplasmosis, but further tests are apparently being carried out. For those who are interested, here's the notice on the WUSV website: www.wusv-2011.com/en
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Post by dobermoms on Oct 19, 2011 20:18:55 GMT -5
We didn't remove the tick ourselves....a couple did for us. I do remember though that the vet saying that the collar helps protect the entire dogs body, and continues to work even after it is removed from their collar.
Since we are near The Pinery, there are also deer that run thru the park, and the surrounding area....we just don;t feel comfortable NOT having the extra protection on the dogs.
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