Another first for Posie - a tick!

[Petepreston]

She's never had one before, at least, I've never noticed one before, but this morning I confirmed that a small "thing" on her chin is indeed a tick. So it's off to the pet shop to get a tool.

As if that wasn't bad enough, I then noticed what I thought was a tiny dark seed on the sofa. When I picked it up on a piece of paper it's tiny legs started to move. Gross! Now I don't know if I have ticks in the house, but the prognosis isn't good.

Does anybody know what I should do about that aspect? She had Frontline about a month ago but still got one tick (at least).

[elaine.e]

Ticks don't move fast and don't infest houses so the one you found on the sofa had probably just dropped off Posie. We have loads of ticks down here in the New Forest and I rely on checking the dogs over after each walk and removing any I find rather than using a preventative, so I can't recommend one, but I'm sure others can.

They will also latch on to people, but in 25 years of dog walking in the New Forest I've only ever found one on me on 2 or 3 occasions.

[Petepreston]

That's reassuring about ticks & people - not that hearing it has stopped my skin crawling.

In the last week or so we've been to three new contry walks (2 yesterday) where she's likely to have picked them up. Because we've never had a problem with our regular walks I haven't got into the habit of checking for hem, but since we're moving to the country soon, I'd better get used to it.

She doesn't seem at all bothered by the one that's attached. Do they not itch or sting at all?

[elaine.e]

She doesn't seem at all bothered by the one that's attached. Do they not itch or sting at all?

They don't seem to. Are you going to buy an O'Tom remover? I have a pack of 2 different sized ones, a small one for removing small ticks (oddly enough) and a bigger one for removing ticks that hve been latched on for a while and are full of blood . After you've removed the tick check and make sure you've got all of it out. Even with the O'Tom it's possible to leave the head behind occasionally. But if that happens don't worry too much because usually a small red lump will appear where the tick was, it will scab over and the head of the tick will come off with the scab. Even if you successfully remove all of the tick there may be a small swelling there for a couple of days.

Ticks can cause Lyme Disease in both dogs and humans, which is pretty nasty, so they need to be taken seriously. But having lived all my life in an area with ticks I regard them as a hazard but not one that I worry about on a daily basis.

One good bit of advice - never , ever, accidentally stand on a full up tick that's dropped off the dog and onto the carpet. They make a disgusting popping noise and your carpet will never be the same again

[Petepreston]

I'm not looking forward to the removal and the more I read about them the more I'm starting to panic. Right now I'm sitting in a cafe having been around town trying to get an O'Tom or equivelant. Our usual pet shop is closed on Tuesday and P@H didn't have a single tool. I keep reading that thenbugger should be removed immediately but I didn't think it was urgent once it had already started feeding - my logic was that it was only taking stuff out now.

It'll have to be OH's tweezers when we get home. Nobody's looking forward to it and I'm sure Posie would be agitated if she knew what was about to happen. Fortunately she doesn't seem bothered by it. And has even let us check the area without her usual mouthy objections.

Thanks for the advice (but not for the graphic carpet advice  )

[flower1]

The O'tom is great. We got ours from the vet. Their website also has a good instruction video. We often go to the lake district and the vet recommended certifect as one of the better tick preventative treatments - be warned, it has the strongest smell. Like fairy liquid on steriods so if you use it I would do it in the morning so you can keep all the doors and windows open and give it plenty of time to calm down. It's also a bit pricey and the vet had to order it in so we tend to use it only if we know we'll be going somewhere risky and it has worked so far. Toby has picked them up mostly in beach locations where there have been grazing sheep