Yikes found a tick

J

jesshall

Forums Regular
My husband found a tick on Henry tonight and it looked like a dog tick (big and pale brown) but it could also be a rocky mt tick so I used my tick key and took the stupid thing out but it was fully engorged so now I'm worried. I know if they have a chance to get fully engorged they also have a chance to spread disease. My husband told me to not worry and just call the vet in the morning. I just hope my sweet little dog doesn't get sick. He did get a lyme vaccine but it's only 80% effective AND it doesn't help with other diseases. :gaah (me freaking out).
 
I didn't do this, but may it's not too late for you? Keep the tick in a jar to give to the vet for analysis. I believe you can disinfect the wound with diluted hydrogen peroxide, too.
I've also had to remove a FULLY :dead: engorged tick and Indie was fine. It left a gaping hole, too. I was freaking out a lot more than he was.
 
jesshall said:
My husband found a tick on Henry tonight and it looked like a dog tick (big and pale brown) but it could also be a rocky mt tick so I used my tick key and took the stupid thing out but it was fully engorged so now I'm worried. I know if they have a chance to get fully engorged they also have a chance to spread disease. My husband told me to not worry and just call the vet in the morning. I just hope my sweet little dog doesn't get sick. He did get a lyme vaccine but it's only 80% effective AND it doesn't help with other diseases. :gaah (me freaking out).
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Yuck! I was really worried about the ticks in my area too and have picked a few off the animals and off of us even. The tests aren't even too reliable from what I've been reading. It seems like it's a disease that not a whole lot of solid knowledge is known about it - scary, though.

I've been using a mixture of essential oils -- eucalyptus, neem oil, tea tree oil, and citronella (mixed with a carrier oil like coconut oil or almond oil to dissolve it) and we mix that into a spray bottle of water and spray that on them every day esp on their feet. I spray it on us, too and all over the yard. I'm thinking of making a homemade tick collar by soaking a ribbon or something in the solution and then having them wear it. We haven't found a tick since we started using it three days ago which is good because we were finding them almost every day! We were doing just neem/vinegar before but that wasn't enough for ticks. the eucalyptus has actually been studied and shown to be an effective killer against ticks!

Best of luck!
 
GChiu said:
I didn't do this, but may it's not too late for you? Keep the tick in a jar to give to the vet for analysis. I believe you can disinfect the wound with diluted hydrogen peroxide, too.
I've also had to remove a FULLY :dead: engorged tick and Indie was fine. It left a gaping hole, too. I was freaking out a lot more than he was.
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Well when I took the tick out it left a big hole too it was bleeding for quite a while. I disinfected it and held a cotton ball on it until it stopped bleeding. My husband killed the tick so I'm not sure that would be helpful. I guess I'm just going to have to watch Henry to see if anything seems different about him. So far he is fine but I know it takes a while for symptoms to appear.
 
I found 3 ticks on one dog, and 2 on my other. They were swollen to about 1/3 the size of a pea. They were all located behind ears, on the head, and one was on the stomach... I don't know how long it takes a tick to attach and swell up to that size but I was quite alarmed. One still has a bump on his head from it, and it's been weeks. Having the vet take a look next week.
 
DanteBella85 said:
I found 3 ticks on one dog, and 2 on my other. They were swollen to about 1/3 the size of a pea. They were all located behind ears, on the head, and one was on the stomach... I don't know how long it takes a tick to attach and swell up to that size but I was quite alarmed. One still has a bump on his head from it, and it's been weeks. Having the vet take a look next week.
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I spoke with my vet's office today they said it can take several hours for them to become fully engorged and I told the vet tech I took the tick out and disinfected the area and she said to keep cleaning it every day with some peroxide for the next 3-4 days and put a little bit of neosporin on it to help it heal faster. She said don't be surprised if you feel a bump where it was but if the dog starts acting differnetly to bring him in for them to take a look. I just realized last night after finding the tick that I skipped the application of the K9 Advantix for last month :no: I'm so mad at myself I have now set three separate devices to alert me : the monthly timer on the fridge, my computer and my phone.
 
I can surely sympathize with you. We adopted Bentley 3 years ago and during his first Lyme/heartworm test at our vet they told us he was Lyme positive. When I checked with the rescue coordinator I discovered that the vet they use doesn't test for Lyme! How can that be around here???:gaah

Bentley's number was 305 so our vet proceeded with a one month course of antibiotics and his two consecutive rechecks confirmed that his number dropped to 50, but he's not out of the woods since the disease can linger in his system for years. I worry that it will eventually affect his kidneys and pray that it doesn't. We get his Lyme numbers checked every year now just to be safe.

I'll start checking our three Shelties over very carefully knowing that ticks are already active. I, personally, will not use spot on flea and tick meds on my dogs as there have been too many incidents of sickness and death reported. Heck, would you spray insecticide on them? Nope, but that's what is in spot on flea and tick products.

Instead, I spray them with Neem oil before they go outside for any length of time and will add to their shampoo. See: http://www.discoverneem.com/neem-oil-for-dogs.html

Good luck with your little guy. Hope he's going to be okay!:sadsmile:
It's a much safer alternative.
 
lovemyshelties said:
Instead, I spray them with Neem oil before they go outside for any length of time and will add to their shampoo. See: http://www.discoverneem.com/neem-oil-for-dogs.html

Good luck with your little guy. Hope he's going to be okay!:sadsmile:
It's a much safer alternative.
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It's great, isn't it? I spent about $4 on each bottle of essential oils I have and it's enough to last about six months at least. I found putting a drop on their collar seems to help! I actually soaked my guys' collar last night in a diluted mixture of the oils and then applied one drop of straight oil to it and let it dry. I don't know why more people won't use essential oils when they work just as well and you don't have to worry about the kidney/liver and other damage overtime. I'm surprised how willingly people poison their pets each month to prevent a bug that, in the case of a flea, will usually do much less harm and the pesticide will over time -- especially when there is such easy access to alternatives that clearly work better than flea poison.
 
I will have to do some reading up on the Neem oil thanks for the suggestion. We did find some pet safe yard treatment stuff to use so my husband is going to treat the yard tomorrow hopefully it helps.
 
Generally the larger "dog" ticks are not lyme carriers. Its mostly the deer ticks that are the transport vectors for lyme. Doesnt mean that it cant happen..but its not typical...
 
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