Tick head in dog, help

zebidee1

Harley (lab) had 3 ticks on him after his walk today. Got 2 off no bother but the third broke and the head is still in him. I tried to squeeze it out but I think I've made things worse.

What do I do now?

BitterAndTwisted

Vets right away before it festers and causes an infection

Barneysmom

Can you get to it with tweezers? If not you need to see the vet.

If it happens again put some wax or vaseline on the tick's back end, completely smother the blighter. Then it won't be able to breathe and will tunnel itself back out, then you can nab it.

Silveralice

When you're at the vet, if you don't get it out yourself, see if they sell O'Tom tick removers - little plastic gadgets for tick removal - you slide them onto the skin under the tick's head and twist without lifting until the tick detaches. I'm a vet and can't recommend them highly enough - I find I get almost 100% successful removal with them, and it doesn't hurt the dog so much either. I wish I had shares in them - they are really simple and work really well, and should stop you having this problem again.

KVet

Ditto. They are the best thing i've used and NEVER leave any mouthparts in Cheap and cheerful AND works! Very MSE

zebidee1

Is this worthy of an out of hours call? Do I need to see a vet now? :eek:

Is Monday not time enough?

elsien

I personally wouldn't do it as an out of hours call just yet, I'd wait and see if it expels itself or starts to get manky. But if you're worried, do your vet's do an open urgent case surgery on a Sunday? - mine do a just call in one. Still expensive (double rates) though.

Then again mutt's never acquired ticks so I've never had to worry.

zebidee1

No, it's only a small concern in a small village so just has Mon-Fri 'normal' hours, so it would be Monday before I could see a vet normally.

I've cleaned it with methylated spirits and put savlon on it for the time being. It wont develop overnight into something serious will it? I honestly don't know how pro-active to be on this.

elsien

Also just realised I have a tick remover that I won in a comp last year still sitting upstairs. Meant to be for people but I don't see why it wouldn't work on dogs as well. If Harley's going to make a habit of this, PM me your address and I'll shove it in the post for you. It might as well get some use.

zebidee1

That's really kind of you elsien, thank you.

kjmtidea

I have one of those tick removers for my cats and they are fab. One of my cats went through a stage of coming home covered in them, I couldn't have coped without the remover!