How to Remove a Tick From a Dog

After returning from the dog park, we found a tick on Mocha’s head today. He must have picked it up from the grass or something.

As soon as we found it, we looked online for some ways to remove ticks. Here is the method that we followed:

Removing a Tick from a Dog

What you will need

• Tweezers
• Gloves, like latex dish washing gloves
• Antiseptic ointment or solution
• Tissues
• Scotch tape

What to do

1. Get your dog into a comfortable position where he can’t move or jump around too much. We needed two people to do this – one to hold down & distract Mocha, and the other to pull the tick out. Depending on how jumpy your dog is, I’m not sure if one person could do this as easily.
2. Put on the gloves. Ticks can transmit diseases, so it’s best not to catch some kind of weird tick virus. Unless it’s a radioactive tick that can give you super powers or something. That would be cool.
3. Gently grasp the tick with the tweezers. Try to nab it on the head, or as close to your dog’s skin as possible.
4. Pull the tick out slowly. Pull it straight out. Don’t twist or turn, and don’t pull too hard. Those actions can break the body from the head, leaving it lodged in your dog. If you do accidentally break the tick in two, try to remove the head with the tweezers. (Don’t worry if you can’t remove it all; it’s not life threatening. Your dog’s immune system will react naturally, causing a bump that will recede over time. But if you’re really worried, consult your vet just to be safe.)
5. Put the tick into the tape. Fold the tape in half over the tick. It should be stuck in the tape now.
6. Flush the tick down the toilet bowl (assuming you didn’t roll up a huge drain-clogging wad of tape) or smash the tick between two hard objects, like rocks. Smash it good. That sure felt good, didn’t it?
7. Bath the wound with antiseptic and wipe away any blood, if there is any. And you’re all done! Tick removed.
8. Oh, and don’t forget to wash your hands thoroughly. Then clean the tweezers with isopropyl alcohol or hold them over a flame. This will make sure any of those weird tick viruses are dead dead dead.

We were able to remove the tick from Mocha successfully with these steps. I couldn’t tell if I had all of the tick though. The little bastard was so engorged on Mocha’s blood that I accidentally squished it as I pulled it out. It looked like I had its head, though I couldn’t tell for certain.

I also heard that these tips could work too, though I haven’t tried them yet:

• Cover the tick with some kind of oil or Vaseline. This supposedly suffocates the tick and forces it to let go.
• Apply some nail polish remover onto a cotton ball and rub it gently on the tick. This apparently suffocates or freaks it out enough to let go too.
• Apply some WD40 onto a cotton ball and rub that on the tick. I guess this is a variant of the first two alternatives.

Those alternatives sound easy enough. I’ll give them a shot the next time we find a tick on Mocha. If you try them out, please let me know if they work or not. Thanks!

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