The Best Way to Remove a Dog Tick

If you’re a dog owner it’s possible you’ll come into contact with ticks: they’re found all over the world and there are many different varieties. In this guide, I’ll explain the best way to remove a dog tick in case you find one on your furry friend.

At certain times of the year, ticks can be a major problem for all creatures, including us humans! However, as dog owners we should be particularly conscious about the threat they pose to our best friends as they can even transmit dangerous diseases.

If you find a tick on your furry friend, it’s important to remove it as quickly and safely as possible.

With this in mind, here are some ideas for the best way to remove ticks from dogs and prevent future infestations at the same time.

What Do Ticks Look Like on Dogs?

Ticks can vary in size and color depending on their species and life stage. When feeding on a dog, ticks can appear as small, dark spots or bumps on the skin. As they feed, they can become engorged and appear larger, sometimes reaching the size of a pea. It’s important to regularly check your dog for ticks, especially after spending time in wooded or grassy areas.

Find out more detail about what ticks look like on dogs.

Checking Your Dog for Ticks

The best way to avoid ticks becoming a problem for your dog is to check it regularly, especially after you’ve been walking in areas where ticks are common.

Check your dog by running your hands over their body and look to feel for any bumps or lumps under your dog’s fur.

Ticks can attach themselves to any part of a dog’s body but you should be look especially closely at areas where ticks are known to commonly locate themselves:

• Ears
• Where the legs meet the body (armpits)
• Between the toes

If you find a lump, move the fur to look more closely at what it is.

Ticks have a head and mouthparts atop a small body that swells when it’s engorged with a host’s blood.

Their mouthparts have harpoon-like barbs that help it to burrow its entire head beneath the surface of the skin and hold it in place so it can feed easily.

If you’re lucky, you may find the tick has not yet embedded itself into your dog, but if it has latched on, you’ll need to properly remove it.

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The Best Way to Remove a Dog Tick

There are two things to consider when removing a tick:

1. You have to remove all parts of the tick (body and mouthparts)
2. You’ll need tools that are suitable for removing the tick properly (it’s not good to try to pick it out with your fingers).

It’s important to remove all parts of a dog tick as leaving anything embedded in the skin can lead to infection. 

Using suitable tools is important too because not only must you remove the tick in its entirety, you must also ensure you don’t squeeze its body so as to reduce the likelihood of pathogen transmission.

Dog Tick Removal Tools & Equipment

You should use either tweezers with fine tips (general flat tipped tweezers aren’t suitable) or tools that have been specifically designed for tick removal. 

If you want a tick removal tool, you might consider:

You may also need:

Removing the Tick

Put on a pair of surgical gloves… it may be an over-careful step but as referenced, ticks can carry some pretty nasty diseases.

Locate the tick by feeling for lumps and then spread your dog’s fur so you have clear sight of it. 

Use the tweezers (or other tick removal tool) to grab the tick as close to your dog’s skin as you can, then pull it upwards very gently. Do not grab the tick’s body as you might squeeze the tick’s insides into your dog’s skin!

I can’t stress this enough, the aim is to remove the body and mouthparts in one go without squeezing the body.

When you’ve removed the tick from your dog, place it between two pieces of clear sellotape and stick them together, and try to keep the tick intact. Keeping the tick in this way will enable you to take it to your vet to test for tick-borne diseases that could be passed to your dog.

Cleaning the Bite

Once you’ve removed all parts of the dog tick, you should clean the bite area with soap and water. 

Additionally, use your antiseptic cleaning wipes or antiseptic fluid and cotton balls / clean cloth to gently clean the bite to reduce the likelihood of infection.

Monitoring the Tick Bite Area on Your Dog

Once you’ve cleaned the bite area, take a good look at your dog’s skin where the tick was located. Does it look red or swollen? If you see something that concerns you, contact your local veterinary centre.

If immediately after cleaning the bite area you don’t notice anything unusual about your dog’s skin, keep a close eye on your dog for any symptoms that it’s poorly. 

Some tick borne diseases may present as:

• Redness, rashes or swelling in or around the bite area
• Loss of appetite
• Fever
• Unexpected fatigue

If you notice any of these symptoms after locating / removing a dog tick, contact your veterinary centre immediately.

Tick-borne diseases can be very serious, so if you’re in any doubt about your dog’s wellbeing after you’ve either found or removed a tick, speak to your veterinary centre.

Avoiding Future Dog Tick Problems

Checking your dog for ticks regularly is one of the ways to reduce tick-related health problems… thought this doesn’t of course discourage ticks from finding your dog.

It’s equally important to deter ticks from using your dog as a host or reduce the likelihood that you’ll come into contact with them.

If you live in areas where ticks are prevalent, make sure you keep the outdoor areas on your property in good order. You might also want to check for tick warnings if you live in rural areas during warmer seasons when tick populations are likely to flourish.

Your veterinary centre may be able to recommend a tick repellent product or suggest vaccine options for certain illnesses sog ticks are known to cause.

Wash your dog’s bedding regularly and additionally use a dog shampoo with repellent qualities, again your vet can advise on this.

The preventative measures can help to make it less likely that you’ll have to remove a tick from your dog.

However, even if you’ve taken great care to avoid ticks, the best thing you can do for your dog is to check it for ticks after you’ve taken it for walkies and remove any you find using the steps above.

Summary – The Best Way to Remove a Dog Tick

While the thought of ticks can be very unpleasant for most of us, it’s vital to overcome this to properly check your dog for ticks and remove them in the correct way.

Always remember regardless of the advice here, if you are concerned about the best way to remove dog ticks or for expert answers to questions about the diseases ticks spread, talk to a reputable veterinary professional. 

Have you ever found a tick on your dog? Do you have any advice based upon your experience? Please share your experiences or ask a question in the comments section at the bottom of this page.

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