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Nancy

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 9, 2001
Messages
9,896
Location
upstate New York
Last night I pulled a tick off Harriet. What a gross little creature!:eek: That's the first I've ever seen. Fortunately, Harriet has had her Lyme disease vac. It came off intact.
 
Havn't had any yet, i'll say yet because he loves rolling around the grass, but you'th just reminded me to re apply his flea and tick lotion thanks. Have you treated for ticks incase it laid eggs.
 
I've had a couple of the damn things. One since my VR. As the horrid thing was in my groin (it must have leapt up my shorts:eek: ) I called our national medical helpline to see if I should do anything particular about it other than just pulling it out. The answer was no, just get it out ASAP.
Forget all the old wives tales about burning it with cigarette ends, covering it in salt other bizarre methods - they may work on leeches, but for a tick you have to pull it out by gripping it as close to your skin as possible with a pair of tweezers. I had virtually no bleeding. A bit of it was left in, but the nurse said not to worry about it and it hasn't been a problem (touch wood:rolleyes: ).
 
WHAT? LAY EGGS? I never thought of that. Good grief! Where can I hide?:eek:

Getting a tick in your shorts must be the ultimate problem. Can't think of anything worse.

I did pull it out with tweezers, just slow and steady and it let go, then disinfected the wound. Looked at it with a magnifying glass. Arachnid things are not my favs.
 
Nancy, don't let them go - flush them.

They are quite common in the south, especially in our woods. Miss SS hasn't had any all summer and none so far this fall. A year or so ago we had an epidemic of them - our vet couldn't even keep his animals free of them. We use the strongest med (the tube) and it works very well. Keeps Sally free for 2-3 months. We also use the cat kind on our four kitties and they haven't had even one flea in years. I think once the med is in the bloodstream, the fleas die off around the house/property and since our cats only go just outside the door to eat grass, they don't pick up any new ones. Sally has stayed mostly out of the woods this year and perhaps that's why she hasn't picked up any ticks, but they are out there waiting for her -

I, too, had one once. and after discovery and removal the spot itched for about a month.
 
Oh My Goodness,
You all have led charmed lives! ;) ;)

Ticks are very common around here, and Lyme's disease is always a possibility. I've probably picked a dozen off myself and a hundred off dogs and kids. I don't like the little buggers, but they're not as bad as leeches.:eek: :eek: :eek:
 
I don't mind spiders, but I hate ticks and parasites of all kinds. I've dealt with quite a few ticks over the years. They're common in woods and fields, as am I.

A few things about them, as far as I understand them:

- Ticks have larval stages and don't "infest" like fleas. If a tick did lay eggs in your house, you wouldn't know it, and you wouldn't be a part of their food chain when they hatch. Your mice could worry, though. The reason they attach themselves to you is that they need a good dose of your blood for their eggs to develop. They don't go for humans/dogs/deer until the last phase of their life.

- The ticks that cause Lyme Disease are tiny and hard to recognize as ticks without optics. The ones we usually see and deal with are 1/8" to 3/4" long. They are usually dog ticks or wood ticks. Disgusting, but they aren't the Lyme carriers. The Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever tick is a little bigger than the Lyme tick, but fortunately, they're rare.

- Ticks can live for several years without food. They estivate (similar to hibernation) during log dry spells.

- Their favorite hunting approach is to climb to the top of tall grass, and grab onto their victim's fur (or clothing), as they brush by.

- While they don't always do it (ask clicker-ticker), ticks most commonly climb to the highest part of the body before attaching. They are frequently found on the head. In animals, the head in general, the ears in specific, or near the top of the shoulders or back of the neck, or top of the rump.

- When removing them, you want to pull them out from the very front of their head with the tweezers. Try not to squeeze the body when getting the tick out, as you can squeeze fluids from the tick into your skin. (Okay. That was gross.)

- I have read that they can live through being flushed. However, there is a certain inner satisfaction in knowing they'll wish they hadn't. I always burn them. The easiest way is to pick them up with the sticky end of a sticky note. Then fold the sticky part over them, making a seal. They are stuck enough that they can't get away, and they are trapped in an emminently flammable situation. (It does sound like I have too much time on my hands, doesn't it? I assure you I'm busy, though...).

Best wishes,
 
You guys may have seen my posts about DIC/thrombocytopenia that mom had post-op. Well at that same time, I had found this bite mark on her leg. The doc thinks she may have had a tick bite too, just we never saw it. They put her on those antibiotics just in case she had rickettsia. They are gross little buggers. My dog had one on her ear, but luckily I found it right away, cause it wasn't even engorged yet.
 
Last year I had a student who was scratching his head (this was the last period of the day, mind you) and noticed a bump. He had a friend look to see what it was. It was a TICK! I started freaking out telling his friend "Pull it out! Pull it out!" Of course, she didn't want to touch it, and frankly neither did I, so I took him down to the nurse (the last bell had already rung and everyone was heading home). At frist the nurse was going to try pulling it out with tweezers, but then she decided to try something else so that she wouldn't risk leaving the head in. She doused a cotton ball in rubbing alcohol and held it over the tick. After several applications and only a couple of minutes, the tick let go of the kid's head and started backing up (presumably to get away from the alcohol). Once it had let go she grabbed it with some tweezers and placed it in a plastic baggie with the alcohol cotton ball where it (I guess) suffocated.

Once the tick was out of his head the kid thought it was very cool and was showing it off to all of his friends... 6th grade boys... What can I say?... :D
 
After I took the tick off, I put it in a small container of alcohol. That thing lived for quite a long time because I could see it's little legs moving. They are tenacious little things. It was rather large, but fully engorged. Maybe a quarter of an inch or more.
 
Don't forget folks, there is a difference between wood and deer ticks!!! Deer ticks carry Lyme disease, Wood ticks can carry Rocky mountain spotted fever.
 
My home county is celebrating its Deer Festival this week-end. Deer outnumber the local population about 5 to 1.
How many deer ticks to you think that adds up to?:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
 
I see the tick problems just get worse and worse. Now Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever??

How can one tell the difference between a deer tick and a wood tick?

Well, we had a freeze overnight. Maybe they'll all go into hibernation or "estivation".
 
Nancy,
Deer ticks are teeny tiny.
Wood ticks, or the ones I've been acquainted with ;) ;) are much bigger ,and you can tell it's a tick when you find it.
Around here, dogs are prone to picking them up just by going outside to use the bathroom.
 
I hope i never have to deal with a tick, i havn't actually seen one before, that is so grossss
 
ooh, ticks, yuk!

ooh, ticks, yuk!

took my puppies for a walk on the trails that are behind our house yesterday.
was out there for a total of maybe 20 min.
when i returned, i checked both our golden and our mini poodle for ticks and found about 3 on the golden (mostly around her nose, from sniffing everything!) and about 6 on the baby!

joey's uncle is a retired vet who taught me how to remove ticks (large and small) with and without tweezers. i hate to do it, but it's got to be done.
i've also used the alcohol trick_ works really well!

they are very creepy creatures...have found them on myself and one of our kids had lyme disease when she was younger.

it doesn't help that the weather has been fairly warm here...
frontline seems to help also.
take care all,
sylvia
 
Thanks Ross for the link. It had a perfect picture of a fully engorged deer tick which is what Harriet had.

OK, now my skin is crawly all over!
 
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