We’re dog-sitting, and this morning I noticed a spot on the dog’s belly. I thought at first it was just a scab, as he’d been carefully watering every bit of twiggy underbrush he found on his walks - but looking more carefully, it was a tick.
We got most of it out with tweezers but we’re pretty sure there’s a small fragment still embedded, and the skin around it is red - about the size of a dime.
Anything else we should do beyond keeping an eye on it? Any pet-safe antibiotic ointment we should apply? anything else?
I know he’s on a flea and tick preventative but I don’t know the dosage or frequency; we were not asked to administer anything. I’m guessing either it’s worn off, or his human may have forgotten to administer it.
Unfortunately, the tweezers were a mistake, but it’s too late to do anything about that. There are tools that extract the tick whole, which is the better approach. At this point, I’d recommend a trip to the vet (or at least a call). It will get infected if you don’t get all of it out.
Yes, in 1984 before there were so many specialized tools available, and compared to the other methods tested: petroleum jelly, fingernail polish, 70% isopropyl alcohol, or a hot kitchen match. But “properly” is the key word, and it’s tough to remove the tick whole if you don’t know the proper technique. You can effectively remove a tick with tweezers, and you can mess up with one of the tools, but your chances of success are higher with a tool.
All that’s moot now since it appears some of the tick was left in the dog. For that, I think additional treatment is needed.
When my technique fails and my dogs get the pinchers left in, it is just slower to heal and makes a big scab. No medical attention needed. Tick-borne diseases are another subject.
For what it’s worth, I use my fingers to pull them out, unless they are too teeny to grab, then I use tweezers. I’ve been doing this for forty years of tick seasons. Gets real habitual. You have to tighten the skin so as to grab the bastards right at skin level where their nasty little feeder-pinchers enter. If you do it right there is a distinct snick as they pop loose.
The antibiotic ointment you’d use for people is safe for dogs as well; you can just put some of that on the spot. The redness is most likely a result of irritation from the bite itself - just keep the dog from licking/picking at it if s/he seems inclined - that’s actually the most likely route for it to get infected, but in my experience most dogs will leave the bites alone.
If the tick wasn’t swollen up with blood (sounds like that’s the case) then it most likely wasn’t on the dog long enough to transmit a disease, so not really a worry there. Just mention it to the owners when they get back.
I’ve had a tick head embedded in my own flesh when I didn’t do a good job of removing it. It’ll work its way out on its own - it will come out when the scab comes off.
I’ve had to pull a few ticks off my dogs - some I haven’t noticed soon enough, so they’re engorged, and some I find quickly and pull while they are still small and dark. One dog seems to react more to them and I will notice a bump where I have removed a tick for quite a few days after.
Keep an eye on it, but if it doesn’t get worse or look infected, it should be okay.
We live in the country, have for years. If I ran to the vet every time a tick head got left in a dog, we’d never leave. It happens. I’ve never had complications from not getting at tick all the way out of a dog. I don’t put antibiotic ointment on, either. (Hate ticks. Ugh.)
We checked it again this evening and the red spot looks no worse (and perhaps a bit better). There’s a scab over the spot that looks as large as the tick did, but the dog seems happy. We’ll keep an eye on it for a few days to make sure the poor fellow is doing OK.
He was such a sweetie - put up with being held and tweezers poked at him. He clearly did not enjoy it but didn’t squirm or offer to nip either of us. He got lots of scritchies and some turkey meat for his pain.
The trick with tweezers is to come in with them parallel to the skin rather than grabbing the tick from above. There’s a good graphic on the page illustrating this.