doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Ticks on a dog

Once when I examined my old Setter on Sunday morning following a late hunt the day before, I was amazed to find him completely infested with ticks. They were all around the head and neck area, even on his chin, and all were imbedded. I did exactly what my vet does; I got a pair of locking hemostat forceps (sort of like Vise Grip tweezers) and started pulling. An hour and a half later I had counted 121 ticks on the old guy! He must have plunged into "Tick Valley" as he bounded through the fields between covers. I followed up next day with some hydrogen peroxide wash and some "Flys-Off" ointment, a pink goo used by the horse people for keeping flies away during wound healing. Its loaded with phenol and has great medicinal properties as well as keeping the bugs away. PS - I marked our location well and never took him back there again. KBM

All of you (people, not dogs) who hunt on the "right coast" area should also have a blood test for Lyme Disease when you have your annual physical. It can even be contracted from the tick's nymph phase, which are almost too small to see and don't leave much of a mark or irritation.
Lyme disease is a rather suble and potentially catastrophic illness and increasingly common in our area. Oddly enough, I know several people who have contracted it, but no hunters. Go figure. The test is a straightforward part of the regular "bloodwork" most of us old farts have each year. If you're young enough not to have it regularly, I'd recommend you talk to your MD about it, especially if you have been bitten recently. If he prescribes the test, your insurance will pay for it.

I'm OK with most of God's creatures. I walk around snakes; don't even waste ammo on 'em any more. But TICKS BUG ME. They've been around since the dinosaurs, they can live forever on nothing, waiting to bite someone, and they carry some extremely nasty diseases, especially in other parts of the world. All of the warm, fuzzy characteristics of a leach combined with a spider...I live with 'em but they give me the creeps.

Brian,

There is a small tool that looks like a carpenters "cat's paw" My vet had one and I bought one from him. You just slide it under the tick, spin it about 4 times and the tick comes right out, head and all. Works great!

While trying to find what Ed was talking about, I ran across this site on tick removal tools.

http://www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~acarolog/tickgone.htm

There's also a device called a "tick twister" which I suspect Ed was talking about. I'm trying to locate a retailer of this thing. http://www.otom.com/

Chuck,

That's it!

It realy does work!

Hi All,

I have GSP's & hunt NJ & NY and rarely get ticks on the dogs. I do use the tool ticked off as shown above it costs about $2.00 at petco and works great, I keep it in the hunting bag and take ticks off the kids with it also.

Thanks,
Jeff G.

I live in the woods of Pennsylvania and run my dogs on my land every day when we are not hunting. Ticks are a fact of life. It is a rare day I don’t pick a few ticks off the dogs – and I’ve had 30 or 40 at one time per dog.

Neither the dogs nor I have had Lyme, even though it is prevalent around here.

Here’s what I do.

First, I use Frontline regularly – no less than once per month (except when the temps are consistently below freezing). The does absolutely nothing to prevent ticks from getting on the dogs, but it does supposedly kill them before they have been attached long enough to pass on disease. It seems to work when fresh (first couple of weeks), but loses potency rather quickly.

Next (and this is my main line of defense), I very carefully examine the dogs and pick off any ticks before I bring them into the house after a run. They live inside and they are Brittanys with longish hair, so this is a project, but well worthwhile – you don’t want the ticks dropping off in the house and then getting on your wife, your housedogs, etc. Ticks are hard to kill, I keep a wide mouth jar half full of rubbing alcohol and drop them in there – it kills them.

It is not uncommon to miss one or two, so I check them frequently. I also check carefully and constantly for any imbedded ticks. I’d say that, in combination with the Frontline, I find 99% of them before they become engorged.

When I find an imbedded tick, I just pull it off and drop it in the alcohol jar. If I went to the vet each time I removed a tick, I’d have the richest vet in history and that’s all I’d ever do. I don’t think it’s necessary. Nor do I think it makes sense to try to burn them or the like – just pinch them with your fingernails as close to the dogs skin as possible and pull them off. Never had a problem in many years of dealing with this.

Be careful about your dog's bed area in the house if ticks are a problem in your area. We had problems one place we lived with ticks. I had to check the dog everytime she walked outside. Apparently I missed a few which fed then dropped off in the house around the dogs bed areas. All of a sudden we had hundreds of new born ticks crawling up the walls and into the window curtins/drapes. We about went nuts trying to eradicate the nasty little buggers. They even survived hot water, detergent, ammonia and clorox in a washing machine. Finally the pest control guy found something nasty enough to kill them all but what a nightmare. My wife says that is as close as she has ever been to insanity.

Ed,
I had to order those tick twisters from a distributor. Should be here soon.

Do any of you guys use a spray repellant in additon to Frontline? For my trip to SD and other hunts I bought a spray bottle of flea/tick spray with .20% pyrithin. I figured a pyrithin based repellent would help keep them from even making the attempt to attach. Thoughts?