Tickhead

Warning: this post contains gross details about nasty bugs but is important information for dog owners. Camille recently updated her blog with a lovely post about our exciting weekend hike at Paramount Ranch with the dogs. She also did a good job explaining about how Katy and I managed to not freak out when we discovered that all of the pooches were crawling with ticks on the ride home. We got the majority off before they latched on but Cordy and Max each had a stubborn hitch-hiker that was not about to exit on it's own accord. After doing a little research we tried oil, matches, and finally plucked them out with tweezers - making sure to get the whole head in the process. Today, however, I discovered that one sneaky bastard had gone undetected by latching himself on to Seumas' inner ear. Gross! They are much easier to detect on a black dog once they are all swelled up with a fresh belly full of pink blood. So I ran him by the animal doctor which luckily is only a couple of blocks from our house. The technician took him in the back, got the tick out and and we were in and out in 5 minutes with no charge. I love my vet! I only wish I could find some medical doctors that were as good as the animal doctors around here.

I also got some really good advice while I was there for what to do should we encounter future tick incidents. For preventative measures the vet recommended Advantix which is the next step up from Advantage but covers both fleas and ticks. You can also get a tick collar which is more effective but also more toxic. And if the dogs should still manage to get ticks the best course of action for removing them is to rub the tick counterclockwise in a circular motion and it will exit on it's own accord. And we actually got to test this theory out not an hour later when we got home and found another tick inside Cordy's inner ear this time. Note to self -- check dog's ears next time as this seems to be a sweet spot for the nasty buggers. Well, it definitely didn't come out immediately but with some persistent counterclockwise rubbing eventually it popped itself out and was given an immediate disposal with the big flush (that's the toilet, not poker.) So now we know for future reference how to disengage a tick that's already attached itself. I just have one more question resounding in my head at this point.... Why counterclockwise????