I live in a heavily wooded area of Hunterdon County NJ with lots of deers and other wildlife. In nine years I have only found one deer ticks (carrier of Lymes) on any of my animals or people alike. The most common tick offender is the dog tick. Gross but pretty harmless. No matter what I do my dogs still get ticks. You name the anti-tick agent and I have probably tried it multiple times. I live on over and acre of land so spraying is not an option, plus I do not want to harm local wildlife. The only way I can be 100% sure my dogs are tick-free is to check them everytime they come into the house and after a walk. Which is no easy task since my dogs LOVE to be outside. I carry tweezer and rubbing alchol with me on walks. The rubbing alchol is to sterilize the tweezers not required but I want to anyway.
The BEST way to remove a tick is to grasp the body firmly with a tweezer and pull. If part of the head remains is it okay. The body will naturally work the head out. By getting the body off of your pet the tick can not regurgitate the contents of its stomach back into the host (pet or human's body) so disease can not occur. Trying to smother the tick with oil, butter, or soap will cause the tick to regurgitate and then drop off. Which means what ever was in the tick stomach is not in your love one.
My dogs get the Lymes Disease vaccine every year but unfortunately it is not 100% effective. Diligence is best. An ounce of pervention is worth a pound of cure. |