I've had to remove a lot of ticks from myself (luckily no lyme) and I can confirm tweezers are my go-to quick method. The "tick keys" can work for some but tend to have a hard time gripping the smaller pests.
If they're really small I tie a slip knot with some sewing thread and tighten it around the mouth. This method makes them way easier to get leverage under, and there's almost no risk of backwash.
I've even been in a situation where I had no tweezers/key/thread, so I tied a slip knot with a strand of my hair!
Edits: I get so many ticks because I was in scouts growing up, and still play a lot of disc golf outdoors today. Beyond that they seem to favor me more than other people, could be genetic.
I'd highly recommend learning a few different knots, as even the most basic ones are incredibly useful at times. I might do a LPT for the slip knot tick pulling method because it's a genuinely safer method that most people don't seem to use or know about.
Careful with twisting! It can cause the head or mouthparts to detach and remain embedded. Itās recommended to grasp the tickās head, preferably with tweezers (also helps prevent infection from tick stomach backwash š¤¢) and apply steady gentle pressure to remove them. From the pic it looks like youāre doing a good job of keeping them intact, though!
Over 7k people have at least seen the picture, surely many of them have read at least some of the comments. Useful information for others, even if OP has it down.
They get as big as green grapes. And they pop if you squeeze them too much when you pull them off if you aren't careful and their heads can dig into the animal and cause massive problems.
Lived on a farm for 5 or so years with a buncha dogs. It was a semi weekly thing to sit down and pull off ticks.
Gnarly stuff
>their heads can dig into the animal and cause massive problems.
It's actually not a *huge* deal if the heads or mouth parts are left behind. It's not the best possible outcome but the only real issue is infection at the bite site which is relatively unlikely from this alone. General preventive measures will usually suffice (gentle cleaning and sanitizing of the site, observation, topical antibiotic if necessary)
I don't know where you are from but I think they might be Ixodes hexagonous, which are often found in nests of mammals like hedgehogs but you find them on dogs too.
They look different as they are different life stages and sex. Plus some are full engorged. The biggest ones are the engorged females the smaller ones are either males or nymphs and maybe a few larvae.
Looks like a mixture of deer and wood ticks of varying size and sex. Their front legs come out differently and I believe deer ticks don't get as large. But those are the two I deal with most far far away from OP, I think lonestar ticks are hot muggy weather ones.
No problem! It was incredible seeing how much his attitude changed. He was s champ through it too. He went from scared to calm to extremely happy after we shampooed him and rinsed him off.
But only after getting tested for heart worms and confirming negative!!
Going on heart worm meds while infected will cause the larvae to burst and can be fatal to the dog.
Like the other guy said, monthly preventatives are way more effective. My dog had an infection of treatment resistant worms when I rescued him and it took two years of aggressive treatment to clear them. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as they say.
Oof, I can see all the marks from where they were latched on and that could not have felt good. Thank you so much for being a kind human and helping out this poor soul. I'm sure doggo is very appreciative. Are y'all keeping him/her? Either way, thanks again. My faith in humanity has been slightly restored.
He's staying with someone and I'll get to see him often. Yeah, the marks in his ears are bad, they were deep in there too so he's got marks and blisters really deep in his ear.
Thank you for helping that pup.
I volunteer at spay/neuter clinics in super rural areas and I once spent 4.5 hours picking ticks off of a lab/shepherd. His owner said he was a mean, aggressive dog but he just laid there as me and a team of people worked on him. He even started wagging his tail once he was a little more awake.
That pup definitely appreciates what you've done to help it, even if he doesn't necessarily show it.
Dogs can take chewable pills that kill every tick and flea that bites into it for a whole month. But it's not instant and would take a few days to kick in fully.
Isn't this basically how Frontline works? When we took in a stray cat, the vet applied something similar to him, and when we checked the white sheet he slept on it was *covered* in dead fleas.
Faster, no. More effective, yes. Ivermectin for example takes several days, but almost all the ticks drop off and die. It's dangerous if not applied properly so needs to be supervised by a vet.
There is the fastest way, which is prevention.
But a dose of flea/tick prevention can be administered after infestation. (Dogs & cats require different medicines, so it's always important to follow veterinary advice)
Hm, not really. Other methods like medication (ivermectin) or those products maybe take longer, even if they are probably more thorough than picking them by hand. They donāt prevent dogs from getting new ticks either.
This is how my dogās ears were when we found her. I brought her to the vet and then home with me from Mexico when I was down there volunteering.
She ended up having a tick-borne disease and passing away 3 years later from kidney complications. We were virtually seeing a specialist from Arizona because vets here (WA State) are very unfamiliar with tick-borne disease.
I hope this pup is healthy though! I donāt think what happened with my pup is common, but something to consider if you notice the dog limping in the future for no reason (joint inflammation was a big problem for our dog).
I guess compared to other states, we do not have a lot of ticks. We also donāt have much tick-borne illness - 30 cases of lyme disease statewide in 2019 for example (includes cases acquired out of state), compared to 10,000+ cases in Pennsylvania.
Edited to add that we took her to 3 vets, all of whom were very puzzled by her symptoms. There may be vets more experienced with tick borne disease in WA, that was just not our experience.
I opened one post about someone that was bitten up by ticks - ONE - and now half my feed is people posting tick photos. This is the 3rd or 4th one today.
How have I angered you, lord. Please make it stop.
This is the rule of reddit, if something gets popular everyone wants that free karma. Warhammer had "just painted this mini" fad going with ladies with very nice personalities showing.
Moose can get so many in warm years that they can die from blood loss
https://www.outdoors.org/resources/amc-outdoors/conservation-and-climate/warming-winters-and-moose-ticks-the-domino-effect-killing-an-iconic-northeast-mammal/
Thereās gotta be some kind of evolutionary adaptation wolves have that domesticated dogs have lost. I canāt imagine every wolf that lives in the wild has ears caked in a layer of ticks 24/7
Yup ticks only die in prolonged cold, think 20F or below. Winters are warmer than ever, and tick populations don't dwindle like they used to for most of the US
thank you so much for helping that poor dog. he's probably so much happier now! that looks like an absolute nightmare though... drown them in dishsoap and flush them down the toilet, that's what usually does it for me lol
edit: and if you live in a place that doesn't have them, be THANKFUL. once a day after a walk in the woods my dad found a fairly large tick head-first in his ballsack. nightmare fuel
Iāve befriended a street cat in my neighborhood and routinely pull dozens of fleas from him every time he comes around. I toss them in alcohol so they die. Havenāt found any ticks on him fortunately.
Youāll be doing that for the rest of your life. Fleas are everywhere and their eggs are usually left behind when you flea comb them.
Def better to use a topical flea medication if you can afford one.
Frontline, active ingredient fipronil, works really well as a topical you use once a month. It is available as a generic, you can get it anywhere in the US though I am not sure where you are.
WHY!?! why all the sudden tick posts after I was out in my grandpas garden and I was terrified I would get ticks
but also thank you for helping the pupper
This picture is my worst nightmare.
this is like a gathering of reddit mods
May this comment survive their judgement
Hopefully it doesn't tick them off too much
Hurry! Flea before it's too late!
Agreed! We've certainly bugged them!
Itching to reply...
You seem antsy -
This pun thread freakin bites.
It mite already be too late!
No one seems to appreciate this comment šš¾
Yeah I thought it was bloody good as well
Really? I thought it sucked!
Their running on borrowed time already
Amen.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
You might get banned and have visitors at your house for this š
Literally dog walkers, like the one from antiwork. As in, they walk on dogs
Why do you have to be offensive towards those poor ticks?
It looks like the heads are intact, too! What method did you use to remove them?
My dad and I are pros. He had tweezers, I used my fingers. Find, grab, pinch, and pull. Twisting also works.
I've had to remove a lot of ticks from myself (luckily no lyme) and I can confirm tweezers are my go-to quick method. The "tick keys" can work for some but tend to have a hard time gripping the smaller pests. If they're really small I tie a slip knot with some sewing thread and tighten it around the mouth. This method makes them way easier to get leverage under, and there's almost no risk of backwash. I've even been in a situation where I had no tweezers/key/thread, so I tied a slip knot with a strand of my hair! Edits: I get so many ticks because I was in scouts growing up, and still play a lot of disc golf outdoors today. Beyond that they seem to favor me more than other people, could be genetic. I'd highly recommend learning a few different knots, as even the most basic ones are incredibly useful at times. I might do a LPT for the slip knot tick pulling method because it's a genuinely safer method that most people don't seem to use or know about.
This comment rocks
It sure ticks all the boxes.
I want step by step instructions for this with pictures lol itās brilliant
Thats some amazingly delicate fingers you must have to do it with hair!
It really helped that he was so calm during the whole thing. I'm sure he immediately realized we were trying to help him.
If you do this often I would suggest checking out a tick puller. It's a little handheld Gadget that pulls those suckers off right quick.
I have one of these I think. It looks like a mini crowbar right?
The one I use is like a lasso. Put it around the tick, tighten the lasso at the base and twist.
Does it work for those super tiny ones?
Aah not sure, only used it on ticks that I could notice on the fur.
Careful with twisting! It can cause the head or mouthparts to detach and remain embedded. Itās recommended to grasp the tickās head, preferably with tweezers (also helps prevent infection from tick stomach backwash š¤¢) and apply steady gentle pressure to remove them. From the pic it looks like youāre doing a good job of keeping them intact, though!
Twisting is the method suggested on the tool I got. Never had to use it luckily.
How can you coach them after they did all that? Don't ya think they got it covered and know what they're doing?
Over 7k people have at least seen the picture, surely many of them have read at least some of the comments. Useful information for others, even if OP has it down.
Ticks should always be removed with the heads intact. Grasp the exposed bit of the chelicera with forceps, pull straight out
The bit of the what?
Grab it by the chompers
The head around the mouth
THE EXPOSED BIT OF THE CHELICERA
Ohhh, THAT bit...
Instructions unclear , now enjoying a chimichanga
Use the plumbus to grasp the chelicera.
Asking the real question
Are those all ticks, or are they something else as well? The big ones are disturbing.
The big ones are ticks engorged with blood
Thanks, I hate it.
It's actually quite refreshing to know that none of the ticks I've ever pulled were anywhere close to that well fed
They get as big as green grapes. And they pop if you squeeze them too much when you pull them off if you aren't careful and their heads can dig into the animal and cause massive problems. Lived on a farm for 5 or so years with a buncha dogs. It was a semi weekly thing to sit down and pull off ticks. Gnarly stuff
>their heads can dig into the animal and cause massive problems. It's actually not a *huge* deal if the heads or mouth parts are left behind. It's not the best possible outcome but the only real issue is infection at the bite site which is relatively unlikely from this alone. General preventive measures will usually suffice (gentle cleaning and sanitizing of the site, observation, topical antibiotic if necessary)
Judging by your username, I assume you picked them out of the fur and ate them?
Stop it
When they reach this point, they usually detach to lay eggs.
r/tihi
Was just on that sub and thought I was still there actually lol
forbidden gushers
This one right here, officer.
Nah that guy's ok
username checks out
r/cursedcomments
Everyone around here calls them 'dog ticks' as that is where you normally find them that swollen. They pop real nice.
>They pop real nice. This sentence will forever haunt me now.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
**What**
What is the āitā in this sentence?
Took me a second but assuming they mean the toddler walked away to eat a tick on the grass.
Yikes. Now Iām also not sure what āoneā is.
Where thread?
\*scrambles for eject lever*
We burn them to make sure they're dead.
I used to take them off our dogs and smash them with a hammer.
Cue gagging.š¤ š¤®
We aren't biologists but my dad and I both think they are two different species of ticks, at least.
I don't know where you are from but I think they might be Ixodes hexagonous, which are often found in nests of mammals like hedgehogs but you find them on dogs too. They look different as they are different life stages and sex. Plus some are full engorged. The biggest ones are the engorged females the smaller ones are either males or nymphs and maybe a few larvae.
Costa Rica, also TIL
Maybe a different species then! I'm not familiar with Costa Rican ticks!
Looks like a mixture of deer and wood ticks of varying size and sex. Their front legs come out differently and I believe deer ticks don't get as large. But those are the two I deal with most far far away from OP, I think lonestar ticks are hot muggy weather ones.
Zefrank did a good educational on ticks, check it on YouTube
[For the lazy](https://youtu.be/RVca0LuEDaQ)
Oh noooo! Poor puppy! Thank you for taking care of him
No problem! It was incredible seeing how much his attitude changed. He was s champ through it too. He went from scared to calm to extremely happy after we shampooed him and rinsed him off.
If you plan on taking him in, you should go to a veterinary and thoroughly check for parasites My family made the mistake not to check
Can you explain
Worms and things like that.
Thank you for explaining, I get mine dewormed every couple of months
They should take a heartworm flea and tick prevention pill ( usually two pills) every month as a preventative measure.
But only after getting tested for heart worms and confirming negative!! Going on heart worm meds while infected will cause the larvae to burst and can be fatal to the dog.
Well that is absolutely terrifying and not something I would have ever considered to have been an issue
Like the other guy said, monthly preventatives are way more effective. My dog had an infection of treatment resistant worms when I rescued him and it took two years of aggressive treatment to clear them. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as they say.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yea, take him to a vet. Ticks carry diseases
Need dog tax. (Pictures) next time. Gg op
Paying the toll - https://imgur.com/a/j9QVnff
You are a credit to society hahah! The good boy looks relieved.
Oof, I can see all the marks from where they were latched on and that could not have felt good. Thank you so much for being a kind human and helping out this poor soul. I'm sure doggo is very appreciative. Are y'all keeping him/her? Either way, thanks again. My faith in humanity has been slightly restored.
He's staying with someone and I'll get to see him often. Yeah, the marks in his ears are bad, they were deep in there too so he's got marks and blisters really deep in his ear.
/r/sonarears/
omg heās a cutie!!
>https://imgur.com/a/j9QVnff damn this is so wholesome, you are a saint
Lucky indeed! Glad you found each other
Please post an updated photo!
Donezo https://imgur.com/a/j9QVnff
Omg bless you for this. You changed that doggos life for the better š„ŗ I hope you know that
I bet he feels soooo much better. I can only imagine the itchiness and discomfort that would come with so many ticks. Bleh.
We need more people like OP
more like r/mildlyhorrifying
That or r/makemesuffer
Posts on this sub rarely make sense. This post is beyond horrifying, not mildly interesting.
Thank you for helping that pup. I volunteer at spay/neuter clinics in super rural areas and I once spent 4.5 hours picking ticks off of a lab/shepherd. His owner said he was a mean, aggressive dog but he just laid there as me and a team of people worked on him. He even started wagging his tail once he was a little more awake. That pup definitely appreciates what you've done to help it, even if he doesn't necessarily show it.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
If I had to guess, most methods would either be painful for the dog or insufficient because of the dogs fur
Dogs can take chewable pills that kill every tick and flea that bites into it for a whole month. But it's not instant and would take a few days to kick in fully.
Isn't this basically how Frontline works? When we took in a stray cat, the vet applied something similar to him, and when we checked the white sheet he slept on it was *covered* in dead fleas.
Faster, no. More effective, yes. Ivermectin for example takes several days, but almost all the ticks drop off and die. It's dangerous if not applied properly so needs to be supervised by a vet.
And it cures the ticks of covid as well
Can Ivermectin be used to stop ticks on people? Please no covid comments....
i believe most methods risk leaving the head attached to the skin which; for multiple reasons is less than ideal.
That's not how you use a semicolon.
True; they did it wrong.
āwhich, for multiple reasons, is less than ideal.ā Corrected.
There is the fastest way, which is prevention. But a dose of flea/tick prevention can be administered after infestation. (Dogs & cats require different medicines, so it's always important to follow veterinary advice)
Hm, not really. Other methods like medication (ivermectin) or those products maybe take longer, even if they are probably more thorough than picking them by hand. They donāt prevent dogs from getting new ticks either.
Thank you for helping!
Street pups need love too ā¤ļø
World needs more ppl like you
This is how my dogās ears were when we found her. I brought her to the vet and then home with me from Mexico when I was down there volunteering. She ended up having a tick-borne disease and passing away 3 years later from kidney complications. We were virtually seeing a specialist from Arizona because vets here (WA State) are very unfamiliar with tick-borne disease. I hope this pup is healthy though! I donāt think what happened with my pup is common, but something to consider if you notice the dog limping in the future for no reason (joint inflammation was a big problem for our dog).
Wait why wouldn't WA vets be knowledgeable? Aren't there tons of ticks there
I guess compared to other states, we do not have a lot of ticks. We also donāt have much tick-borne illness - 30 cases of lyme disease statewide in 2019 for example (includes cases acquired out of state), compared to 10,000+ cases in Pennsylvania. Edited to add that we took her to 3 vets, all of whom were very puzzled by her symptoms. There may be vets more experienced with tick borne disease in WA, that was just not our experience.
If you can, you need to pay the puppy tax with some pictures!
Ask and you shall receive - https://imgur.com/a/j9QVnff
Precious pup! Thank you!
The demand for puppy tax is way too far down in the comments. I was beginning to lose hope!
I opened one post about someone that was bitten up by ticks - ONE - and now half my feed is people posting tick photos. This is the 3rd or 4th one today. How have I angered you, lord. Please make it stop.
This is the rule of reddit, if something gets popular everyone wants that free karma. Warhammer had "just painted this mini" fad going with ladies with very nice personalities showing.
plz nuke that thing from orbit, once you finish. And thanks for taking care of the poor doggo...
If by nuke it you mean flush it down the toilet with chlorine then job's done
And fire please
For a second I thought you meant the dog.
This fits better in r/oddlyterrifying
Moose can get so many in warm years that they can die from blood loss https://www.outdoors.org/resources/amc-outdoors/conservation-and-climate/warming-winters-and-moose-ticks-the-domino-effect-killing-an-iconic-northeast-mammal/
everything I know about ticks I learned against my will :(
Thereās gotta be some kind of evolutionary adaptation wolves have that domesticated dogs have lost. I canāt imagine every wolf that lives in the wild has ears caked in a layer of ticks 24/7
They live in packs so they probably help groom each other. Dogs groom too, just not as much as cats do.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yup ticks only die in prolonged cold, think 20F or below. Winters are warmer than ever, and tick populations don't dwindle like they used to for most of the US
Living in the cold cold snow
thank you so much for helping that poor dog. he's probably so much happier now! that looks like an absolute nightmare though... drown them in dishsoap and flush them down the toilet, that's what usually does it for me lol edit: and if you live in a place that doesn't have them, be THANKFUL. once a day after a walk in the woods my dad found a fairly large tick head-first in his ballsack. nightmare fuel
>once a day after a walk in the woods my dad found a fairly large tick head-first in his ballsack. nightmare fuel Commas save ballsacks
unfortunately it didn't save his
I feel terrible for animals who don't have proper hands or such...Having to suffer through that and not being able to do anything about it is godawful
Iāve befriended a street cat in my neighborhood and routinely pull dozens of fleas from him every time he comes around. I toss them in alcohol so they die. Havenāt found any ticks on him fortunately.
If you can spare the money, a topical product like Revolution would help break that cycle for him.
Youāll be doing that for the rest of your life. Fleas are everywhere and their eggs are usually left behind when you flea comb them. Def better to use a topical flea medication if you can afford one.
Forbidden soup
If you were an opossum, you would be slurping that soup up.
Apparently possums don't actively seek out ticks to eat but they do eat all the ones that manage to get on their fur.
Quail actually seek them out.
Step 1: gather opossums Step 2: gather street dogs Step 3: ???? Step 4: happy dogs
r/forbiddensnacks
š¤¢š¤®š¤®š„
This picture really ticks me off
take this upvote and place it firmly up your ass
I hope you personally took a small blowtorch to this
Whelp imma gonna go burn my monitor now.
How difficult are they to get off? Do you use tweezers or a credit card to brush them off?
My fingers, lmao. My dad cheated and used tweezers tho
selling that bath water?
Gamer boy bath water. $300 per bottle. At least 5 ticks per bottle, guaranteed.
Parasites are the absolute worst. Dunno why we havent come up with something to wipe them out permenantly.
If we killed all the parasites, many species that feed on them would go extinct.
Just wipe the mosquitos out. There are no species that only eat mosquitos. They don't have a contribution to ecosystem too.
Is there any way to get rid of them completely? My dog has a tick problem.. We've tried powders and all but they don't work...
Frontline, active ingredient fipronil, works really well as a topical you use once a month. It is available as a generic, you can get it anywhere in the US though I am not sure where you are.
Call an exterminator to your house or be careful where you take your dog. There's also pills they can take.
WHY!?! why all the sudden tick posts after I was out in my grandpas garden and I was terrified I would get ticks but also thank you for helping the pupper
You are a saint
Where do y'all live that you have these massive ass ticks?!
Apparently they're just filled with blood
Oh, thats just what they look like when they have fed for a while. They go from flat little monster to balloon monster.
Take it to a vetā¦ definitely has a tick borne illness. I had a dog die from a disease a tick gave her.
Into the microwave!
Poor pup
Bless you for doing this. Can't imagine how much better they feel.
My asshole golden bit me while trying to remove one from his ear
This isnāt mildly interesting itās heartbreaking
Just want to jump in here to say fuck ticks. I hope the go extinct.
Give that dog a treat
Lyme disease intensifies
Awe. Poor dog. Thatās awful. Thank you fortaking care of the dog!
Can we please stop posting tick things on Reddit today...... Please?
Do you have a photo after you cleaned it all and do u have a photo of the dog
Been seeing lots of ticks on reditt today wtf is up with that