So! Here we all are again! What will we talk about? I want to CHAT but I have nothing in particular to talk about except the last couple of weeks of mother-in-law visit, and let’s not talk about that.
Oh! I know! Do you want to hear about the tick I removed from my cat? Okay! Well, Elizabeth said there was something on the cat, and I went to look and it was this weird shiny grey smooth dangling POD-LIKE thing, about the size of a popcorn kernel. I couldn’t imagine what it could be. It was too big to be a skin tag, and so I thought maybe tick—but it was totally smooth. No LEGS. I’d thought there’d be visible bug parts if it were a tick.
Well, so I went online, because that is what I do. And it did seem like it was probably a tick. I looked on several sites, and the instructions seemed pretty consistent. I took a little of this and a little of that to come up with My Plan:
- Don’t try to burn the tick off or smother it with vaseline. Those are apparently really bad ideas.
- Get a disposable cup and put half an inch of rubbing alcohol in it. Put a Q-tip and a tweezers in the cup. (You’re sterilizing the tweezers and getting the Q-tip’s tip wet for use later in the process.)
- Locate the cat. Open a can of tuna if necessary.
- Kneel around the cat so the cat is as immobilized as possible, with the tick centered in your cat-view.
- Take a breath to stabilize yourself, because this is going to be icky but you can’t let yourself get icked: working quickly and decisively is in everyone’s best interests here. You need to get that tick before either the tick or the cat realizes what’s going on.
- Take the tweezers, grip the tick as close to the cat’s skin as you can get, and YANK. Pull straight out, don’t twist. Just POP that thing off, and then drop it into the cup of rubbing alcohol.
- Take the Q-tip out of the rubbing alcohol and rub it around on the cat’s skin where the tick was.
- Release the poor cat. Maybe bring out that tuna.
- WASH YOUR HANDS. Ticks are diseased and gross.
- Wait ten or fifteen minutes, then flush the tick down the toilet and throw out the cup, and wash your hands again.
- The next time you see the cat, check the owie. It’ll look kind of icky. It’s normal for it to be red, bleeding, or welty. Apparently it’s okay if (WARNING, WARNING, IMMINANT GROSSNESS ALERT!) the tick’s head remained under the cat’s skin; that will work itself out. (BARF.)
- You can put a little dab of ointment on the owie if you want to. I mixed some antibiotic ointment with some hydrocortisone ointment.
- Keep checking the owie regularly for several weeks. Call the vet if the owie gets worse or if it fails to get better, or if the cat seems sick.
There! Now you know!
Oh, ugh.
I HAAAAATE Tick Removal. Yours was much calmer and more premeditated than mine EVER is. It’s all panic and ickedness with a TOTAL lack of grace.
I always hate to think about how many of those little effers I DON’T find. And then? I DIIIIIE.
p.s. my word verification for this post is psuct. I swear.
Nice work with the tick. I’d so much rather remove a tick from MYSELF than another being. Speaking of which, you know I estimate I remove no fewer than 35-40 ticks from myself every year. GROSS. I always do a tick-check after work (I’m outside most of the time), but those buggers are hard to spot. Sometimes I get up in the middle of the night, scratching at something. And I have to get up, get the tweezers, etc., and remove ticks in the middle of the night. I come back to bed and Brett is like, “You’re disgusting,” because we’ve been married long enough he knows.
You know one time, I helped remove three bot flies from a friend of mine. I still can’t think too much about it without gagging.
Well, THIS ranks as one of the grosses comments I’ve ever left!
blech!!! I’dve paid the vet to remove the tick!
Wow, you are a brave and decisive woman, like some kind of Civil War nurse or something. Rational, quick-acting, cool headed. I would’ve called Jim screeching about a tick infestation.
Yesterday, he thought he spotted a mere flea on the dog and I went postal, running around scolding about how I KNEW this would happen if we didn’t flea-dip, and how I would be GOSH DARNED if that dog went in any of the bedrooms until we were sure there was just the one flea and not a whole crop of them.
So, um, I would be of little use in a tick situation, I think.
Weird, I always remember being told to light a match, then blow it out and put the hot match on the tick. I wonder why that’s now a bad idea.
And the idea of the tick head staying in the cat (or person) EWWW! That totally skeeves me out. Poor kitty! Poor Swistle!
Michelle- I was all squicked and trying not to read too much about it, but the short answer is that anything that STRESSES the tick (heat, smothering) will make it release more saliva—which is where the disease comes from.
Ick. That is all.
Gahhh! This is why I never let my cats venture outside. Well, this and the fact that they’re scared of grass.
Thanks, though; now at least I know what to do if I find a tick on the dog!
I hate ticks. I wish you posted this 2 days ago when I found one on my poor dog’s ear. Thanks for the info.
My method of tick removal:
1) Spot tick.
2) Call husband.
3) Leave room until time for cuddles (first pet, then husband).
His handling of insects is so important to my definition of marriage that I considered adding it to the vows.
I remove a lot of ticks (from my dog). They are gross, but I do it. I use my fingernails, or my fingernails through a paper towel if it’s really full and there is possibility of a burst.
My yard is very tick-y, so I must be really used to them because snatching them with my fingernails really doesn’t bother me. In fact, my friends and neighbors often ask me to remove ticks from their dogs since I am so casual about it.
I have not, however, ever removed a tick from a cat. That might be a whole different ballgame.
I am the Tick Remover at home and at work (I work with horses.) I seem to have perfected removal with just my finger nails, tweezer if it is a deer tick.
And I normally just wrap them up in scotch tape – then I KNOW that they aren’t going anywhere. I have to say, though, that there’s nothing quite like brushing a horse and finding ticks. Or looking at the cat and seeing ticks around her eyes and mouth, but those are mostly deer ticks.
Clarabella, we should start a business!
Barf.
Okay. I guess we chalk this one up as another phobia of mine…somewhere between the vomit phobia and the phone phobia. I couldn’t even read this whole entry because I feel my throat closing off!!! GAAAAAGKALAKSDBNTH!
Poor kitty.
There is nothing grosser in this world than a tick. OK, maybe there are SOME things grosser than ticks, but I can’t think of any off the top of my head.
We live in a wooded area and I live in fear of them using our Aussie as a trojan horse and infiltrating our house.
*squicked*
It’s a good idea to take the cat to the vet in a week or so to get checked out. Our puppy seemed fine but apparently got a parasite from the tick that was on her. She had to take an antibiotic for a month, but she’s fine now.
Ew. Ick, ick, ticks.
Good to know. Gross, but good to know.
Now, if I ever get a cat, I can totally search your blog (like I do for recipes) if the need arises. :)
Where are all you people finding these ticks!? Yuck!
I grew up in New Zealand and now live in Australia. I’ve had pets my entire life and have never seen or heard of a cat/dog with ticks! I think horses occasionally get them? Maybe NZ/Australia just dont have them except in deep bush?
I’m beginning to feel grateful…
Blech. You forgot #14: Wash hands again. And again. And again. And again. And one more time.
I’d love to know what REALLY happened between steps 6 and 7 :)
I just found one of those things. It might have been on my dog, but it was off the dog when I found it. He was sniffing it, about to eat it. I felt noodly all day and wanted to take a shower right then! And all I had to do was pick it up off the floor and flush it. *shudder*
Oh my gosh. I don’t think I could remove one. Blegh.
i grew up in nj, going to school on a farm with tall fields surrounded by woods… = tick central. i’ve found dozens of ticks on myself, but i’m thrilled to report i’ve never had to take one off an animal. cats definitely staying INSIDE, eek.
EW…Ick…Gross
You’re way tougher than me…I’m so thankful that I’ve never even seen a tick!
My brother’s 7 year old son got a tick stuck to him this summer. They were camping with my parents, in separate motorhomes, and there was apparently a lot of noise at 2am. At breakfast the next day, my mom asked “what was all the yelling about in the middle of the night?” The answer from Ben was “I had a tick dug into my weiner”. And they wonder why I don’t go camping. Blech.
Ah, ticks. Hate ’em. Growing up, we had a TON of barn cats and certain ones would just be COVERED in ticks. And I’d be the only one who’d feel sorry enough for them to remove the ticks. Ick.
Oh, and we had horses, and one of them always got ticks in his tail. My dad would remove the ticks and then drop them into a covered glass jar. At the end of the summer, that jar was FULL. Gah.
Dear Swistle,
Allow me to gross you out. My parents have outdoor animals (dogs and cats) and every evening my dad lets them all in and checks for ticks. When he finds them he pulls them out with his bare hands, and throws them in the woodstove, where they burn alive. I don’t think he washes his hands.
Sincerely yours for always,
Miss Grace
Fortunately we’ve only ever found one tick on our dog.
Back in my summer camp days I was very well acquainted with ticks. I’ve even been vaccinated for Lyme disease.
I’m not worthy! I have such a tick phobia. Despite wanting to be an outdoorsy mom with happy, healthy kids, I’m terrified of ticks getting on one of us.
I had a tick start to climb up my leg once when I was walking with a friend. I immediately started the Tick-Panic Dance, which includes but is not limited to: insane leg shaking, skirt flapping, jumping up and down and screaming.
Ugh, I just shuddered and got goosebumps of horror. You’re totally my hero.