Yes, the Ticks are Out and About

I have a dog. A very furry dog named P.D. He is American Eskimo and as you might think he loves the snow but not the summer sun. The recent wave of hot weather and a busy schedule make it tricky to get in a walk with him when temperatures are cool enough for him to survive a good walk.

Last night before the rain we fit in a good walk. Unfortunately, I took a path which has high grass in one section. Fortunately, I was thinking about potential tics and didn't let my dog go into the tall grass.

A couple of hours later, I noticed a black spot near the tip of my dog's ear. Since the American Eskimo is all white except for their eyes, nose and mouth, a black spot on the ear was very much out of place. Closer inspection of the spot confirmed my suspicions that it was in fact a tick. One of my summer jobs was as a camp counselor which provided me plenty of tick removing experience. I automatically grabbed the jar of petroleum jelly and slathered the tick with the jelly. The tick wasn't budging so I did the next thing I knew to remove ticks. I lit a match, blew it out and placed the hot match on the tick after wiping off some of the petroleum jelly. This worked great; the tick came out and was flushed away. P.D. was happy because he received a treat for being a great dog through the experience.

 This morning, I decided to find out how far ticks can jump because I was always told that ticks jump. Thanks to the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) I have learned that ticks do not jump but instead are experts at quickly letting go of vegetation and grabbing on to passing hosts. Apparently, ticks only crawl. Further reading lead me to the discovery that I did absolutely everything wrong to remove the tick. Basically, everything I thought I knew about ticks was wrong.

The correct way to remove a tick is to grab a tick as close to the skin as possible with a tweezers or your fingers and a tissue and pull straight out without twisting or jerking the tick. You shouldn't use your bare hands because ticks carry diseases. Using the petroleum jelly and the match as I did can cause the tick to empty its stomach contents into the host potentially transferring diseases to the host. I did correctly dispose of the tick by flushing it down the toilet however; I did this before I tried to identify the type of tick. Identifying the tick before disposing of it is also recommended.  

Now that I am armed with this new knowledge, I need to go purchase a tweezers because I can't find the tweezers that I was sure we had in the bathroom somewhere. I will also be putting on the tick and flea repellent which is sitting in the basket of dog care items. And for a while, I'll be avoiding the path with the tall grass in an effort to lessen the chances of either myself or P.D. becoming host to an unwanted tick. Should we run into another tick in the future, I will do my best to remember to pull the tick out with tweezers but I have a feeling my first thought will still be to reach for the jar of petroleum jelly.