Tuesday, May 12, 2009

What is the Best Way to Remove a Tick From my Pet?

Hi,

Dr. Eric Barchas, DVM, wrote the following on What is the Best Way to Remove a Tick From my Pet?

I found it interesting information so I extracted part of it as follows :

"One day in class Dr. Patricia Conrad, parasitologist and expert in the field, described the best way to remove a tick. I wish I had known it sooner. I find that it removes entire ticks about 90% of the time.

Here, according to Dr. Conrad, is the best way to remove a tick from your pet:

Grasp the tick firmly with hemostats (aka tweezers) as close to the skin as possible. Pull gently but firmly straight away from the skin until the tick comes out. Do not twist. Avoid grasping the tick’s abdomen. This can cause regurgitation of stomach contents into your pet, increasing the likelihood of Lyme disease, Ehrlichiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and other scary tick-borne diseases.

Some other points: tick prevention is better than tick removal. In my experience, Frontline is the tick preventative with the best safety and efficacy profile. No tick preventative is 100% effective."

Hopefully, you do not have to experience removing any tick yourself and prevention should be the choice of the day instead.

Frontline is definitely a proven product so do give it a try.

David