Saturday, May 11, 2013

Removing a tick off a dog this morning

So, here we are in Whitby, sharing a household with Kevin Sherriff and his family, and dr. Ernie Murakami.

This morning, this happened .... I'll let the pictures tell the story!

Little did Benson the dog know last night that he was meeting his saviour! Benson was begging for cuddles from Arno while we were all relaxing after the lecture Dr. Ernie Marukami gave in Whitby. Then, this morning ....

.... Arno found a nice fat tick on Benson's neck. He must have picked it up in his own back yard, since the family was too busy to take him for outside walks this week.

We are used to finding ticks on our animals in South Africa, so Arno and I were quite happy to deal with it. However, the big gun was staying over too ....

... so we called Dr. Ernie downstairs too.

I helped to slip the knot over the tick while Arno was taking pictures.

But the knot kept slipping off!

Try again .... because the tick was so big, there was no need to use the straw to position it. Kit was holding Benson, the dog.

Knot tied around the mouth piece of the tick - be careful not to pull and break the tick .....

I asked Arno to get in there while I took over the camera.

Single knot tied in the thread, ready to pull and get the tick off intact, without leaving any pieces behind. Gently does it. Pull - release. Tug, release.

Arno on the left, Dr. Ernie on the right, Kit holding Benson.

And there it is on Arno's hand. I said they had to bring in the big guns from South Africa (us, we're used to ticks) and dr. Ernie, the TickSlayer, to get the tick off their dog! Do you think we paid for our room and board?

Benson, none the worse for wear after the early morning adventure.

What do you think of that? We told you the ticks are out there ...... this one was ready to deposit anything from between 1000 to 5000 eggs in the back yard. Birds, bats, mice, rabbits, voles - they all drop ticks.

Join us in Niagara Falls on Friday, May 17, as green lights shine for Lyme Awareness, and / or on May 18 in Brampton for a Lyme Awareness and fundraising day! http://LymeWalkBrampton.ca 

Here's the link to the album on Picasa, with captions: Removing a Tick

4 comments:

chillin with Quillin said...

what I could tell is you use string wrapped around tick and pull?
Paula

MeerkatMarlene said...

HI, Paula - yes it is a thread. We used Dr. Murakami's method, developed years ago and posted on Youtube, to remove the tick with a slip knot gently tightened around the mouth piece and then apply gentle pressure. Tug, release. Tug, release. After about the fourth time, the tick lets go. Dr. M developed the blister method and the straw-and-knot method. This tick was big enough that we didn't have to use a straw, but could position the thread around. It kept slipping off the smooth body, though, and of course the dog kept moving so we had to try a few times. Did you open the album link at the end and read the captions?

Unknown said...

What kind of tick was it?

Unknown said...

What kind of tick was it?

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