What is really the best way to remove a tick?

Use the tweezers, but make sure to grasp it by the head, not the rest of the body. If you can, get tweezers that come to a point. Grabbing it by the head drastically reduces the risk of anything getting back into the host’s body, and won’t leave behind a tick head if the tick rips in half.

Quite frankly, I always just grab ‘em as close to the skin/head as possible and pull the little suckers off. Then I apply a bit of peroxide and some anti-biotic ointment. Works just fine. If there is a little piece of the mouth parts left, the body simply forces it out with the scab that forms and the remaining bits come out when the scab falls off.

I have lived in tick land up here in the hills for over 20 years and have yet to have to have a tick bite treated on one of my animals. I also use Advantage during the spring and fall when the ticks are most active. mid-summer, winter never see one.

I am in the California Sierra Nevada foothills at about the 2000 foot level, tick paradise in the spring especially.

When our dog got one we just pulled it off with tweezers, as close to the head as possible. Nothing was left behind.
I didn’t think to clean it, next time we’ll do neosporin or something.

Yeah, it came out, no problems. I thought that Advantage protected against ticks, because the dogs have never had one before now. Threw me for a loop!

Thanks all. :)

Tweezers here too.

The best best way is to look over the animal as soon as it comes back inside, find the tick before it takes a bite and just lift it off as you might any other insect. They’re slow-moving, so if you look out well for them, then you should be able to get them before they get under the skin.

Twist them. To make sure the head follows, twist those little suckers. I just removed one from my son´s head. We must have brushed off 5 each, but one still hid and got just slightly attached to my son´s head and I found it the next morning. By twisting it slowly the head didn´t pull away from the body and the whole thing came out quite easily.

I went to my pet store and got a Tick Key which you can see here. This truly is the easiest method for removing ticks from dogs. Love IT!!!!

I just pulled about 2000 off a poor pup with my fingers and I am still alive to tell the tail. I have removed millions in my days as groomer etc. and never worried about leaving the heads in. If a sore develops where you pulled one out, put a bit of antiseptic on it but most don’t.

Leaving the head in increases the risk of disease transmission.

If you do get lots of them, Ivermectin which is actually a cattle dip is the best stuff. It is not approved for dog use so vets don’t recommend it but in the NT where there are literally millions, it is used by vets all the time. There is a type that is injected sub q, some that can be squirted on the back of the neck and some that can be given orally. I use the squirt kind because it also takes care of most internal parasites (except tapes) and treats mange as well, also heartworm preventative. I have been using it on my dogs for about 7 years.

@incendiary_dan – here they don’t seem to carry lymes or other diseases so I can’t comment on that, but I was in the dog business in USA for about 25 years and never had a problem. I must admit though Lymes was not common then. Is that the disease you are referring to?

Wow, all this moderation on a tick thread???
I’ve been pulling ticks off dogs for almost half a century and never had a problem with the “grab and yank” technique. I always use an antiseptic of some kind on the site afterward.

We live in Connecticut, not far from the town of Lyme…the one Lyme disease is named after. Before I moved out here, I’d never actually seen a tick or heard of one biting someone. I’d never seen one on our many cats and dogs.

Well, now I think half the people I know have had Lyme disease. I’ve had more practice picking ticks of children (and sometimes myself) than I care to think about. The first time you have to do it, it can really throw you for a loop.

If the tick is really hard to pull out with tweezers, use your fingers to pull the skin tight around the tick. Also, according to my kids’ pediatrician, a tick that’s been attached for less than 24–48 hours won’t transmit Lyme disease. I don’t know about other tick diseases in other places. If the tick isn’t fat with blood but is still big enough to be easily seen, it isn’t a deer tick and doesn’t carry Lyme disease.

Good luck!

Doctors use a large magnifying glass, a bright and focused lamp and proceed to using a strong hollow needle (almost like a scalpel) when tweezers don’t work. If you got the equipment and aren’t squeamish you can do it yourself.

@MissAusten thank you! That was really informative.