You're absently running your hands through your dog's coat and feel something that doesn't belong there. Something that feels like a small lentil, deep in the fur. You untangle it from the hair, hold it up to the light to see what it is ...

.. .and it waves back at you! Ewww gross - a tick!

Fleas and ticks - both of these bloodthirsty parasites are the bane of a dog's existence. But while fleas are mostly a nuisance, ticks are far more dangerous, frequently being carriers of serious and even fatal diseases including:

• Lyme Disease
• Ehrlichiosis
• Tick Paralysis
• Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
• Babesiosis
• Hepatozoonosis

An Ounce of Tick Prevention ...

A few simple precautions will help prevent your pet (and your family) from being bitten by these nasty critters.  

• Mow your lawn regularly. If you're in a high-risk area, treat your yard with tick preventative pesticides.
• If you take your dog walking in the woods or the park stay on paths and avoid tall grasses.
• Use a tick preventative spot-on, spray or collar on your dog.
• After trips to the beach, woods or park, brush your dog and check his fur for ticks as soon as you get home. Since ticks don't attach to your pet immediately, you can find them before they bite. Or worse, before they fall off in your house and bite you! Be sure to check ears, armpits, groin, around the head and between the toes as these are places where ticks like to hang out.
• Protect yourself by wearing light-colored clothing, tucking pants legs into your socks and examing yourself carefully after excursions to tick-infested areas. If you find an attached tick or a suspicious "bulls eye" rash, you should report this to your doctor.

More than one way to remove a Tick?

Well, yes there are - but there's only one good way! Let's look at the bad ways first:

• Myth # 1 - Smother the tick in mineral-oil, vaseline, nail polish, nail-polish remover, etc. This does nothing except upset the tick. Upset ticks tend to regurgitate blood and whatever toxins they are carrying right back into your body, guaranteeing that you or your pet will be exposed to whatever they are carrying!
  
• Myth #2 - Hold a match to it.  Nope. You're more likely to burn your dog or yourself, and it does nothing - except possibly upset the tick (see Myth #1).

The right way to remove a tick is to grasp it (with sterilized tweezers or at least a paper towel) beneath the body and as close to the skin as possible (see the arrow in the photo) and pull up with slow, steady pressure until it releases it's grip. You need to be patient - it may take a minute or two to remove it. If you pull too hard or too fast you will end up holding the body with the head still buried beneath your dog's skin. If this happens, see your vet promptly as it can lead to a very nasty infection!

A good thing to have handy is a tick removal tool. You can find these in pet supply stores - they look like a little plastic spoon or a small piece of metal with a notch in the end. Slide the notched end beneath the tick's body and pull as above, and you will end up with the tick neatly in the bowl of the spoon.

After you remove the tick, kill it (don't use your bare fingers!) and if possible put it in a sealed container to take to your vet for analysis.

Know the Enemy

Even if you've never found a tick on your dog, it's a good idea to have a talk with your vet about what tick-borne diseases are native to your area , the symptoms of each, and what tests can be done to diagnose them. Catching and treating these diseases early is vital. This author's own dog was infected with Lyme Disease at age 7 - prompt diagnosis and aggressive treatment led to a complete recovery and she is at this writing going on 14 without so much as a hint of arthritis!