Taking a Tick Off Your Dog

This year my dog has gotten more ticks on her than she has since we've lived here, which has been about ten years. She'll be getting her flea and tick prevention in a tube next week but I have been taking the ticks off of her.

I have heard of all kinds of ways to take ticks off. I checked out YouTube for helpful hints and techniques too. None were as easy as they sounded.

So I got to thinking, what could people have used a long time ago, before there were pharmacies and you had to go to a vet for some kind of flea and tick prevention. And then I thought, vinegar.

So I put some distilled (though I don't think that matters) vinegar on a cottonball and put a generous amount on the tick and the area surrounding it and thought I saw it back out. So I took my tweezers and plucked the tick off - very easily. Then I got my magnifying glass out and checked to make sure I got the head with the rest of the tick and I did. Most of the time it kills the tick but once the tick's legs started moving after a few seconds.

It didn't phase Coco. I showed her the tick and then combed her and said, "All better." She got another tick and she laid on her side and stayed there while I put some vinegar on it and pulled it easily and successfully out.

Vinegar. I had tried rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, oils and a tool that is supposed to be a great tick remover and none of those things worked. Plain old vinegar and some plain old fashioned tweezers does the trick every time.

I think we have had so much rain that there are either more of them this year or maybe things are growing faster that she is walking through and more are finding her easier. It's a good thing I comb her everyday, most days, while she is shedding, twice because I find them pretty quickly. So it's been great to discover an easy way to get rid of the ticks.

Bye the way...
Recently, Coco and I had gone off trail in the forest preserve and we went through some brush and she got a couple of hitch hikers on her and I got a tick on me too.   First time for me I think.  So I wanted to share that the vinegar doesn't hurt at all.  It just feels cold and a little tingly.  I think that tingly feeling happens when the tick is moving around.  Which is gross but keep putting vinegar on the tick and it will back out and most of it will turn beige or white and you'll see the front legs come out, they'll look like hairs and then you'll see a black dot and that is the head.  Put some more vinegar on it and take your tweezers and grab that head and it comes out so easily and no pain whatsoever.  And the vinegar doesn't sting at all.  So if you or your cat or dog or your human ever gets a tick on them, distilled white vinegar is the way to go.  Cotton or cotton balls and vinegar.... just so's you know.