Q: What is the safest way to get a tick out of my dog’s body? Should I use tweezers or gloved hands? Are there ways to prevent ticks from sucking on his body?
A: Whatever you do, don’t remove ticks from your pet with your teeth (yes, people do this, and one man then developed the tick-borne disease Rocky Mountain spotted fever). Don’t use your hands either, because you’re more likely to crush the tick, force tick-borne pathogens into your pet or break in your skin, and leave the tick’s mouthparts behind (which can cause skin irritation and infection). Instead, place a tick-lifting tool or curved tweezers between your pet’s skin and the tick’s body, use gentle upward pressure to remove the tick, then flush it down the toilet. There’s a variety of tick-lifting tools available online, but fine-tipped curved tweezers also work well.
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