Ticks, they’re everywhere. They thrive in brushy, woody, and grassy areas which are just about everywhere. These small little insects carry diseases that can severely harm your dog. One of the responsibilities of being a pet owner is to keep your beloved friend from harm and to make sure that they live a full, long, healthy life. When your furry friend has the unfortunate outcome of getting ticks, there is a simple 10 step process on how to remove a tick from a dog.

The first step of removing a tick from a dog is to make sure that you put on latex gloves before looking around in your pets fur. The reason why you want to wear latex gloves is because you want to try and avoid any contaminated skin or even the tick itself. Contact with either one of these could be dangerous for your heath. If you know you live in an area that is commonly known for ticks and your dog spends time outdoors, you should check your dog for ticks daily.

After taking safety precautions, you want to begin to feel around inside your pets fur. While feeling around in your pets fur, you want to pay special attention to the neck, ear, and hear area because these are the areas that ticks are more commonly found. If you happen to feel a lump that feel like there is a small pea inside your pets fur, you are going to want to move the fur aside and look because it may just be a tick.

If the lump that you felt is a tick, it is going to be protruding from the skin. Ticks are known to be all different colors and sizes. The different colors that a tick can be are: black, brown, reddish or tan. Typically, ticks are the size of pin head and have eight legs. If the tick has attached itself to your dog, it can swell up to become the size of a grape.

When you are beginning the process of removing the tick from your dog, you are going to want to try and find some way to distract them. Usually, getting help from a friend or another family member works well. You are going to want to put your dog in the most comfortable position that you can for the removal process.

Once your dog is comfortable and distracted, you are then going to use a paid of tweezers and grab the tick as close as you can to your dogs skin. However, do make sure that you do not pinch your dog because they may jump and you would have to start the process all over again. When removing the tick from your dogs skin, you are going to want to pull the tick straight out using a steady pulling motion. Make sure to be careful while pulling the tick out because if you pull to hard it can cause the ticks head to come apart from the body and become stuck in your pets skin. If the head of the ticks becomes stuck in the dogs skin, it can cause swelling and infection.

To dispose of the tick, it is best that it is thrown into a fire. Disposing of the tick any other way can give it the opportunity of attaching to your dog again. If you do not have a fire to throw the tick into, squishing it in the middle of a tissue and flushing it down the toilet is the next best option. After you have completely removed the tick from your dog, you may want to apply antiseptic to the bite area. For your hygienic needs, you are going to want to wash and dry your hands and the tweezers thoroughly afterwards as well. That is how you remove a tick from your dog successfully.