How to remove a tick from a pet

Swollen tick, engorged with blood,
taped to a piece of paper!

Poor Dorah. I pulled two ticks off of her today. I think I have removed 4 or 5 from her now. (UPDATE: 6, Daisy 4, Buster 1, Sady 1.)

I used the handy new pointy tweezers, you can see the photo of them below.

Pointy tweezers, 2 ticks

The larger tick was on for a few hours at least. The other I spotted crawling around her face. It takes 24 hours at least (the vet says 72 hours) for the bacteria to get from the feeding tick's gut into its victim.
Some talk about putting alcohol or liquid soap on the little bug, but that is wrong. I just take them off and tape them to a piece of paper.

Tonight (May 23), I pulled another off of Daisy's eye, another one from each of the kittens. They are awful this year.
We broke down and spent the $90 on a package of 6 ampules of Revolution. It doesn't kill ticks on cats, but it does kill other parasites. Check with your vet.
Revolution is a topical parasiticide that is applied to the skin of dogs and cats six weeks of age and over. 

The most important aspects of tick removal are:

• The mouth parts of the tick should be cleanly removed along with the rest of its body.
• The body of the tick must not be compressed.
• The tick should not be stressed or injured, because this can cause it to regurgitate its blood meal along with any infective organisms.
• The tick should be removed without causing the host any discomfort.
• Put some alcohol on the cat's wound. Wash your hands.

DO NOT use petroleum jelly, any liquid solutions, or freeze / burn the tick, as this will stimulate it to regurgitate its stomach contents, increasing the chance of infection.


How to remove a tick from your pet
I grabbed my handy tweezers, placed it as close to the base of her skin, and pulled like stink. Dorah complained, but not for long. It took a long steady pull, but it came off. You want to get the mouth part that sticks into the victim.

I missed the proboscus

(Good diagrams here)
Info from Albany County:
"While removing a tick, if the tick's mouthparts break off and remain in your skin, don't worry. The mouthparts alone cannot transmit Lyme disease, because the infective body of the tick is no longer attached. The mouthparts can be left alone. They will dry up and fall out by themselves in a few days, or you can remove them as you would a splinter."

Doing the back crawl on the tape.
It hasn't eaten yet.

Taped to a sticky note!
This one engorged.

Grasp tick with tweezers, pull the entire thing out.

I removed one from Sady last year!
The wound will heal.

Hubby's tick compared to
the point of a ball-point pen

Just a speck until it feeds.