Large tic- twister too small

[Catfan5]

Just discovered a tic on my cat, it looks fairly engorged and I can see a couple of legs! The Tom o'twist is too small and the skin around it looks sore and a little bloody- how can I get rid of it? The vet is emergency only and couldn't advise. Do I just let it drop off on its own or is there something else I can do? Thanks in advance for any advice..

[bobbys girl]

Oooh yuk, don't you just hate them. My OH has a knack with these beggars. If you can bear to touch them, part the cat's hair get a firm grip on the tick and in one movement twist as you pull. It has to be a sharp movement and it helps if you have fairly long finger nails (OH plays guitar and has long nails - for a man). We always have a little salt water to hand to bathe the area just in case. But nine times in ten they come out cleanly and all you get is a filthy look from the cat.

Some thinking says to pull the tick slowly, but we found you can just pull the wretched thing apart, leaving the head in place.

[Catfan5]

Thanks, it looks quite sore and he's growling at me! If he'll let me I'll have a go, I haven't got long nails though..

[Lilith]

My cat book says wet cottonwool with surgical spirit and squeeze it over the tick's head, leave it a short while and pull off; it will have died by then and come off with all its mouthparts intact. Somehow I don't care for using surgical spirit on a cat, but I used this method on a dog, and it did work perfectly.

The last time I removed a tick was a bit of an emergency, on a walk in the middle of nowhere. A very small hedgehog wearing a very large tick stumbled groggily across our path, and all I had was a badge on my rucksack (which said 'Why Be Normal?') I undid the badge, picked up the poor hedgie, and stabbed the tick in the abdomen. It fell straight off, nasty thing, and I do hope that hedgehog recovered.

Good luck with whatever method you choose

[Catfan5]

Alfie's disappeared into the garden for now! I had a go at getting hold of it earlier but I was afraid of squeezing it and making it worse so I chickened out
I have some surgical spirit though and cotton wool. Would it be a bad idea to use it on a cat?

[Catfan5]

I did it! A pull and twist and the whole thing came out and tried to crawl away- ughhhh! I screwed it up in a tissue and threw it down the waste disposal! Now I'd better check all the cats thoroughly just in case. I forgot Stronghold doesn't do ticks unfortunately. Thanks for both of your replies

[Lilith]

Hi and congrats - sorry I didn't see your query about surgical spirit till now. No, I wouldn't be happy about putting that stuff near a cat, as I said, and glad you didn't have to use it.

Your little guy will be starting to feel much better now; it can take a day or two for the toxins to disperse, or at least it was so with my dog, but I'd never seen a tick till she got one (chasing rabbits in long grass) and I was only alerted when her leg swelled and she seemed off-colour. Then, luckily as she was long-coated, I saw IT. Nasty devils!

[bobbys girl]

You are lucky Lilith, where we are the little sods are everywhere! We are surrounded by fields and cattle. Bob and Purdy are the ones most affected as they are the ones that explore.

I don't know what is worse, finding one attached to your cat or looking down to see one crawling up your arm or leg, AGHHHH! The inbuilt response is to swat it off. But then you spend the next half hour looking for the little blighter 'cos you don't want it creeping up on you later.

[Catfan5]

I'm a bit worried now as the site of the tick bite is reddish and raised and feels rough. I've bathed it with salty water but am wondering if the vet should take a look tomorrow if it looks the same. I've not seen this reaction in my other cat who had a couple on his face a while ago.

[Lilith]

Hi, I'd feel the same, but it may be a temporary reaction; the salt water is a good idea, and hopefully your vet can give guidance as to whether a visit is necessary. They might say, bring the cat in if the inflammation persists.

Bobbys girl will know more, being a veteran with the little blighters - lol perhaps I'm sentimental Bobbys girl but I wish I were back in a rural area, ticks and all. Round here all the wildlife you get are feral ice cream vans and people baying into their mobiles, though in the dead of the night I have heard the bark of an urban fox

[bobbys girl]

Yes Lilith, even with the ticks AND the midges, I still wouldn't go back to the city for ANYTHING!

[Catfan5]

They're vile things, my son was bitten last year out running but didn't know til the bullseye rash appeared. Luckily after a course of abs he was all clear.

[MarySkater]

I've read that you can get ticks off with a pair of pointed tweezers - I have Boots "first aid tweezers" which have narrow points. Happily I don't live in a tick zone. But when I used to work with horses, they would pick up ticks. A horse in summer coat has shorter hair than a cat, so the ticks were easy to see, and I just used to scrape them off with a fingernail. (Then, if I could see where they landed, scrunch them with my boot like stubbing out a cigarette, to kill them.)