How to Get a Tick Out of a Cat: A First-Step Walkthrough

Good day. Sometimes I have to conduct a kind of demonstration. But not the stage, no. For example, a couple of days ago I sat quietly in my shade, rested after a busy day.

Neighboring children came running with a whole crowd and dragged someone's cat with them. They asked me to show them how to get a tick from a cat. At first they wanted to try it themselves, but then they were afraid to do something wrong. They watched the procedure with great interest. Now I want to share with you the best ways to remove the tick.

How to get a tick out of a cat at home

The parasite, although universal, is small and has a rather modest "arsenal", given the thickness of the skin of a cat. Most often, insects are found in the ears, armpits, groin, abdomen - on delicate, thin skin.

Funny and sad, but cats often come to veterinarians with inverted, torn and in every possible way mutilated nipples. The hosts mistakenly take the mammary gland for the parasite and stubbornly try to remove it. Both males and females have nipples, they are not 4, but 8. The tick has a black or brown color, its body is solid and covered with a shell.

Tick ​​structure

It is important to remove the parasite on its own, the animal, trying to get rid of the "enemy", will itch, which can partially disrupt the insect. The foreign protein remaining in the skin will begin to decompose, which will cause local inflammation.

In nature, there are about 850 species of ticks, which are divided into 2 families: Ixodidae and Argasidae. The difference in the rigidity of the outer shell of the body, in animals, is most often parasitized by hard ixodid ticks, argas have a soft shell.

Otherwise, the structure of all parasites is the same:

• The body is round, drop-shaped, black, gray, brown.
• In mature individuals, 4 pairs of paws, in young ones, 3.
• At the pointed end of the body is the head.

Correctly pulling out the tick from the cat means, in turn, to get the head and 8 paws out of the skin. Having found the parasite, take a magnifying glass and examine it:

Paws are visible above the skin, the body of the tick is round, black - the initial stage. The tick is black, looks like a drop, the paws are completely immersed in the skin, the head is visible - the parasite is fixed.

In the absence of experience, getting rid of the tick is quite difficult.If you are unsure of your strengths, eyesight, disdain or are afraid of insects, it is best to consult a doctor, who will teach you the algorithm of actions using an example.

Consider the most difficult option - you do not have experience, the tick completely immersed the limbs and head in the skin and has not yet been saturated - at this stage the parasite is held tight. In order to remove the tick from the cat at home, you will have to calm and fix the animal, it is better to enlist the help of another person.

Stage 1

Ticks breathe in the body, so the best way to loosen the parasite’s “grip” is to block the oxygen supply:

Stage 2

You will need tweezers and a magnifying glass, when the parasite feels a lack of oxygen, it will partially pull its paws and head out of the animal’s skin.

• To remove the tick’s head from the cat, pry it with tweezers from the bottom and gently pull it up.
• Moving from the head, alternately and in pairs, remove the paws.
• There is a possibility that the tick will “stick to the body”, even when all the paws and head are removed. Recoat the tick and wait 5-10 minutes, the parasite should squeeze the paws under itself.
• Make a noose-loop from the thread and tighten under the abdomen of the tick, separating it from the skin of the animal.
• Re-treat the skin with an antiseptic.

How to remove a tick in a cat

To remove the attached tick there are special tools that allow you to remove it without squeezing the body. This is important because, by crushing the body of the tick, you increase the likelihood of harmful bacteria present in the tick’s body getting into the cat’s blood.

In the absence of special tools for removing the tick, you can use a thread or thin fishing line, or tweezers with thin ends. During the "operation", be sure to use rubber gloves to avoid infection, infection of which is possible even through healthy skin.

Carefully hook the tick over the head or jaw as close as possible to the place where the tick stuck into the skin. Do not take the tick by the body.

Decisively and calmly, with effort, but not sharply, without jerking, pull the tick out. Do not twist the tick while pulling.

Do not try to “drive out” the tick by lubricating the cat’s skin at the site of the bite with alcohol, oil and other substances - this is useless. Moreover, these irritants can stimulate the tick to bring more saliva into the wound and, accordingly, more pathogenic bacteria.

After removing the tick, do not flush it into the toilet bowl - it will survive. To kill a tick, put it in a jar of alcohol.

Clean the wound from a tick bite on the cat's skin, treat with disinfectants. If possible, apply a small amount of an antibiotic ointment. Do not forget to wash your hands thoroughly.

In no case do not try to get the tick with your fingers or crush it. The tick can be carriers of diseases that are dangerous not only for the cat, but also for humans. The remains of a crushed tick can also be a source of infection.

Immediately after removing the tick from the skin of the cat, inflammation at the site of the bite is not rare. A small amount of hydrocortisone spray helps to alleviate irritation, but complete healing may take more than a week.

If everything is done carefully, it is unlikely that the tick will have its head torn off, this rarely happens, but in any case, it is not the remains of the tick that represent the danger, namely its saliva and the pathogens it carries.

Tick ​​removal methods sent by site visitors. Here is an option sent by Zoya Mikhailovna (thanks for the advice! Site visitors have already sent messages about successful experience in removing ticks in this way).

To remove a tick, you need to take a piece of a rag, moisten it and lather well with any soap. Then put a swab on the tick-digging tick, pressing it tightly to the skin. Rotate the set with fast circular motions (clockwise, counterclockwise).

The method is painless, fast, effective, and most importantly - the tick comes out completely. I have been using this method for about 10 years and not only me, but also all family members and relatives. So you can remove the tick from animals and birds.

Ticks in cats: what are the dangerous means of protection

A tick is a parasite of the arachnid class, dangerous for all vertebrates. The size of the tick varies from degree of saturation - a hungry individual rarely reaches a length of more than 0.5 cm, but after eating, the tick increases to 1 - 1.5 cm.

The color of a hungry tick can be black, dark brown, brown, after feeding it changes to red, pinkish or grayish. Outwardly, the tick resembles a spider: an oval body, a small head, four pairs of limbs.

Ticks pose a high risk for cats with free access to the street. However, domestic cats, never leaving the apartment, are attacked by ticks - the owner can bring the parasite into the house on clothes or in hand luggage.

What does it look like?

To detect a parasite, you need to carefully examine the cat, comb it with a small comb, blow it against the coat or feel the cat against the growth of the coat, gently running palms on the skin.

You are lucky if you find a tick before it sticks to the body of the pet - in this case it will look like a dark brown insect, quickly crawling along the coat. If a cat is bitten by a tick, the parasite will look like a dark, flat seed adhering to the skin or a leathery pea (depending on the length of the bite).

Once on a cat, a tick crawls on the surface of the body from several minutes to 2-3 hours, looking for a convenient place to eat. Most often, ticks dig into the skin of the abdomen, thighs, armpits, behind the ears, ticks in cats prefer the inguinal region.

Having found a suitable place, the tick penetrates the skin, cutting tissues and promoting the proboscis as deep as possible. In the process of introduction, the tick secretes sticky saliva, which forms around the proboscis a kind of cement case.

This "tunnel", coupled with teeth and hooks on the oral apparatus of the tick, reliably fixes the parasite in one position. Attachment lasts from several minutes to 2-3 hours (the longer, the more difficult it is to remove a tick in a cat).

In the process of feeding, the tick alternately absorbs blood and lymph, then injects special pain-relieving enzymes into the wound (it is because of them that the animal to which the parasite has sucked does not notice it and does not show any anxiety).

What to do if a cat is bitten by a tick?

Having found a tick on a pet, you need to immediately remove the insect and destroy it.The longer the tick is on the cat, the more enzymes enter the animal’s blood and the higher the risk of developing one of the diseases described below, so you can not wait until the tick falls off itself.

All this time you need to observe the cat - once a day to measure the temperature and monitor the general condition of the pet. If you experience any symptoms of malaise, consult a doctor immediately.

How to pull out?

It is important to remove the tick from the cat without violating the integrity of the parasite. If the oral apparatus or head is separated from the body, remaining inside the skin, tissue necrosis can develop at the site of the bite, which will lead to serious inflammation. In addition, tick fragments remaining inside increase the risk of developing the disease.

To remove the tick completely from the cat, you need to unscrew it from the wound, fixing it with tweezers or fingers. Hands should be protected with gloves or a piece of cloth - the tick will not bite you when removed, but even a simple contact of the skin with the parasite can provoke a dangerous disease.

There is a special device with which it is easy to get a tick from a cat - a curved stick with a notch at the end (tick twister). The hook must be placed under the tick, the wand scroll several times clockwise. The tick cannot be pulled up or to the sides, so you will certainly separate the head of the parasite from the body.

It is useless to water the tick with alcohol, oil or kerosene - this will only prolong the time of the bite, increasing the risk of infection. You can not wrap a tick with a thread or throw a loop of thread on it - in this way you will surely squeeze a tick, damaging its integrity.

What is a bite dangerous?

Ticks are carriers of many deadly diseases. During a bite, when a tick injects enzymes into the victim’s tissue, the pathogen invades the cat’s blood. Diseases with which this parasite can infect a cat: pyroplasmosis, hemobartonellosis, teileriosis.

Pyroplasmosis (babesiosis). Cat pyroplasmosis is a very rare disease caused by the smallest parasites babesia felis. Once in the blood of a cat, they are localized in red blood cells, which leads to cell death. Pyroplasmosis in cats causes an increase in temperature (40-41 degrees), anemia.

The diagnosis is confirmed only in the laboratory, based on studies of blood serum. Antimalarials are used to kill babesias, and symptomatic remedies are used to maintain a cat. The outcome depends on the effectiveness of the drugs, the general condition of the cat and the stage at which the diagnosis is made.

Hemobartonellosis (infectious anemia). The causative agent of infectious anemia in cats is Haemobartonella felis, a simple parasite localized on red blood cells and tissues of internal organs, bone marrow, and lymph nodes.

The disease causes anemia, and, as a result, the general deterioration of the animal. The cat eats poorly or becomes selective, the hair is dull, disheveled, temporary disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, heart failure, and yellowness of the mucous membranes may appear.

Some cats become inactive, depression and general apathy develop. Urine may be pinkish. 70% of cats have no symptoms of the disease.

The diagnosis is confirmed laboratory, based on studies of blood serum. The treatment is long, but in most cases successful. Hemobartennelosis itself does not pose a great danger to cats (mortality of about 1%).However, the disease reduces immunity and creates favorable conditions for the occurrence of chronic diseases of the liver, kidneys, gastrointestinal tract, heart.

Theileriosis. The causative agent of theileriosis of cats is the simplest of the genus of theileria, localized in red blood cells and tissues of internal organs. Theileriosis is common in Asia and North America.

In Russia, only a few cases have been recorded (tick mites can presumably be imported from the foci of theileriosis along with animals). In the process of vital activity, teileria destroy blood cells and tissues. A sick cat refuses food, drinks a lot, becomes inactive.

The doctor makes a diagnosis based on studies of blood serum. No specific treatment has been developed. Anti-malarial drugs are used to destroy theileria.

Diseases by which a tick can infect a cat are found hundreds of times less often than those diseases by which a tick can infect a dog (for the territory of the Russian Federation). It seems that the owners of cats are lucky. However, this is not quite true.

In case of infection of the dog, for example, pyroplasmosis, any veterinarian will quickly make a diagnosis and begin treatment. But when the cat got sick, not every doctor can identify a rare disease, which means that the treatment will be ineffective.

How to protect a cat from ticks?

It is impossible to completely protect a pet from tick bites. However, the use of modern means of tick ticks for cats can minimize the risk.

Collars for cats from ticks. The antiparasitic collar is a strip soaked in a special agent that repels and / or kills the tick.

Cons: high toxicity (the antiparasitic collar cannot be used on kittens, pregnant cats, sick or weakened animals), often causes local irritations (dermatitis, hair loss in the neck), high risk of poisoning (if the cat lays down or gnaws the collar, intoxication will require medical attention and can even lead to the death of a pet).

Collars are suitable for adults, absolutely healthy cats, spending a lot of time on the street and sleeping separately from people. Collar brands popular among owners: Beafar, Hartz, Rolf Club.

The most popular Bayer brand Kiltex collars for cats are not available. If you want to buy a collar of this particular company, choose Bolfo - it is suitable for both dogs and cats.

Tick ​​Sprays for Cats. Sprays are quite effective, but not too convenient to use.

In addition, the cat immediately after the procedure will begin to lick itself, and this is unacceptable. The pet will have to be held until the drug dries. But even after drying, it remains toxic! Vomiting, lacrimation and salivation are the most “harmless” signs of intoxication.

Drops for cats from ticks. The product is applied to the skin in the area of ​​the shoulder blades, is absorbed into the upper layers of the skin and / or blood, repels and / or kills external parasites.

Quality drugs are safe for pregnant cats and kittens from 8 weeks of age (Front Line, Stronghold, Advantix, Lawyer, Rolf Club).Drugs that contain heavy pesticides (for example, leopards from ticks for cats) cannot be used on kittens younger than 3 months old, sick and weakened animals, pregnant and lactating cats. Drops should be used once a month for the entire season (April-November).

Before using any antiparasitic agent, carefully read the instructions for use and follow all the manufacturer's recommendations. In rare cases, the active substance of the drug can cause intoxication (individual intolerance, repeated exceeding the dosage).

If you experience any symptoms (vomiting, excessive salivation, cyanosis or pallor of the mucous membranes, cramps, lowering body temperature, difficulty breathing), contact your veterinarian immediately.

General preventive measures:

Remember that theoretically, the tick can be any tick that bit the cat. Do not ignore preventive measures!

How to get a tick from a cat

Many people know about ixodid ticks as carriers of infectious diseases of animals and humans - pyroplasmidoses, encephalitis, tularemia. Every spring, doctors, including veterinarians, warn: be careful in the forest, use protective equipment, take vaccinations, examine the surface of the body (yours and your pet's) after each walk ...

But there is an opinion that ticks are not afraid of cats - well, they do not tolerate arachnids, deadly viruses for them. As a result, the owners do not attach importance to the insects that have sucked on the pets - they say they will fall off. This is the fateful mistake!

Why is it dangerous?

What a sin to conceal: cat diseases transmitted by ticks are very rarely diagnosed. It is difficult to say what this is connected with. It is believed that the fault is the imperfect work of the laboratory.

All the pathogens mentioned above, the so-called blood parasites, enter the bloodstream of a pet during a tick bite. Microorganisms attack red blood cells, block their main function (oxygen transfer) and ultimately kill red blood cells.

All this is accompanied by certain symptoms:

• temperature increase,
• lethargy, apathy,
• yellowness of the mucous membranes and skin,
• poor blood coagulation
• disruption of the liver,
• digestive upset
• signs of anemia: cyanosis, pallor of the mucous membranes,
• the appearance of blood in the urine.

Why all this multi-letter preface? And to the fact that if a tick is seen on the body of a pet, then it must not only be removed without fail, but also preventive measures should be taken to prevent infection.

Even if the tick is sterile in terms of the carrier of the infection, then the bite site must be properly treated in any way so that the local inflammatory reaction does not develop. Therefore, below we will pay attention to these two issues.

How to pull out?

In fact, there are a lot of ways: from pouring oil to cauterizing the abdomen of a tick. But we need to work with more humane, and most importantly safe methods.

Ideally, they turn to a veterinary clinic for help, where there should be special devices for removing ticks. But in the absence of such an opportunity, they work independently.

What might be required?

All these “Pribluda" can be bought at any pharmacy, even medical, even veterinary. Directly “operation” to remove the parasite is carried out in rubber gloves - necessary to ensure their own safety.

When using special tools, they work as follows:

As manufacturers promise, as a result of smooth rotation, the tick does not experience “fear”, and therefore does not cling to life, digging into the skin with a vengeance. It is this relaxation that allows you to pull it out completely. Be sure to disinfect the device after work.

If tweezers are used, then it is better to take one whose ends are flat and slightly bent inward. It is important that the edges of the tweezers are strictly between the skin of the cat and the shoulders of the parasite. Do not grab the abdomen, so as not to crush the insect.

The bite site is lubricated with alcohol, after a few seconds they capture the tick under the abdomen and slowly loosen the insect from side to side until the animal comes out of the wound with a characteristic click.

In the second version, the tick must be rotated counterclockwise. One and a half to two turns is enough for the bastard to jump out. Well, the third method: the parasite is turned on its back, again, it is grabbed by its head and gently pulled over.

What if he came off?

The operation does not always go smoothly and no matter how neatly act, the head of the tick may remain under the skin. What to do in this case?

• Firstly, do not panic and do not fight in hysteria - we will all die!
• Secondly, you won’t do anything already and you have to wait until the skin itself tears off the foreign body, and this will happen sooner or later. To prevent the development of secondary microflora, the place is periodically treated with 70% alcohol or another antiseptic solution.
• Thirdly, one must be prepared for the fact that in place of the remaining head of the tick an inflammatory reaction will begin, perhaps even a small abscess will appear.

What to do with a tick?

Experts advise taking the caught tick to a laboratory, where it will be checked for infection. It is clear that this is not necessary, but it is desirable:

1. firstly, it will help establish an epizootic situation in a particular area,
2. secondly, the owner will know what to do with a four-legged friend, if suddenly the tick turns out to be infectious.

Before sending, the insect is placed in a container with a tight screw cap, which will not allow it to escape.

If there is no desire or opportunity to take the parasite somewhere for research, then it is destroyed by burning! Do not let the prisoner out into the wild, lest he stick to someone else.

What to do with a cat?

After the tick is pulled out, the site of the bite must be treated with any antiseptic solution.

In the future, the animal is monitored for at least 3 weeks by arranging home quarantine. Why is surveillance necessary? The fact is that most infections have a latent or latent period when the animal is healthy in appearance, and the destructive activity of the pathogen has already begun in the body. If within 21 days an animal, God forbid, gets sick, then at least it will be based on what to make a diagnosis.

Moreover, immune preparations do not work against blood parasites - their effect is mainly aimed at helping the body to develop antibodies to viruses.

Inspection

Inspection of cats and cats, often visiting the street in the warm season, is often carried out - ideally every day. Although the parasite can stick to an absolutely pet, climbing into the house with shoes or the owner’s outerwear.

Examine the entire surface of the body from head to tail. Particular attention is paid to areas with delicate skin: neck, axillary and popliteal cavities, auricles, muzzle and chin.

How to find and pull out a tick from a cat

The problem of ticks is familiar to all pet owners. It is generally accepted that cats are less interested in parasites than dogs, but those who have free access to the street are equally affected by arthropod bites.

How to detect

Before wondering how to remove a tick in a cat, a parasite has to be found, but it is not so simple. You are lucky if you found a bloodsucker before he began his “meal”, then you can simply remove the tick and destroy it.

True, this happens quite rarely: hungry parasites are very small, and it is almost impossible to notice it on the coat of an animal, especially a dark one.

But as soon as the insect bites through the skin, it gradually changes color to pink, gray or red, and begins to increase in size. It is noteworthy that the animal does not react in any way to the presence of an uninvited "guest" - the parasite introduces special anesthetics into the wound, the action of which allows it to remain unnoticed.

Do not forget also that the danger from ticks also extends to people: to remove the parasite, use protective gloves, in no case touch the insect with your bare hands.

Removing the tick begins with a thorough examination of the animal: put the cat on the windowsill and comb it with a thick comb. If no ticks are found, probe the cat against hair growth, especially carefully examining the groin, armpits, and abdomen.

The feeding parasite resembles a flat seed adhering to the surface of the skin. Depending on the size of the insect, you can judge how long it has been on the cat.

Step-by-step instruction

It is possible to get a tick from a cat at home, but certain rules must be followed. The parasite is removed simply by hand, with tweezers or thread. It is necessary to get the bloodsucker in rotational movements, choosing a direction clockwise.

If you decide to remove the sucking tick from your cat with a thread, try to throw a loop on the insect as close to the proboscis as possible. Now gently pull the parasite, slightly swinging it from side to side. This should be done with extreme caution so that the head of the tick does not remain in the thickness of the skin.

Answering the question of how to get a tick out of a cat, many inhabitants recommend using kerosene or vegetable oil. Do not do this! It is unlikely that you will be able to get the parasite in this way, but the insect can suffocate and die, but it will not leave your fourth friend.

So, to understand how to properly remove the tick, you need to follow the following algorithm of actions:

What to do with the tick head remaining in the wound

If the head of the tick remained in the wound, you will definitely notice it when you carefully examine the place of the bite.When it remains, you will see a small black dot on the skin. To get rid of it, you can resort to two methods:

1. grease the wound with iodine solution. Now you need to wait until the remaining fragment of the parasite falls out itself, and disinfect the wound again;
2. the head remaining in the skin can also be removed with a needle - for this, an ordinary sewing needle is heated on fire, and a piece of the remaining parasite head is poked with it, as is usually the case with a splinter.

If the head of the tick remained in the cat's body, all its fragments should be removed as quickly as possible: the main reserves of a possible infection are located just in the salivary glands of the parasite.

What to do after extraction

When you finish removing all the elements remaining in the scalp, you only have to destroy the insect. And if there are several answers to the question of how to remove the parasite, then with its destruction everything is much more definite - the tick needs to be burned.

So that the cat does not have a lump, be sure to treat the bite site with any available means - iodine or brilliant green. Over the next few weeks, carefully monitor the condition of the animal: at the slightest sign of malaise or fever, immediately contact the clinic.

How to detect and extract a tick in a cat

From spring to autumn, bloodsucking arachnid parasites, ticks, are activated in parks, forests and gardens. Digging into the skin, ticks feed on blood. At the same time, their saliva very often contains the causative agents of dangerous diseases.

They are equally dangerous for humans and pets. But a person knows what to do with a tick bite. But the owner must take care of how to get the tick out of the cat or dog.

Many owners mistakenly believe that if the cat lives in the house and does not go out at all, then the risk of picking up a tick is zero. However, parasites enter the apartment through open windows, and on the clothes of the owner, and on bags with a summer harvest. On animals, ixodid ticks are more often parasitic; their carapace is more rigid.

Delete

When your graceful purr comes out on the first warm days to soak up the sun, ticks will already be located in the grass and on the branches of bushes. It is enough just to pass by - and the parasite has already clung to the wool or to the clothes of the owner. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the cat regularly, and in the hot season every day.

Most often, bloodsucking can be found in the ears, in the groin or on the abdomen, on the neck, in the armpits. In these places, thinner skin, because ticks do not have such a long sting, and in other places they will not be able to suck.

When the tick sucked in such places, it is quite possible to remove it yourself, at home. Just do not confuse the tick with the nipples of the mammary glands on the cat’s stomach. Very often cats are brought to the clinic with injuries to the mammary gland, which is present in both cats and cats.

First, just check to see if there is a pair of symmetrical nipples nearby. Total nipples should be 8. To the touch they are softer than a tick and warmer.

But sometimes the parasite creeps under the eyelid, gets under the foreskin to the cats, clings to the lip. In such cases, do not need amateur performances, qualified assistance from a veterinarian is necessary. If your pet likes to walk in nature, you will probably find out how much it costs to get a tick from a cat in your city in different clinics.

The tick is fixed not only with a sting-harpoon, but also with paws, immerses the whole head in the skin. Only a flat body remains above the surface. It is drop-shaped, dark in color. Through the magnifying glass, you can see the paws: in an adult tick there are 4, in young individuals 3.

Even if the tick was not found during examination, but the cat behaves strangely - consult a doctor, perhaps the tick simply torn off the animal with its paws. Then the risk of sepsis from a combed wound may be added. The disease is treated with antibiotics.

Learning to delete

Before figuring out how to remove a tick from a cat, carefully examine the parasite in a magnifying glass. There are 3 stages to fixing ticks:

1. both paws and a flat body are visible: the initial stage, the tick is still not firmly fixed in the skin;
2. only a black drop of the calf is visible, the paws are immersed in the skin, the head is visible: the parasite has fixed;
3. the tick resembles a convex mole, no legs or head are visible: it sucks blood for at least 4 hours and has already loosened its grip a little.

The easiest way to detect and remove the tick is in 3 stages. It is palpated even with the usual stroking, like a dense tubercle. But for you to better master this difficult process, consider the most difficult option, stage 2.

So, the tick is completely fixed and is ready to start sucking blood. To begin, try to calm the cat. It is best to wrap her in a blanket, because she will actively protest.

Prepare in advance an antiseptic (alcohol, vodka), tweezers, green stuff. There are special drops from ticks for cats, but if there is no time or opportunity to escape to the nearest veterinarian behind them, we remove the tick surgically.

Gloves should be on hand - the tick is dangerous to humans even when touched.

To weaken the grip, the tick overlaps the oxygen. He breathes his whole body, so you can apply nail polish, petroleum jelly on a tick, drip vegetable oil. Although some veterinarians, telling the owners how to get a tick out of a cat, are skeptical of these methods.

Now we look in a magnifier at the tick. Usually, after a few minutes, the tick compresses the legs, removing them from the skin - it lacks oxygen. At this moment, it is necessary to gently grab the tick head with tweezers and, scrolling in a spiral, gently pull up.

Special tweezers are sold in pharmacies, they have a curved end or a retractable plastic noose loop. But you can use a thread loop. It is tightened under the abdomen, separating from the skin, and the body of the parasite is twisted with fingers.

If it is not possible to unscrew the tick from the first attempt, it means that he has not yet fully relaxed his grip. Reapply and wait another 5 minutes. Now the tick will definitely try to free the head. You just have to gently and firmly grab it with tweezers.

What can not be done

There are several recommendations regarding safety measures when pulling out a tick:

If the tick settles in the ears

Cats more often than other animals suffer from an ear tick. How to get a tick from a cat in other places - we have already told. But with the ears you need a different technique.

An ordinary tick can also settle on the auricle, remove it in the same way. Another parasite is more dangerous - an ear mite, which penetrates deep into the ear.The fact is that the ear mite eats not so much blood as the epidermis, moving in the ear canal.

After that, it can settle throughout the body, causing real scabies. This causes an unbearable itch, the cat combes the ear to the blood, risking to bring the infection into the wound. For humans, an ear mite is not dangerous. But kittens under 1 year of age become infected with it very often.

It’s easy to understand that a cat has an ear mite: the animal shakes its head, scratches its ears, when viewed from inside the auricle black deposits are visible. If treatment is not started, inflammation is possible, purulent discharge will appear, the ear will become inflamed, and then it will dry out. A cat may even lose hearing.

Therefore, the ears will have to be cleaned regularly with cotton buds with hydrogen peroxide. After cleaning, drip ear drops (such as Bars). To destroy the tick from the inside through the blood, special drops are applied to the withers. This treatment is repeated every 2-3 months.

Actions after deletion

Now you know how to get a tick out of a cat. But after removing the parasite, do not forget to additionally treat the bite site with an antiseptic. For several days, carefully monitor the condition of the pet, check if swelling has appeared on the site of the removed tick, if there is a rash on the skin.

If there is a reason - consult a doctor, not forgetting to tell him about the tick removed by you. And adhere to the recommendations exactly, giving the cat the prescribed medicine.

Preventative measures

If your cat "walks on its own", take care of preventive measures. There are special products that are applied to the withers, enter the bloodstream through the skin and protect the cat from bites from the inside. In addition, they contain substances that slow the spread of the disease.

But even if the cat does not leave the house, remember the risk of picking up a tick from your clothes or things. Therefore, regularly inspect your pet, paying attention to hazardous areas. Treat it with special shampoos and sprays.

Be careful while walking and take the time to look after it. A tick removed in time will not do much harm. And you do not have to remember how to get a tick from a cat, and apply knowledge in practice.