Alba Perez, a veterinarian, walks through the right way to remove a tick from your dog or cat. She covers safe removal techniques and how to prevent infections when you pull one out.
Hello everyone and welcome to the Expert O Animal Channel. I'm Alba Perez, a veterinarian specializing in natural feeding. You can find much more information and learn a little more about my work by visiting my YouTube channel or on my social media accounts under the name Vetropia. And if you want to meet me in person, you can visit my Batropia Veterinaria clinic in Barcelona. Today I'm here to talk to you about something that's very important to do correctly and that's when our dogs or cats get a tick, removing it correctly. However, remember that the best thing to do is good prevention. Ticks, fleas and mosquitoes can transmit very serious diseases to our dogs and cats, such as herliquia. They can also transmit borrelia, leishmania and many other diseases that are completely preventable. If you ask your vets what protection system you can use against them, the fact is that if your dog or cat has still caught a tick for whatever reason, it is very important to remove it correctly. It is not right to grab and pull the tick into its opaque sacrifice. Why? Well, because the tick inserts its mouth directly into the skin of your animal, anchoring itself with its mouth with quite considerable force given the size of the little thing. And many times what you can do by pulling and pulling without doing it correctly is leave the mouth inside. And many times infections, small abscesses that end up even requiring surgery and they become encysted. So it is much better to do it the right way. It is very practical if you get special tweezers to extract ticks since they will directly make the technique easier for you. What I usually do is if the tick is a little dazed because you are actually using prevention systems, but they were not enough and the tick has attached itself. These are usually ticks that are not very swollen, do not contain much blood, are rather dry, and simply pulling with the tweezers will remove them very easily. It is another thing when we already have a strong, large tick that is honestly quite attached to the skin of our dog or cat. In that case, what I do is soak a cotton ball very well with alcohol and hold it around the tick for a few seconds. Half a minute is enough. That will make the bug in question quite dazed. And then simply with the tweezers you can do it in two ways. Grabbing it with these special tweezers directly by the head. The shape of these tweezers, as you will see in the videos, makes it easy to grab it directly by the head and pulling in the opposite direction to which the tick is attached, it is important to pull firmly and steadily. Do not pull too hard. It is best to pull firmly but steadily because this is how the attached tweezers will come off better. Another way to do it, although I don't like it as much because it is easier for the tweezers to break, is to twist it until it comes off on its own. However, it works best for me to exhale directly in the opposite direction to which the tick is attached. This way you will be able to remove the tick easily and safely. And what will be left? There is a small wound. You just have to keep it clean and disinfected for a few days. You can use soap and water, chlorhexidine, betadine diluted with water to disinfect, and in a matter of two or three days it should be perfect. If you see that a small lump is starting to appear or that the wound is getting infected, of course, go to your vet and this is the correct and proper way to remove a tick. Well, family, I hope you found this video useful. Let's hope that above all it's quick, practical and concise. But even though we're done here, I encourage you to keep watching other videos on the channel that are super interesting. There are many topics that you can learn and delve into with me and other colleagues and I assure you that it won't be a waste of time. So, family, for now, I'll say goodbye. Also remember that you can see me on my social networks or on my channel called Vetropea, and it's always a pleasure to be here with you. I'll say goodbye. A big hug from the entire expert animal team.
