Paralysis tick is a pest extremely dangerous for your dog or cat. It gets attached to the skin of the pet and sucks its blood; while sucking the blood it injects its saliva into the pet’s bloodstream. This saliva contains a potent neurotoxin which bounds to nerve endings and causes paresis or paralysis in various organs of the pet, like hind legs, urinary bladder, throat, larynx, eyes and more. Therefore, as soon as you find the paralysis tick on your pet’s body, you should remove it, but keep observing if any paralysis tick symptoms after removal are seen. However, the big question is what to do of the tick after removal?
Remove all the Ticks Carefully
Don’t stop searching for the paralysis tick upon finding just one. Remember that there can be more than one of them; so, keep searching and search for them on the entire body of the pet. They are more commonly attached in the head area, around the neck, inside ears and below the tail. So, feel gently against the dog’s fur and find out and remove each and every tick from her/his body.
What to Do after Removal?
Collect the ticks in a sealed jar containing alcohol or methylated spirit and take the jar to your local vet or vet hospital for identification. If this is not possible, you should destroy them; otherwise adult females among them can lay thousands of new viable eggs.
How to Destroy Paralysis Tick?
There are two different opinions regarding killing of paralysis tick among vets. While one opinion is to destroy the pest after removal, the other opinion is to kill it while it is attached to the pet’s body. The latter opinion is because if you remove the pest while it is alive, it’s likely to inject more amount of toxin in the pet’s body. Therefore you should first kill it and then remove it. Paralysis tick can be killed using a fast-acting insecticide. If you don’t have such an insecticide, you can use a household aerosol insecticide which will serve the purpose well. For killing the pest after removal, same methods can be used, i.e. applying an insecticide.
How to Kill Tick with an Insecticide?
-
Bring the nozzle of the insecticide bottle near the tick and wet the tick fully.
-
Other method is to spray the insecticide on a cotton bud and put the cotton bud on the tick. This way, getting excessive spray on your dog’s skin will be avoided.
-
Now wait for some time while the tick dies. Once it dies, you can remove it carefully.
Why do You Need to Take Your Pet to the Vet after Removal?
Once you remove all the ticks from your dog and collect it in a jar, you should take your pet (along with the ticks) to your vet. You might think not doing so, because you have removed all the ticks and your dog is looking normal. However, there can be something called a residue of toxin created by the tick beneath your pet’s skin. This starts getting absorbed slowly and its effects are not seen immediately. The paralysis resulting due to this residue occurs hours after tick removal, even after 1 or 2 days.
Save Your Dog from Paralysis Tick
Even one paralysis tick if remains undetected can cause havoc and you may even lose your dog. So, don’t let the nasty creature kill your beloved pet. Take her/him to experts like those at Gordon Vet Clinic, an excellent North Ryde animal hospital, and save your dog.
