Dr. Greenway demonstrates how to remove a tick from a dog using a tick remover to ensure that it is completely gone. It’s so important to check your dog for ticks very thoroughly especially coming in from walks in wooded areas or places with tall grass. Removing a tick within 24 hours will greatly reduce the possibility of that tick transferring Lyme disease to your dog.

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TRANSCRIPT:

I’m Dr. Clayton Greenway with Animal House, listen Saturday mornings 10:00 a.m. on Newstalk 1010 and this is a dog, its name is Lucy and it came in and it’s got ticks and we’re into tick season. So this is a tick remover, you can get them at your vet. They don’t charge you for them, they should give them away for free and if you come in close I’ll show you how to use it.

So here’s a big fat tick that’s been sitting here and been getting engorged and feeding off this dog. What you do is you slide the tick remover on like this and then you start to twist it and pull up at the same time and you’ll actually remove the tick and remove the entire tick with its head as well intact and there it is there still alive and moving around and that’s one way you can tell that you’ve got it all off the dog.

Very important to remove ticks and look for ticks every day because they can transferred Lyme within 24 hours or outside of 24 hours so if you’re checking every 24 hours, you’ll ensure that no Lyme can transfer to your dog and you want to watch out for where you’re walking them, tall grasses, things like that and avoid that. Ticks have been a huge problem in Ontario, we’re hearing warnings from Health Canada for people, so we want to watch out for ticks, watch your dog for ticks and talk to your vet about medication to prevent them. I’ve seen more ticks in the last year and a half than I’ve seen in the decade before so there’s a real explosion of them. So for more tips you can listen to Animal House on Saturday mornings at 10:00 a.m. on Newstalk 1010.