OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!!! There are two things that make me turn into a useless quivering gelatinous bag of unmanliness. Centipedes and ticks. I just found a tick on Lee Lee's neck!! I don't know what to do. I wanna' vomit! She must have gotten it when I took her for walkies outside. EEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwww!!!! HELPSSSS!!!
If you have any fine tweezers, grab the tick by the head/neck (the part attached to the dog) and firmly, steadily pull outwards. (Make sure lee lee is in a nice spot for you too do so). EDIT -If you dont pull if by the head (On you pull it by the body) it'll detatch with its head still on the dog, and you dont want that so have a goodl ook first. Always puuling ticks of the dogs and myself.
Alright. Did it. Thanks, Speedy. Tho, I'll be honest. My bullocks pulled up so tight I think I lost one of them in my chest cavity. Permanently.
Never seen a leech. Wrey...you may want to disinfect the site where the tick bit her just to be safe. Also..has she had her Lyme Disease vaccine?
Yes, her vaccinations are up to date. Tho, Lyme Disease is not endemic to PR. P.S. For the next few days I will be scratching, swatting, and gouging at every fantom itch and tickle I feel on my body.
Now there's an image. And as if I needed more to think about after having a dream about bugs in my hair.
It's a boy thing. :redface: It happens during intense negative situations. Fear, disgust, anxiety. Things like that cause this particular physical reaction.
I don't think those diseases have much luck here because they depend on other animal vectors for a part fo their life cycle, like deer. We just have those animals here.
As Speedy mentioned, strange how some creepy crawlies freak us out and others do not. Leaches get no reaction from me at all. There is actually something interesting to me about their form of motion.
For future issues, if they arise, you can light a match and blow it out. While the match is still hot, place it near the head of the tick and it will back out of the person/animal/what have you. I grew up on a farm, and I had to remove alot of them. Thought interesting tid bit, I seem to be immune to them as I've never had one bury itself on me. My blood must not be appealing. haha (Please forgive me if this is a grammatic mess, I have a fever and too much cold medicine in my system.)
I had a tick on the back of my hand once. OMG was it disgusting. I'd never seen one before and I screamed so loud that other people in the camping grounds came down to find out what was going on.... someone got a cigarette and put it on the back of the tick and it came out, then they killed it. I was so repulsed by it and I ended up covering myself in insect repellent and then made the people I was there with take me home. I didn't go near any form of plant life or dogs for over a week. Poor Lee Lee and poor Wrey.
I once took pity on a dog and bought him from his homeless owner. The dog had so many ticks I just stopped counting. He was actually anemic from the bloodloss. We got the tick off with alcohol and tweezers. The alcohol irritated them so they backed out and we picked 'em off with the tweezers.
Alcohol works well, and there is less chance of leaving the head embedded in the skin. The Boy Scout Manual also used to recommend lighting a match, blowing it out, and touching the hot tip against the tick's body so it lets go.
When I was in Vietnam, we got ticks and leeches on us all the time. The jungle along the Mekong River hosts "tree leeches". They dwell in the moist leaves and would drop on soldiers when you walked below them. Imagine laying in the undergrowth for hours, watching enemy positions. We avoided putting salt on the leeches because they would vomit contaminated blood back into the suction wound, causing infection. It was best to gently scrap them off with a sharp knife. Ticks were easy to remove...heat up the tip of a knife with a lighter and touch the hot blade to them. They'd release and scamper for cover until we crushed them.
Ticks are everywhere here. But I'm with you, Wrey, every time I see when they make me sick. For some reason, I get the sensation that I've eaten it, and it starts eating me from the inside. *shudders*
Oh man, that sounds horrible. You had enough to worry about already. Growing up on a farm I got ticks ALL THE TIME. It's tradition to check our heads periodically in the summer time and pull out the little lumps, which usually ended up being wood ticks. Well, anyway, one morning I got up and had to use the bathroom. I looked down and...Yeah. A tick was attached to a non-convenient spot. Like, the worst spot possible in that area, if you know what I mean. I panicked and pulled it off. A little piece of skin went with it. It hurt...so bad.
*shudder* Tick stories freak me out. My sister got one on the back of her neck once when we were staying with family up in Wyoming. Groooooss. I hate ticks.
