Essential Guide to Tick Checks
Everything you need to properly check your dogs for ticks when they come inside.
DOGS
11/8/20253 min read
Spring and fall come with a lot of fun and exciting transitions to get you ready for Summer and Winter. Our least favorite thing that spring and fall bring are ticks. If your dogs love the outdoors like ours do, tick checks should be a part of your routine when bringing your dogs back inside.
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The first thing you're going to want is a headlamp. Lighting is not always the best and having a headlamp makes it easy to spot these disease-carrying suckers. Depending on the time of the season, there can be some really really small ones on your dog or outdoor pets, and the headlamp will help spot them quickly.
The next item you'll want is a flea comb. Now, don't fall for a "tick comb" or try to use a regular comb. You will miss the small ticks. You need to get a flea comb because the prongs are much tighter than other combs. We have two dogs: a black lab with fine, smooth fur, and a german shepherd mix with a very thick coat. The flea comb we own works well on both of the dogs and allows for a very detailed and thorough check of their fur.
The next item you'll want is a toothpick. This is optional but if you're like me and you hate touching ticks, I use the toothpick to flick the tick off of the flea comb and into the jar (more to come on the jar). This is a crucial part for me because like I said, ew, ticks.
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So what's up with the jar? This item is optional, there are many ways to dispose of the ticks that you take off your dog or pet. You could put them in a ziploc bag, flush them down the toilet, or do what we do: we fill a jar 1/3 of the way with Isopropyl Alcohol and drop them into it (or use a toothpick to flick them into it). This seems to be the most effective and painless method as it kills them immediately.
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Finally, in the event of a tick biting your dog, pet, or even you, you will want this tick remover set. It's designed for different types and sizes of ticks. I've had a few different kinds of tick removers and these are the most effective. They're better than tweezer because you need to make sure you are removing the head of the tick when taking the tick out. These gently pull the tick out without breaking off the head. Tweezers are more likely to leave the head in the skin, creating a possibility of infection.
Honorable Mention
Worth mentioning here is Credelio, which we give our dogs each month. This is a tick and flea infestation prevention and treatment medication. This is an added measure for peace of mind with our dogs. It causes a tick to die immediately upon biting our dogs. So if we are finding a tick on our dogs that has bitten them and is in their skin, it is dead.
This might beg the question, why the need for the thorough tick checks then? The answer is simple... for us. We include our dogs in every aspect of our lives, including letting them have free roam of the house and furniture. They sleep in our bed during the day and sleep with us at night. We are very thorough because we don't have the protection of Credelio in our systems.
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Thanks for reading and good luck out there with your tick checks!