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Ticks
How to remove a tick from a dog, the Cape Ann way
Tick season on Cape Ann runs April to November, and a dog that walks Dogtown Common or Ravenswood will bring one home eventually. The removal takes fifteen seconds done properly, and properly means tweezers, not tricks.
What you need
Fine-tipped tweezers or a tick hook, a sealed bag, soap and a helper
The CDC's guidance is plain: fine-tipped tweezers, and pull straight. Household tweezers with flat ends crush the tick, which is exactly what you do not want. A tick hook, the small plastic fork sold at every vet, slides under the tick and lifts it out the same way and is easier on a squirming dog. Keep one in the car and one at home.
Add a zip bag or a small jar for the tick, a marker to write the date and where you walked, soap and water or an antiseptic wipe for the bite, and a light. A second person to hold the dog and feed treats makes it a fifteen-second job instead of a chase. Never crush a tick between your fingers.
- Fine-tipped tweezers or a tick hook, in the car and at home
- A sealed bag and a marker for the date and place
- Soap and water for bite and hands
- A helper with treats
The method
Grip at the skin, pull straight, clean, bag the tick, watch the spot
Part the fur so the tick and the skin around it are clear. With tweezers, grip the tick where it enters the skin, as close to the mouthparts as possible and never around the body. With a hook, slide the fork under the tick until it sits in the notch. Then pull straight up, slowly and steadily, without twisting; the tick lets go after a second or two of even tension.
Clean the bite with soap and water, then your hands. Put the tick in the bag, seal it, and write the date and the trail; if your dog is unwell in the weeks that follow, your vet will want it. Look at the bite: a small red bump is normal for a few days. Keep going, because a dog that had one tick usually had more.
- 01
Part the fur and get a light on the tick and the skin around it.
- 02
Grip with tweezers at the skin, never the body, or slide a hook under it.
- 03
Pull straight up with slow, even pressure and no twisting until the tick releases.
- 04
Clean the bite and your hands with soap and water or an antiseptic wipe.
- 05
Seal the tick in a bag with the date and the place written on it.
- 06
Check the rest of the dog head to tail, then watch the bite for two weeks.
| What you find | What to do |
|---|---|
| A tick walking on the coat | Pick it off and bag it; it has not fed |
| Attached, small and flat | Remove with tweezers, clean, bag, note the date |
| Attached and swollen | Remove the same way, bag it, tell your vet the date |
| Dark speck left in the skin after removal | Do not dig; clean it, watch it, and call your vet if it swells |
| Swelling, oozing or the dog in pain | Your vet, the same day |
Where it goes wrong
Matches, oil, twisting and the dig for mouthparts
Every folk remedy makes it worse. A hot match, petroleum jelly, nail polish or alcohol dabbed on the tick irritates it, and an irritated tick can push more saliva into the bite before it lets go. Twisting and yanking snap the body off the head. Squeezing the body pumps its contents into the dog. Tweezers at the skin and a straight pull is the whole method.
The last mistake is digging. If a dark speck stays in the skin after the pull, it is usually mouthparts, and the skin will push them out over days as it would a splinter. Clean it and leave it; cutting or scraping opens the wound and does more harm than the fragment. If the spot swells, oozes or stays angry for more than a few days, that is your vet's call.
- No heat, no oil, no polish, no alcohol
- No twisting, no squeezing the body
- Do not dig for mouthparts
- Swelling or oozing: the vet
The Cape Ann version
April to November, the Common, the dune grass and the trail note for your vet
Ticks here are active from April to November, nymphs in spring and adults again in fall on any day above freezing. The leaf litter and stone walls of Dogtown Common, the trails of Ravenswood Park, which The Trustees open to dogs, and the beach grass at Good Harbor and Wingaersheek on the legal winter days, October 1 to April 30, are where dogs pick them up.
Write the trail on the bag for a reason. Your vet will want to know that the tick came from the Common rather than the yard, and how long it was likely attached, if a limp, a fever or a loss of appetite turns up in the weeks after. The check itself is on our tick-check page; this page is only the pull. Prevention is your vet's conversation, and it replaces neither.
When to hand it to us
A bath that reaches the skin, and the vet for anything embedded, swollen or unwell
Removing a tick is a fifteen-second job for you, and for your vet when it is not straightforward. Where the studio helps is in finding them: the coat is soaked through, parted by water and a high-velocity dryer, and a groomer's hands pass over the ears, armpits, toes and tail base. Baths are priced by size from $55, need no evaluation, and fit into a daycare day after a weekend on the Common.
Go to your vet when you cannot get a clean grip, when the bite swells or oozes, when mouthparts stay in and the skin reacts, and whenever your dog seems off in the fortnight after: shifting lameness, fever, lethargy, a lost appetite. After hours, the Massachusetts Veterinary Referral Hospital in Woburn takes emergencies around the clock. Take the bag with you.
- A bath from $55 finds what fingers miss
- No evaluation for grooming
- Embedded, swollen, or an unwell dog: the vet, bag in hand
At Dogtown
After the trail
A bath that parts the whole coat, walks with a note after every outing, and a turf yard with no leaf litter in it.
Asked and answered
Questions people ask about this
Short, complete answers you can act on today. More in the full FAQ.
What if the tick's head stays in my dog's skin?
Should I save the tick after removing it?
How long does a tick need to be attached to make a dog sick?
Does Dogtown check for or remove ticks?
More questions? Read the full FAQ
Sources
- CDC ticks
- AVMA external parasites
- Ravenswood Park, The Trustees
- Massachusetts Veterinary Referral Hospital
Rules and dates change. We re-check every beach, licensing and ordinance page each spring and fall; the source above is the current word.
Keep reading
Next step
Tweezers, straight pull, bag it.
Book a bath online or in the app after a weekend on the trails, and keep the tweezers in the glovebox from April to November.
- 01Free evaluationWeekdays 6:30 – 9:30 AM
- 02Book a dayOnline, in the app or by phone
- 03Play, rest, repeatReport card at pick-up
