Hatrack River Forum: ticks *shudder* Oh and question about keeping fresh water for dogs

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Posted by Belle (Member # 2314) on :

So my kids got an interesting lesson today - we got to learn all about ticks - what they are, what they do, what they look like, how to remove them.

Yuck, yuck, yuck! If you're squeamish, stop reading.

It was on the almost-black puppy, Shadow. I do give them a quick once-over when they come in from playing outside, to see if I can immediately see or feel any ticks on them, but this one I missed until I was doing a short training session outside on the leash.

I bent down to praise her and give her a treat, and noticed something strange on her eye.

Yes, her eye! The tick was attached to her eyelid, his little legs were hanging over her eyeball, poor baby it must have been driving her crazy and she was doing so good to listen to me.

Make a note - puppies, even wonderful, sweet, well behaved puppies, don't like it when you approach their eyeballs with a pair of tweezers.

He was solidly lodged in there, too, when I finally got him off a plug of her skin came with it. She yelped when it came out but bless her little puppy heart, she never bit me or my daughter Natalie who was helping hold her.

Now she's sleeping off the ordeal after getting hugs and treats and some fresh water.

Which brings me to my question - any advice on how to keep their water bowls from being tipped over? Both puppies love to play in the water, and will jump and splash in it and then the water is either muddy and nasty, or it gets tipped over. I feel like all I do all day (besides take them out to go potty) is refill their water bowl.

Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :

Belle, we have a water bowl that is designed to prevent just that. E-mail us if you want it.

Aren't you supposed to not use tweezers to take a tick out?

Posted by Megan (Member # 5290) on :

Aw, poor sweetie!

Belle, I'm not sure how big your pups are, but one good way might be a stand that elevates the bowls and keeps them steady. This one is adjustable by height, but there are plenty of other varieties, as well. The added bonus to the elevated bowls is that when the dogs get larger, you can raise their bowls so that they don't have to bend down so far to eat and drink (we do that for our Great Pyrenees, and he loves it).

Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :

You can find no-tip water bowls at places like PetSmart, which are very hard for even a determined puppy to tip over.

Plus, you can get water towers which keep the bowl filled as it empties (just by water pressure and gravity).

Posted by Belle (Member # 2314) on :

You can if you use the tweezers properly - grasp the tick as close to the skin as you can and use steady pressure until it lets go.

Many people use them incorrectly - they grab the ticks abdomen and pull and it just makes the tick burst. Eww. And leaves the mouth parts in.

In this case, I certainly didn't trust my fingers around her eye, and I've done the whole tweezers tick removal thing more than once. We live in a semi-rural area with lots of high grass on the property behind us so I've removed ticks from cats, dogs, kids, and myself before.

One of my neighbors who lets their dogs just run loose (grrrr) apparently doesnt believe in removing ticks, he told me that they eventually fall off anyway. So, one day his hound mix was coming over to visit and I fed him cut up pieces of hot dogs and removed at least ten ticks off him while he ate. I'm a pro.

Yeah, champion tick remover. That's a title to be proud of. [Big Grin]

Oh, and thanks for the water suggestions. I'll look into something next time I'm at PetSmart.

Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :

Belle,
the first time i found a tick on my dog i thought it was a cancerous growth. He was a puppy, I loved him, and I took him to the vet, bawling my eyes out.
The vet said, "It's a tick," and pulled it out.
Man was it digusting.
Not funny at all, like The Tick.

Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :

I babysat a little boy who got tick fever once. [Frown]

It was one of the scariest things I've ever seen.

Check for ticks!

Posted by Zeugma (Member # 6636) on :

We just bought heavy ceramic bowls for our pup, and she can't knock them over. The stainless steel ones with the specially sloped walls can't be knocked over, I think, and they're pretty inexpensive.

Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Belle:
One of my neighbors who lets their dogs just run loose (grrrr) apparently doesnt believe in removing ticks, he told me that they eventually fall off anyway.

Ew. Don't ticks carry various diseases or something?
Is he nuts?

Posted by Yozhik (Member # 89) on :

New Jersey is just FULL of ticks, including the kind that are so darned small, you can't see them until they've attached, inflated -- and had enough time to spread Lyme disease.
Which is why we now use Frontline once a month. (We get the prescription stuff from a vet, because I've read bad things about the over-the-counter versions.) The dogs still pick up an occasional tick (especially Seven*), but not as many as they otherwise would. This year I have been very diligent about applying the Frontline monthly -- last year I wasn't, and Seven tested positive for Lyme at the vet's, and we had to give her antibiotics. This year I hope she hasn't been exposed and will test negative.

We pull the ticks out with a tweezers and then burn them in a candle flame until they go "pop". I find this to be the most effective way to kill them, because if you flush them or rinse them down the drain, they can crawl back up.

*yes, my dog is named a number. [Razz]

And Belle, since the pups like to play in the water, how about getting them a cheapo plastic wading pool? My in-laws' dogs had one, and loved it, especially during the hottest days of summer. (There was one pool for the dogs and a (better) one for the children -- the dogs soon learned to stay in their own pool.)

[ June 20, 2005, 04:39 PM: Message edited by: Yozhik ]

Posted by Avadaru (Member # 3026) on :

I use a water bucket for my dog. He is extremely rambunctious (sp?) and likes to splash when he drinks. The water bucket, clipped to the side of his crate, makes it impossible for him to spill unless the bucket is completely full. It also never gets dirty.