Cats and Ticks:
Removing a Tick from a Cat

Ticks harbor MANY diseases which are dangerous if not fatal to cats and humans. If your cat gets a tick on it, it's extremely important to remove it properly and quickly.

You can see the small tick body on this tick, with the legs. The rest of the white is the bloating of the blood sac that has filled up with blood from a day or two of gorging. Once the tick is full, usually 3-4 days, it'll drop off and go about its business. For a female tick, this may involve laying thousands of eggs to create new ticks.

There are many, many old wives tales about tick removal. Most of them are VERY dangerous and make things much worse. Here is the proper method of tick removal, as endorsed by veterinarians.

Wear Gloves
Ticks carry many diseases, and what you're doing is likely to get you in close contact with one. Wear gloves and be sure to wash your hands THOROUGHLY after you are done.

Grab the Tick Firmly by the HEAD with tweezers
Your aim is to get the entire tick off of the cat. If you just yank by the body, you might only remove half of the tick. Get as close to the skin as you can get with good tweezers. Note you do not want to do inane things like try to burn it with a match, or drown it, or smother it. Remember, the lethal part of the tick is in its saliva, which is already down in your pet's skin. Anything which antagonizes the tick is going to cause the tick to inject much more saliva in. You want to get that tick out before it even knows something is going on.

Pull Straight Out Without Twisting
Again, the head of the tick is embedded into the cat's body. If you twist, you're likely to twist that head right off and leave it behind. It went in straight, it will come out straight. Yes, there are still times that a bit of head will be left behind. And again, it's not the head that is the problem, it's the saliva. So the cat's body will naturally push out the head after a short while. Do the best you can, but don't obsess if there's a small bit left.

Drop the Tick Into Alcohol
Ticks are very resiliant and can survive just about anything, including drowning in water. They have an air sac that helps them survive. However, alcohol is a poison. Drop the entire tick into alcohol and in about 10 minutes they should be toast.

Removing a Tick from a Cat
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