Ticked off – small time!

One expected – and yet not expected – element of living out beyond is the ever-present danger of exposure to creatures.

The city has its bedbugs; the country has its ticks. I blame the deer.

Our neighbours were mentioning how they had already pulled out about five of the little monsters from their dog since January. Quite a bit higher than normal. Given that the weather has been cooler on average for the past few months, this was to be expected even though by now the tick season should be over.

So, we had a mild notion that Kepler – our miniature Schnauzer – would at some point come into contact with them. However, given his longer hair it wasn’t quite clear how they would be detected. And we haven’t been good about implementing a foolproof methodology of daily inspection.

A couple of days ago I was simply patting him, and while running my hand down his back, I felt a little “bump.” Looking a little closer, I noticed an orangy thing sticking out from under his hair. It did appear to be pressing into his skin and I immediately thought of a tick. However, I wasn’t sure because I somehow expected a tick to be black or brown, not orange.

I called John over for his inexpert corroboration. He called the neighbour and they said to bring him over for inspection and cure, if necessary.

And so it happened. Sharon confirmed that it was indeed a tick and went into action. She applied vaseline and left it for ten minutes. I think this suffocates them. Then she used her finger nails to extricate it with a counter-clockwise motion. Her diagnosis was that it had probably only been there for a few hours because it wasn’t engorged with blood. Good.

Hopefully he wasn’t infected with Lyme Disease or some other dastardly affliction.

Yesterday I was in Comox and stopped in at the animal hospital. They gave me a little plastic contraption to pull out ticks. They said that the counter clockwise motion wasn’t necessary; straight out would be fine. Kepler was also groomed yesterday while in town. I think we’ll keep him more closely cut than normal now that he’s a country dog and has to “live out beyond,” too.

Hopefully the weather will now warm up and we can rest more easily – but not too easily – about the dreaded wildlife.