The season of the greatest activity of ticks continues. Even if your cat has protective measures, it may happen that the tick will catch on the fur and then dig into the skin of your quadruped. Today, a few words about how to deal with when your cat has already caught the tick.
How to check if a cat has been bitten by a tick?
A tick in a cat is not always visible to the naked eye. Adults are usually easier to spot than juveniles, which can be as small as 1.5mm. Cat’s body forceps will select areas where the skin is thin and delicate. Therefore, ticks in cats can often be found around the armpits, groin, ears, abdomen, neck and mouth.
Quick tick detection makes it much easier to thoroughly brush out cats’ fur on a daily basis. A good opportunity to check the cat’s skin for parasites may also be stroking the pet – the tick is usually felt under the fingers. It is worth checking the coat, especially after each return of the cat home from long walks. It is worth remembering that it is extremely important for the health of the cat to remove the tick within 24 hours from the moment of its injection.
Should you be in a hurry to pick up the tick?
Quick tick removal significantly reduces the risk of transmission of pathogens that can cause serious diseases in cats. It is much more difficult to recognize that a tick has bitten a cat if the parasite has finished feeding and is no longer on the pet’s body. Sometimes an inflammatory or allergic reaction is observed at the tick injection site – the skin may be red and swollen. Unfortunately, it happens that an attack of arachnids is overlooked, and cats develop tick-borne diseases after some time. In this case, only thorough diagnostics carried out by a veterinarian can help to find the source of the disease.
How to remove a tick from a cat?
Tick removal is not rather complicated and you can do it yourself at home. However, you should prepare yourself properly for the procedure.
The easiest way to pull out a tick is to use tweezers or forceps. To reduce the risk of contracting a tick-borne disease, it is worth wearing protective gloves. During the procedure, the cat should sit on a stable surface (e.g. non-slip mat). Grab the tick by the head, as close as possible to the injection site, i.e. right next to the cat’s skin. The arachnid can be removed by rotating (twisting it counterclockwise) or pulling it perpendicular to the skin, upwards.
If you still have some doubts and want to see a video of how to remove the tick , I recommend this guide on YouTube:
I love this site. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for sharing your pictures with such a good man like me, who has never even thought of a car before I started visiting this blog.
Delete I don’t know how you managed to find the place, but you are really doing it justice.
It is an extremely rare spot that does not seem to be anywhere else in town. You will need good GPS to get there!
Well, at least he’s not dead! I’m glad, because I have been searching for a good cat pictures for about 20 years, and I would not be surprised if I find him this weekend!
I had read about your website before and thought you must be very interesting, but I was shocked to find that this little guy has been on my mind ever since, for months!
It really made me wonder if you had seen this guy before, and if any of your posts were true.
I really do hope you find the creature as soon as possible! And my favorite part is how you keep bringing up the word ‘kitten’.
It is just too nice!
It would be very sad if the little cat died in vain