Rug13y

Anyone been bitten/attacked by Kangaroo ticks?

How did you remove them?

susiq

hi

i'm not in australia. but am in france and have flaming awful ticks here. there are different ways to remove them. gp to your GP (this really hurts, i speak from experience).

cover the tick with a spirit (booze type) so it gets 'drunk' then you can get your nails underneath the tick and with a sharp pull you can remove it. BUT MAKE SURE YOU GET ALL THE LEGS, if not then its off to the docs for you. you must must must get them all out. you risk all sorts of nasty things if you don't.

make sure you have had all relevent jabs etc. a friends horse nearly died this year fro a tick (it carried something nasty). i have had a fair few on me and am very used to removing them. as from the animals.

if in doubt go and see your doc

HTH

susi

annqldau

Our dog has definatly had a few as we do have kangaroos and possums in garden, we do regular front line with him although wouldn't recommend for a person or you can cut hole in paper with dog just big enough and use fly spray on the tick avoiding the dog.

If on a person would advise using tea tree oil followed by thick blob of vasaline that does make them drop off on dogs as well.

Don't mean to sound scary but if you have had a bite go to doctor as like UK Aussie ticks can cause problems other than general infection see
http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/public-health/pdf/tick.pdf

thribble

I can vouch for the vaseline trick on humans - with sheep ticks. The other option is to screw them out - I just always forget whether it's clockwise or anticlockwise and you really don't want to go the wrong way!! Definitely make sure you get all of them out.

iPom

Screwing them is not recommended according to hub - If you leave the mouth parts in then things can go bad. Making them drunk can cause them to panic and vomit inside you, so the best way to get rid of them is to check out this thread.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=381986

annqldau

It has to be a thick blob of vasaline not just a thin smear to get the tick to drop off just incase it wasn't clear before. Haven't tried teh screwing ticks!!! bit thribble so can't help with direction.

iPom

I had a tiny one on me the other evening. I thought it was a scab or something stuck on me (I have three children so it could have been Weetbix or whatever )
I naturally scratched at it a couple of times and it came off under my nail. I then noticed it had legs and pincers <shudder>
I wouldn't recommend this method of removal though - I was just lucky that it was so tiny and prob hadn't got stuck in properly yet.

tonyk38

Yes. I picked them up in rainforest, so they were ticks but not kanga ticks.

Pulled them off with my fingernails. No probs, but I wouldn't recommend it if, as has been stated, you leave the mouthparts behind...

annqldau

It's if you leave the mouth part behind that you get the sore/infection at the site due to it being still stuck there. If you can get the tick to drop of it's self it removes that before dropping off so just left with small wound that doesn't fester as easy. Old timers used to burn them off pets with glowing ciggy but wouldn't recomend that for people... .

tonyk38

Ouch!!

annqldau

Had even worse one the other day, visiting friend from UK got a very small tick on upper outer eye lid. Pulled it off with tweezers as didn't dare leave it as eye lid was starting to throb, no ulcer yet.

tonyk38

I was once stung twice by a wasp just under the eye. My eye swelled up and almost completely closed. I looked like Mike Tyson had just lumped me!

Angela Marie

LOL

jon and alex

I had a tick once. It was right in the middle of my back and I didn't find it until it was pretty damn big - I was teenager without a girlfriend so had no-one to notice these things!
Went to the Dr who chuckled to himself and told me not to worry, he'd get it off in no time.
He then told me there'd be no pain. I've since learnt that this is the time to brace yourself and prepare to scream!
He then poured a load of anaesthetic on to the tick which felt like liquid nitrogen against my skin. He then tweezered the little bugger out and showed it to me in all its glory! Think I'll take the ciggy next time!!!
Took me a while to forgive my woofer for that little gift!

oliverandlisa

our local pet shop sells tick removers for dogs. They work just as well on humans when you get them.

its kind of like a 2cm plastic rectangle with a slit halfway up it. Slide the rectangle up so the slit has the tick inside it then lever off. Not actually explained byself very well but those that have one of these will know what i mean. No pain!

Lisa.xx