Found huge pink tick on dog's tummy.

[coffeeinbed]

Do I get him to the vet tomorrow?
Or what do I do?

sorry, i misread your thread title and was horrified!!

Nah

They are really easy to remove yourself - you can buy a little plastic tool, costs about a fiver probably from Boots and you simply slide it under the ticks head and gently rotate it. Don't try and pick it off though as it will leave the mouthparts behind.
I took one off DD's neck last summer - bit yukky if you're squeamish but not difficult to do.

coat the tick ion a thcik layer of vaseline and it will suffocate and drop off - either this or burn its bum with a ciggie...

personally i would go for the vasline, my mumu used to do this all the time with our dog

drown it in olive oil, or of you're brave ( and a smoker), burn it off with a cigarette end. don't just pull it off, they leave the mouth parts in which can get infected if you do.

I found one on my leg once. Horrible. I used the cigarette method, but burnt myself in the process first.

After I'd got it off, my country friend told me that with his dog they used oil.

try googling for advice

I vaguely remember taking one off DS when he was about 5.
Hope the vet will show me how.
Not in the UK at the moment, so cannot even talk to my lovely vet.

I found it just now, suspect he got it on the morning walk.
Tempted to beg at the local vet's tomorrow - can I leave it tilll then?

It'd be better to get rid of it - smother it in Vaseline and it will suffocate and drop off.

Then buy a tick removing tool from the Vet tomorrow. They can carry disease, so I wouldn't choose to leave one on a dog if I could get rid of it instead.

If you can't shift it tonight, one more night probably won't make a lot of difference. I can't say for sure about dogs, but I saw a local GP about DD at the time it happened (we were on holiday in Scotland) and he was pretty relaxed about it, there are antibiotics that can be used if there is Lymes Disease in the area, but they wouldn't prescribe them as a propylactic, even for a 2 yr old and just said to watch for certain symptoms.
If the tick is already very swollen its already engorged.

Swolen but pink, not red or black.
I's a miracle I found it, tbh, his fur is something else.
Thanks.

Do not pull the tick out or let the dog scratch at it or the tick mouth parts will be left in and it wil go septic.

My Mum gets them out of her dogs by striking a match, leaving it to burn a few seconds, shaking it out and then placing the hot end of the match hard against the tick body right next to where it joins the dog's skin. The intense heat makes the tick withdraw its mouth parts and then it can be dragged out of the skin with the match head.

You may need a couple of goes at it but this method really works. Squash the tick when it is out to make sure it is dead or it will reattach itself to the dog or you.

Didn't think of the dog scratching.
Ok, might have to give it a go.

It's out.
And I'm armed with some very special tweezers now.

PLEASE don't ever smother a tick in anything, or use cigarettes/matches to remove it. All these methods stress the tick out and vastly increase the likelihood of it regurgitating the sucked blood and therefore increase the chances of it transmitting disease or causing local infection.

You should only use a special tool, not tweezers or anything else, to remove them, to prevent putting pressure on the body.

Leaving the mouthparts in may result in limited local infection but is of secondary importance to removing the tick with minimal trauma.

more info

Having just had a week in Northwest Scotland, I have excellent experience in removing ticks. Had to take 3 off dd! One up by her eye, one on her tummy and one on her ear.
You can get a tick twister at a vet, or outdoor shops sell special tick tweezers. I think teh twister is better though - easier and cheaper. A magnifying glass also comes in useful!

OhFuck - really interesting links. Have just bought one off ebay.

Our last dog had a sheep tick which we removed by first daubing it in alcohol (whisky, we didn't have surgical spirit) and then tweezers. It came out easily, I guess it was relaxed! The dog could never abide the smell of alcohol thereafter though.

Does anyone know if sheep ticks carry Lyme disease or is it just deer ticks?

I just called then tweezers, they have a spoonlike bit at the end fot the tick and very long handle.

Apparently the tick sticks to the spoon bit.
Checked him all over, couldn't find any more.

Bought them from the vet, she showed me how to use them.

Please dont ever use the match/cigarette method or try to drown the tick in oil or anything similar, and especially never ever when you are removing a tick from a child. This may indeed remove the tick or make it fall off, but what you do not see is that the tick, especially with the oil method, is encouraged in its death throes to release its contaminated spit into the victim. This is dangerous, dangerous, dangerous. Pulling it out is quick and effective and a normal pinzette and magnifying glass should be fine, but a special tool can be helpful if you are doing it for the first time.

I just removed a tick today, from my dog - it was tiny, only just attached. I used tweezers, OK if you are very careful to grab the tick as close to the skin as possible. You want to avoid squishing it whilst it is still attached for the reasons explained above and be very careful not to get the blood on yourself - wash hands immediately. You can kill the tick (after it is out) with meths or white spirit.

He had one last week (dunno why, his Frontline is up to date) that i didn't notice until we were playing ball and the ball hit it and it burst - nice.

That then meant a vet visit and antibiotics as it got infected overnight.

nasty little things.

I have just read through this (not really sure why - odd interests I have ) and I am a bit confused about all these dire warnings against oil/vaseline etc??

DD had a tick so I took her to the walk in centre for treatment, they couldn't get it with tweezers so merrily slapped on vaseline and left it to die before engaging the tweezers again. There was no advice about regurgitation or signs or septecemia or anything like that. I wonder why the difference between a dog and a child?