How To Remove A Tick From A Cat with Vaseline – Safety Ways

Your first reaction might be to reach for a pair of tweezers and remove the tick when you find one on your cat. It can be difficult and requires some planning, knowledge, and patience to safely remove a tick from a cat, so resist the urge to do so. The tick on your cat can therefore be removed using Vaseline.

By using a match or Vaseline to smother an attached tick, you should not attempt to remove it. This tutorial will show you how to safely remove a tick from a cat’s body.

A step-by-step instruction manual for safely removing ticks from cats is provided here, along with advice on what to do if a tick bursts and warning signs of diseases carried by ticks to look out for even after the tick has been removed.

How to Remove a Tick from Your Cat?

1. Gather Your Tools

You’ll need to gather some supplies first to make the tick removal process quick and painless for your cat:

• A tick-removal tool: With tweezers, the tick can be squeezed and broken up, potentially leaving some of it inside your cat. This tool does a much better job of removing ticks. Even though tweezers aren’t advised for tick removal, use tweezers with narrow, pointed tips rather than angled or beveled tips if you don’t have a tick removal tool on hand.
• A pair of latex gloves: You and your family may contract some of the diseases that ticks carry. To avoid coming into contact with the tick directly, put on gloves.
• Antiseptic wipes or soap and water: Cleaning the tick bite on your pet’s skin is crucial after the tick has been removed.
• A small, sealed container: In order to stop the spread of disease, you should place the tick in this container before removing it from your body.
• Another person, if available: To hold the cat while you remove the tick, if at all possible, enlist the assistance of another person.

Read More: How To Remove A Tick From A Dog with Vaseline

2. Locate the Tick on Your Cat’s Skin

To keep your cat as calm as you can, carefully part the fur around the tick. The cat’s hair should be slightly wetted with rubbing alcohol or water so that it can be patted down or parted to make the tick easier to see. So that you can see the fur clearly, hold it back with one hand. Ask a friend to hold the cat still so you can work if you can. Make slow, deliberate movements while speaking to your cat in a soothing, gentle tone.

3. Use the Tick-removal Tool to Carefully Remove the Tick, Then Dispose

It can be challenging to get a tick off of your cat because you don’t want the tick’s mouthparts to end up there by accident. Make sure to position the tick remover over the tick’s body, right next to your cat’s skin, as directed on the tool’s instructions. To remove the entire tick without squeezing it, carefully pull it.

When using tweezers, especially, avoid making sudden, jerky movements. Instead, pull slowly and methodically. By this time, your cat might be feeling more tense, and tick removal can be more difficult than you might imagine.

Put the tick in a sealed container, and then dispose of it immediately; consider taking a photo of the tick before throwing it away for identification purposes, just in case your pet shows signs of a tick disease and your vet needs to identify what kind of tick was on your cat.

Good to know: You should never try to burn off a tick or “suffocate” it with a layer of petroleum jelly, as these methods could injure your cat and typically won’t bother the tick.

4. Clean the Tick Bite

Use a pet-specific antiseptic or soap and lukewarm water to gently wipe the affected area of your pet.

5. Clean Up and Treat Your Cat

Put the gloves in the trash and give your hands a good wash. Use a disinfectant to thoroughly clean your tick removal tool before storing it safely in case you ever need it again.

Along with lots of praise and affection for being such a good patient, don’t forget to give your cat a treat!

6. Know When to Seek Outside Help

Consider consulting your veterinarian if your cat becomes distressed, the tick is particularly deep in the cat’s ear canal, or you’re having trouble getting all of the tick out.

Things Not to Do When Removing Ticks from Cats

• Do not use tweezers – In order to avoid accidentally embedding the tick’s mouthparts in your cat’s skin, it is notoriously difficult to grasp a tick. A tick removal tool works much better than a pair of tweezers, which can squeeze the tick and break it up, potentially leaving some of it inside your cat and raising the possibility of disease transmission.
• Do not remove ticks with your fingers – Not only is it extremely difficult to grab a tick with your fingers, but ticks can transmit diseases to humans through their saliva and blood.
• Do not burn off a tick – Burning your cat unintentionally is a possibility if you attempt to burn a tick. Additionally, it will put the tick under stress and cause it to vomit its digestive tract, which raises the risk of disease transmission.
• Do not ‘suffocate’ it with a layer of petroleum jelly – Perhaps you have heard this common myth, but in reality, it can cause more harm than good. The tick will simply bury itself deeper, making it even more difficult to remove, rather than “backing out” of your cat’s skin.

How Quickly Must a Tick Be Removed?

Since you can never be certain of the length of time a tick has been attached, remove it as soon as you find it. The average time it takes for a tick to transmit a bacterial infection to its host is at least 24 hours.

What If Some of the Tick is Left Behind?

Probably nothing is the short answer. It is not unusual for the mouth (known as the hypostome) to remain attached even after the body and head have been carefully removed. Eventually, the body will naturally “eject” the remains. To avoid infection, just make sure to wash the area with soap and water.

Conclusion

To ensure there are no ticks present, run your hands over your pet’s body and feel for any skin bumps.

The face, neck, ears, and underbelly are common places where they attach themselves.

The distinction between a tick, nipple, and skin tag on your cat or dog can be surprisingly difficult.

Put down the tweezers and first speak to a vet if you have any doubts that the thing you can feel is a tick.

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