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. . . is still there . . .
July 10, 2008 | Filed Under countryside
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I love the big ominous clouds. they look like they’re about to swallow the tree back there!
There’s been a lot of clouds swallowing lately. Sigh.
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Just a little question:
I see the tall grass and think: tick heaven.
Do you have tick problems in England?
So far this year in South Germany I’ve pulled about 30 ticks off my cat and 5 off my dog. (Yes they have on X-spot anti-tick stuff. I had to put them in collars too before they were toxic enough.) Unfortunately, there are some nasty tick diseases here.
Hope the sun comes back to visit you soon.
Rebecca WinkleBeam
Yes, we have ticks and we have Lyme’s disease. The hellhounds and I AVOID actually wading THROUGH long grass–usually anywhere you are legally allowed to walk there’s a footpath cleared–so while I’ve pulled a few off, there aren’t a lot. Of course I worry . . . and Chaos (of course) managed to have a bad reaction to one of his.
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The English weather reached south Germany yesterday afternoon. Rain, after three days in the high 80′s it’s wonderful. Maybe you’ll get our sunshine in exchange.
I hope that Chaos is doing fine now.
R.W.
Sunshine? What’s that? Oh, it’s a book I wrote . . . sigh.
Chaos has eaten TWO MEALS TODAY. (Quiet . . . don’t make a fuss . . . pretend you haven’t noticed.)
There are lots of very evil tick-borne diseases, probably everywhere. Ticks are one reason I couldn’t deal well with a long-haired dog–too hard to find the ticks, and I don’t use the poison stuff. Even on a short-haired dog like a Dane, they can hide nicely in a neck ruff or an ear fold. I have no idea if they have any use in the great ecological scheme of things, but if I could wave a wand and get rid of them I’d do it in a minute and live with the consequences.
Yes, I agree on all counts. I don’t know how people with long haired dogs *cope*. I just pulled one off Darkness today–hidden in an ear fold. If it had been Chaos it would have taken longer, because it stood out against Darkness’ colour. –The new plastic twisty tool for removing ticks may be a good thing but it’s a big nuisance to use.
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I’ve never had much luck with tick forceps. And by the time you grab a tool, the dog has moved or the tick has moved and you have to locate it again. I use a piece of toilet paper between my fingers and the tick, and once it’s yanked drop it immediately into the bowl and flush. I made the mistake once of dropping one in the water and going back to finish the full-body tick check in case there were more to dispose of. By the time I got back the tick had swum to the side and climbed up the bowl and was lurking on the seat waiting for another victim. I am not making this up. So now I don’t worry about the 6 gallons, I just send them off one at a time.
OH GODS. I’ve always assumed that as long as it landed in the MIDDLE of the bowl, and there isn’t anything to CLIMB on . . . Akkkkkkk.. . .
This is a little plastic fork. You slide it between tick and dog and twist. It works, but tweezers are a LOT easier. I’m not so clever using my fingers, especially on the tinies.
Tinies are hard and probably require tweezers. And once I had one lodged so far down in the ear I had to take the dog to the emergency clinic to have it removed. I don’t think I’d use the fingers-and-paper method on an engorged one (ICK ICK), but I always have disposable vinyl gloves in the house and they would certainly be an option.
Yeah, I was really grossed out by that experience. Obviously the little horrors can swim and find porcelain no barrier. Alcohol will kill them, though; some people keep a jar full of rubbing alcohol and drop them in there. But they put the lid on too!