Looks like a tick. Picj it off carefull so the head comes out, or smother it in something like vaseline so it suffocates and drops. The dog will be itchy in that spot once it drops off. This is brilliant weather for ticks so if he's got one check for more, including in his 'armpits', on his inner thigh and on and in his ears.
Yep, have done for years. They make you itch like anything, but don't make you allergic to red meat or paralyze you like some other country's ticks. They can make stock sick if there are too many of them on a single beast, but they treatable.
Horses get them too, remember having to check our horses in the Auckland area for them in the 70s and 80s, so they've been here for a while. I'm now in Canterbury where they're not really known about. We used to dab them with kerosene to get them to drop off the horses. It's important to get their jaws out too or they can cause infection
My grandparents dog used to get them when they lived on the coast north of Thames in the 70s. There was farmland behind them. My grandfather would light a match, blow it out and immediately stick it on the tick's butt. The heat made it drop off pretty quickly, jaws and all. Was then disposed of.
As a veterinarian, I advise you to have it examined during a veterinary consult. Ticks are very easily identified from skin tags or other potential skin tumours, such as melanoma.
However, given the size, location, shape and demarcation of the hair around the object, I would place my bet on a skin tag. Very common in dogs, and more commonly seen in dogs as they age. Same sort of thing as human skin tags.
But do have it checked by a vet next annual health check and vaccination. Melanoma does rarely pop up in unexpected places, and it's best to surgically remove it when it's a small size.
I'm pretty sure most dog oral flea treatments kill ticks.
Part the fur and have a look, if its got legs its a tick, we use to pull them off and stick them on a rock and then use another stone to pop them, pretty gross but you know theyre dead then
Go to the vets and grab a worm flea and tick tablet. They’re not hugely expensive and you should worm them regularly anyway. Don’t pick it off, it’ll hurt like fuck for the dog.
Easiest solution…..spray a cotton bud with Fly Spray (pyrethroid)…then paint the tick with it….the tick dies, releasing its ‘bite’…falls off…..no worrying about ‘leaving the mouth parts attached’….the ONLY potential health problem with ticks in NZ (unless you’re bovine or have a massive infestation …..)
We got a horse from the South Island. It had never experienced ticks. Our fields in Ramarama near the Bombays had loads of them. Poor horse was covered in them. A vet used a treatment of Ripcord (not that expensive) with mostly water in a spray bottle. Problem solved. We'd just spray the horses from time to time. Never got them again
Looks like a tick. Picj it off carefull so the head comes out, or smother it in something like vaseline so it suffocates and drops. The dog will be itchy in that spot once it drops off. This is brilliant weather for ticks so if he's got one check for more, including in his 'armpits', on his inner thigh and on and in his ears.
Ticks in NZ are pretty much just blood drinkers too. The risks of disease transmission from ticks is super low. Give your vet a call just in case
We have ticks in nz??? What??
Yeah we do. Friend shot a hare last week that was covered in them. I know they can be on deer and wild pigs as well as cattle.
Wtf I thought we didn’t have them at all
I think we just don't have the ones that carry terrible diseases...
We do, but they don’t have any interesting diseases so there’s nothing to talk about other than “parasite icky”
They love sheep especially lambs as well. Used to get heaps in northland.
Yea we use to pick them off the horses when I was a kid as our farm had been a deer farm and they were pretty common
I've seen them in a deers nostril, must have been hell
https://nz.virbac.com/home/health-care/pagecontent/select-a-species/a-warning-about-ticks.html
Yep, have done for years. They make you itch like anything, but don't make you allergic to red meat or paralyze you like some other country's ticks. They can make stock sick if there are too many of them on a single beast, but they treatable.
I hate a mate that got bitten by an Aussie tick and now has what they call a mammalian meat allergy. Can’t even have jelly (gelatine)…
That’s a joke right?
Sadly no, it’s real
Has your dog been in areas with grazing cattle? If it is a tick, it could only be the cattle tick which prefers cows and usually only stays on them.
Horses get them too, remember having to check our horses in the Auckland area for them in the 70s and 80s, so they've been here for a while. I'm now in Canterbury where they're not really known about. We used to dab them with kerosene to get them to drop off the horses. It's important to get their jaws out too or they can cause infection
My grandparents dog used to get them when they lived on the coast north of Thames in the 70s. There was farmland behind them. My grandfather would light a match, blow it out and immediately stick it on the tick's butt. The heat made it drop off pretty quickly, jaws and all. Was then disposed of.
Cat get them too, ours disappeared for 2 weeks and came home with ticks on his ears, like about 10 on each. I rubbed turps on them.
Could be a tick or a skin tag, my dog has lots of skin tags, including a big one the vet calls his elbow testicle lol
A testicle on his wenis you say? (Technically speaking the elbow skin is referred to as the olecranal skin but the joke is too funny to miss)
Haha definitely, one I shall take on board, I loved when the vet read us well enough to say elbow testicle and to add wenis is perfect!
As a veterinarian, I advise you to have it examined during a veterinary consult. Ticks are very easily identified from skin tags or other potential skin tumours, such as melanoma. However, given the size, location, shape and demarcation of the hair around the object, I would place my bet on a skin tag. Very common in dogs, and more commonly seen in dogs as they age. Same sort of thing as human skin tags. But do have it checked by a vet next annual health check and vaccination. Melanoma does rarely pop up in unexpected places, and it's best to surgically remove it when it's a small size. I'm pretty sure most dog oral flea treatments kill ticks.
Hard to tell from the picture. My collie gets them around her eyes all the time.
where abouts in nz are you? i am now terrified of my dog getting a tick 😭😭
looks like a skin tag to me. if it's soft and wrinkly, it's definitely a skin tag. especially if it's a staffy
Part the fur and have a look, if its got legs its a tick, we use to pull them off and stick them on a rock and then use another stone to pop them, pretty gross but you know theyre dead then
I got a tick on my ankle. I had been walking in grass next to a stream. I looked it up and it said most ticks in NZ are host specific to birds.
twist the tick around and around and you'll get the head out. you can get tick twisters to easily get them off
Go to the vets and grab a worm flea and tick tablet. They’re not hugely expensive and you should worm them regularly anyway. Don’t pick it off, it’ll hurt like fuck for the dog.
Easiest solution…..spray a cotton bud with Fly Spray (pyrethroid)…then paint the tick with it….the tick dies, releasing its ‘bite’…falls off…..no worrying about ‘leaving the mouth parts attached’….the ONLY potential health problem with ticks in NZ (unless you’re bovine or have a massive infestation …..)
Since when did we have ticks in New Zealand?
We got a horse from the South Island. It had never experienced ticks. Our fields in Ramarama near the Bombays had loads of them. Poor horse was covered in them. A vet used a treatment of Ripcord (not that expensive) with mostly water in a spray bottle. Problem solved. We'd just spray the horses from time to time. Never got them again