dog tick anyone?

 

at least we are hoping it's a dog tick! soon after my husband anthony got home from work he found this bugger on priscilla's back. I can't tell you how much I am itching all over my body just writing about this! I've spent the last 2 and a half days mostly sleeping off a fever and cold which means our beloved priscilla has been sleeping right next to me during most of that time. in fact, earlier this very day she was literally sleeping on top of my pillow right next to my head! if I wasn't so fatigued I probably wouldn't be able to sleep tonight. hopefully I won't have nightmares. luckily anthony was home since I am not so sure priscilla would have stayed so still for ian & I. 

first we smothered the tick with vaseline, then we read online that takes 48 hours to work. the same website said it was ok to use tweezers if we made sure we grabbed it by its head. I am fairly certain I got the pincers out along with a bit of priscilla's hair. I know I am repeating myself here but it really is a small miracle priscilla stayed calm the entire time the three of us were hovering around her holding her under our brightest kitchen light. this is the same dog that seemingly reads my mind if I so much as think about cutting her hair-she will run in the opposite direction. if she sees me holding a scissor while she is in another room she can somehow tell immediately whether I am about to wrap a present or whether I want to trim her bangs. you would have never known this when I took out the largest pair of scissors we had in the house to trim the hair around where the tick was, she stayed perfectly still. I figured this was important so I could check on the area for infection later.

and yes, as you can see, I kept the tick for identification purposes.

I just read that if you stun the tick with a bit of alcohol first, it will suddenly release from the animal but you must be ready to grab it with a tweezer quickly. hopefully we will never have to go through this again but I think it's good to know.

the scary thing is priscilla was only hanging out in our backyard...yikes!

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