My cat just dropped a tick

#1

on an upholstered livingroom chair. My husband picked it up to show me: it looks like a blue grape, it’s that engorged. But a grape with a tiny head and tiny legs, which is moving along, pulling its engorged body with it.

YUCK!

Hubby was about to flush it down the toilet, when I checked online, and it says quite clearly: DO NOT FLUSH A TICK down the toilet, because ticks can survive a water bath. Instead: Put it into a ziploc, seal it and put into garbage.

I have gotten two tick bites this summer = no fun! Now I suppose I have to look forward to lyme disease, or death…or somethin’.

I is NOT PLEASED!

(sorry, just needed to tell someone).

#2

Unless the tick was attached to you, you do not run a risk of Lyme disease or any other tick-borne illness.

If you know where on your cat the tick was attached, clean the site with either rubbing alcohol and cotton balls/Q-tips or peroxide and cotton balls/Q-tips. Call your vet to see whether you need to do anything else.

I’m more familiar with the protocol for ticks + dogs than ticks + cats; my cats are indoors (these days), and when I did let my cats go outdoors, I was fortunate enough that they didn’t “find” any ticks.

DCM

#3

Well I got to the vet with said cat (cuz it was time for his yearly checkup) and they removed yet another tick from his furry body. His fur is quite dense, so can’t see them easily, until they get bloated and fall off.
WARNING, GROSS PIC!

Here’s what a bloated one looks like, ewwww… don’t mistake it for a blueberry or a grape.

and flipped over:

Isn’t it just fascinating?..YUCK!