How to Get Rid of Ticks on Dogs: Safe Removal, Home Remedies That Work (and Ones That Don’t)

Ticks can be a pesky problem for both you and your dog. In serious condition, ticks can even be fatal to your pup. Check out these amazing home remedies to remove ticks from both your dog and your house.

If your dog is still in the early stages of his or her life, he or she may not be able to handle the aggressive anti tick products. If you are looking for solutions of how to get the ticks off from your dog, you are at the right place. Below I’ll show you the safe way to remove a tick at home, and I’ll go through the popular home remedies people ask about, including which ones don’t work and which ones can actually hurt your dog. “Natural” doesn’t always mean safe: many essential oils are toxic to dogs and cats. For young puppies, ask your vet which tick product is safe for your pup’s age and weight.

Before we embark on the journey of understanding the home remedies to eliminate ticks in dogs, you need to understand how to identify ticks in the first place.

Ticks are mainly active parasitic arachnids (belonging to the same family as spiders). Ticks are most active from spring to autumn, but in many parts of the US they’re around all year, and brown dog ticks can live indoors in any season. Check your dog’s coat after every walk, and keep your dog on a vet-recommended tick preventive all year round (CAPC). Dewormers don’t protect against ticks.

Ticks tend to launch themselves onto your dog’s body and feed on his or her blood. The time the tick spends attached to your dog’s skin, allows the tick to transmit various diseases like lyme disease, canine ehrlichiosis, rocky mountain spotted fever etc., Check out the 7 most common diseases caused tick bite in dogs.

When a tick latches itself onto your dog’s body, they keep on increasing in size as they feed on more and more blood. Therefore, when you focus on using home remedies to remove the ticks infecting your dogs, it is better if the tick is still small in size. Once the tick becomes larger in size, it becomes more complicated to remove it from your dog by the use of home remedies.

The most common symptoms of a tick presence/bite on your dog are:

• Intense level of itching
• Swelling
• Redness
• Inflammation
• In most intense cases, symptoms may involve:
• Fever
• Lethargy
• Weakness
• Vomiting
• Depression
• Pain
• Appetite loss
• Whole body paralysis

How to Remove a Tick From Your Dog Safely (Step by Step)

Before trying any home remedy, know this: no rub, spray or kitchen ingredient makes an attached tick let go safely. The vet-recommended way to remove a tick is to pull it out mechanically, and the sooner you do it, the lower the chance of disease transmission.

1. Get the right tool. Use fine-tipped tweezers or a tick-removal hook. Wear gloves if you can.
2. Part the fur so you can see where the tick’s head enters the skin.
3. Grip the tick as close to the skin as possible, by its mouthparts, not its swollen body.
4. Pull straight out with slow, steady pressure. Do not jerk, twist hard or squeeze the body. With a tick hook, slide it under the tick and rotate gently as the maker instructs.
5. Clean the bite with mild soap and water or a pet-safe antiseptic, and wash your hands.
6. Dispose of the tick by sealing it in tape or a closed bag, or keep it in a sealed container if your vet may want to identify it.
7. Watch the spot for a few weeks. Mild redness for a day or two is common; swelling, pus or a spreading rash needs a vet.

Don’t: burn the tick, smother it with petroleum jelly, nail polish, oils, alcohol or fuel, or crush it with your fingers. These can irritate your dog’s skin and may make the tick release more saliva into the bite.

If a small piece of the mouthparts stays in the skin, don’t dig for it. It usually works its way out; call your vet if the area becomes inflamed.

What Kills Ticks on Dogs Instantly?

Many searches ask for a home remedy that kills ticks instantly. Honestly, there isn’t a safe one. Products that kill quickly on contact (fuels, strong disinfectants, concentrated essential oils) are also harmful to your dog’s skin, or toxic if licked. What actually works:

• Attached ticks: remove them with tweezers or a tick hook (see the steps above). Removal is the fastest safe fix.
• Ticks still crawling in the coat: comb them out with a fine-toothed comb and drop them into soapy water.
• Killing ticks that bite in the coming weeks: vet-prescribed tick preventives (oral chewables, spot-ons or tick collars) are designed to kill ticks safely. Ask your vet which suits your dog’s age, weight and health.

Popular Home Remedies for Ticks on Dogs: What Works and What Doesn’t

 Use of an anti-tick shampoo

if you have an inkling that your dog might have a tick infestation, the first step would be to remove the existing ticks which have latched on to your dog’s body. Start by bathing your dog in a lathering tick shampoo. Since tick bites in dogs can cause itching, irritation and can be fatal in severe cases, it is best to first remove them before you embark on any preventive measures journey.

Choose a tick shampoo labelled for dogs (and for puppies if yours is young), and follow the label. “Natural” shampoos with essential oils aren’t safer. When bathing, lather the shampoo on your dog from head to toe. Leave no region untouched. Allow the product to sit on your dog’s skin for several minutes. Then wash it off. Shampoo will remove the ticks which have not yet attached to your dog. Post this you can start preventive measures.

Do Vinegar, Dettol or Petrol Kill Ticks on Dogs?

• Vinegar: diluted vinegar is not toxic, but it does not reliably kill ticks or make an attached tick detach. Don’t rely on it.
• Dettol and other household disinfectants: these are not made for use on pets and can irritate or burn skin. Many contain ingredients that are dangerous if licked. Don’t apply them to your dog.
• Petrol, kerosene or turpentine: never use them. They can cause chemical burns, are dangerous if swallowed or inhaled, and are a fire risk. If your dog has been exposed, wash with mild dog shampoo and call your vet.

 Crushed garlic

Garlic is often recommended as a tick repellent, but it belongs to the onion family, which is toxic to dogs and can damage red blood cells. There is no proven safe “tick dose”. Please don’t add garlic to your dog’s food for tick protection. Use a vet-recommended tick preventive instead.

Regular Combing:

This is one of the cheapest and easiest remedy for your pup to remove the fleas. When you return from a walk or a hike, remember to comb your pup’s fur thoroughly, not missing an inch. If you comb your pup’s fur once every day at least, it will help remove the fleas and ticks crawling on the fur. They will also reduce the irritation which your pup might feel.

Vaseline:

Petroleum jelly is a popular myth for tick removal. Smothering a tick does not make it detach quickly, and it delays proper removal while the tick keeps feeding. Skip it: grip the tick close to the skin with fine-tipped tweezers and pull straight out with steady pressure.

Permethrin 

Permethrin is an insecticide found in some vet-approved dog tick products. Use it only as a ready-made product labelled for dogs, at the dose for your dog’s weight, and never mix your own solution from garden or farm concentrates.

Important: permethrin is highly toxic to cats. Never use a dog permethrin product on a cat, and keep cats away from a freshly treated dog until the product has dried. Ask your vet before using any permethrin product in a home with cats. Permethrin-treated clothing for people is a separate product. Follow its label.

Tea Tree oil:

Tea tree oil is not safe for dogs. Even small amounts on the skin can cause poisoning, with signs such as drooling, weakness, wobbliness and tremors, and it is even more dangerous for cats. Don’t add it to shampoo or apply it to ticks or bites. If your dog has been exposed, wash it off and call your vet or a pet poison helpline.

Gasoline or Turpentine:

Do not use this. Gasoline, petrol, kerosene and turpentine can cause chemical burns, are poisonous if licked or inhaled, and are a serious fire risk. They don’t make attached ticks let go safely either. Remove ticks with fine-tipped tweezers or a tick hook instead. If your dog has had fuel on its skin, wash it off with mild dog shampoo and lots of water, and call your vet.

How to Keep Ticks Off Your Dog (What Actually Works)

• Year-round vet-recommended tick prevention in areas where ticks are common. This is the single most effective step.
• Daily tick checks after walks, especially between toes, inside ears, around the eyes, under the collar, the armpits and groin.
• Regular combing and grooming to catch ticks before they attach.
• Keep the yard trimmed: mow grass, clear leaf litter and keep dogs out of tall grass and brush where possible.
• Treat every pet in the home, and check with your vet before using any dog product around cats.

Natural options like regular combing and good yard care are genuinely helpful. Homemade sprays and oils are not a reliable replacement for vet-approved prevention.

How to get rid of the tick infestation from your home?

As long as ticks inhabit your home, neither you nor your pup is safe. Thus, along with removing the ticks on your dogs, you must also focus on removing them from your house.

Diatomaceous Earth

If you are in the market for a non-toxic and safe method to remove the fleas from your house, diatomaceous earth might just be the answer you’re looking for. Diatomaceous earth is made up of grounded exoskeletons of previously fossilized sea creatures. When diatomaceous earth comes in contact with fleas, it instantly kills them by drying them out. It mainly works by using the mechanism of dehydration. If you have the problem of tick infestation in your doghouse, sheds, garage or other regions, sprinkle a thin layer and leave it for a day before vacuuming.

For sofa, carpets and other furniture which may suffer from tick infestation, sprinkle the product and push it deep into the fiber of the cushions. This will allow the diatomaceous earth to kill any ticks lurking underneath the surface of the fabric. Use only food-grade diatomaceous earth, wear a mask while you sprinkle it, keep pets out of the room until the dust settles, and vacuum it up afterwards. It can help dry out insects in carpets and cracks, but it won’t replace treating your dog with a vet-recommended tick product.

Brown Dog Ticks and Seed Ticks in the House

The brown dog tick is unusual because it can complete its whole life cycle indoors, so an infestation can keep coming back. “Seed ticks” are the tiny larvae, and you may see many at once.

• Treat your dog with a vet-recommended tick product. Home remedies won’t break the cycle.
• Vacuum daily, including cracks, skirting boards and furniture, and empty the vacuum outdoors.
• Hot-wash your dog’s bedding and blankets.
• For heavy or repeat infestations, use a licensed pest-control service that knows it is treating a home with pets.

 Maintain caution when working to kill ticks

Since ticks have a hard exoskeleton, squishing them is not an option. If you do find a tick, use a pair of tweezers and drop the pest into a solution of rubbing alcohol, sanitizer or simply flush it down the toilet.

 Look for the primary areas of tick infestation in your home

Ticks love to live in the humid and warm regions of your house, especially those regions which are not disturbed. If you are facing tick infestation, consider changing the layout of your furniture and move things around periodically. In your backyard, turn over the rocks and logs, cut the grass short and remove any garbage and bushes from the region.

When working to remove ticks from your house, focus on the hot and humid regions like underneath the cabinets, moldings, the windowsills, baseboards, room corners and other regions which are rich with humidity. In homes with climate control feature, the ticks tend to die in a few days.

A few preventive measures to keep in mind:

• Clean your house with vacuum cleaner.
• Use warm water to wash your cushion covers, blankets and linen.
• Sanitize the corners of the house.
• Use a pet-safe pest-control product indoors, following the label
• Keep your dog on a vet-recommended tick preventive all year
• Wash bedding and vacuum furniture often
• Use tweezers to remove the ticks
• Shampoo your pup at regular intervals
• Regularly mow your lawn
• Remove all litter like weeds and fallen leaves.
• Keep the bushes short

When to Call Your Vet After a Tick Bite

Ticks can carry infections such as Lyme disease, ehrlichiosis, anaplasmosis and babesiosis, depending on where you live. Call your vet if your dog shows any of these in the weeks after a tick bite:

• tiredness, low energy or fever
• loss of appetite
• lameness, stiff or swollen joints
• pale gums, unusual bleeding or bruising
• a bite area that swells, oozes or doesn’t heal
• weakness in the back legs (rare tick paralysis; this is an emergency)

Also see your vet if you can’t remove a tick, your dog has many ticks, or a puppy, pregnant or unwell dog is affected.

Some final thoughts:

Even though ticks have the ability to cause many types of diseases in both dogs and humans, prevention is still always better than cure, especially when it comes to dog care. We don’t want our kids to suffer for any reason. Thus, always try to keep your house and your dog free of ticks and fleas.

Remember to take the tick repellent spray with you when going on hikes or performing any other type of outdoor activity with your pup. Furthermore, if you are going to regions with lots of grass or bushes, reapply the spray as and when needed. In case your dog ends up wet during the outdoor activity or by enjoying himself or herself in rain or swimming, ensure quick reapplication of flea spray to remove any of the unwanted house guests which may try to come in with your pup.

If you notice your dog displaying any of the tick bite related symptoms, consult your vet without any delay. Your vet will ask you questions regarding the location of the bite, the symptoms your dog is displaying, the frequency of symptom occurrence and finally when did you notice the tick for the first time. Your vet may conduct blood tests to find or rule out the other tick related diseases and focus on the one which might be affecting your dog. Once the tick variety is confirmed your dog will be put on antibiotics, other medications and supportive care depending on his disease condition.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best home remedy for ticks on dogs?

The safest at-home method is removing ticks by hand with fine-tipped tweezers or a tick hook, then combing the coat and checking your dog daily. Sprays and oils don’t make attached ticks let go, and some are toxic to dogs.

Does Vaseline or petroleum jelly remove ticks?

No. Smothering a tick doesn’t make it detach quickly and delays proper removal. Pull it out with tweezers instead.

Are essential oils safe for getting ticks off dogs?

Many, including tea tree, eucalyptus, cinnamon, clove and pennyroyal, can be toxic to dogs and especially cats. Don’t apply them to your dog without your vet’s advice.

How quickly should a tick be removed?

As soon as you find it. The longer a tick feeds, the higher the chance it passes on an infection.