Owwweee for Charlie

Each week I happily post tales of Charlie the amazing hiking beast along with photos of him effortlessly conquering each pass, ridge, and stream.  Well, I'm sorry to report that Charlie's conquests have not been without a price.  On Monday night we discovered one of these on the wonderdog:

That there is the Brown Dog Tick commonly found in Northern California.  (Latin:  tickus-NASTY-cus;  Greek:  tickus-DISGUSTUS!)  Words cannot adequately describe exactly how vile this little creature is, particularly when embedded up to its armpits in the neck of your dog.  (I'm throwing up in my mouth as I re-live this.)  

Upon discovering this repugnant pest, an immediate search was undertaken to learn how to relieve Charlie of this parasite.   Within minutes we discovered an on-line video depicting the removal of a tick using a circular motion, culminating with the insect releasing the dog and "popping out" of the animal.  (Oh boy, here goes that gag reflex again ....)  

The voice on the video assured us that if we followed this procedure, Charlie would be bug free post haste.  However, the voice warned that it was imperative to remove the entire pest and not to leave the poisonous head in the body of your dog.  (... gag here ....)

So, armed with my best pair of eyebrow tweezers, Andy and I began the procedure with me wrestling a perplexed and very annoyed Charlie while Andy undertook the business of dizzying the bug.  After more than 5 minutes of massaging that little pest, Andy gave the body a little tug and out it came ... that is, out came the body.  (...gag ...)  The head (... gag ...) was still in Charlie.  (GAG, GAG, YAK!)

I spent the better part of that evening worrying about the damage I had done to Charlie first, by not locating the tick earlier, and second, by decapitating the pest while embedded in his neck.  However, a visit to my vet left me feeling relieved when he advised that there did not appear to be any infection and that the bug's head (... gag here ...) would work its way out.

Moral of this story?  Check your dog for ticks after every hike and if you find one, DON'T ask us for help in removing it.