What are your opinions on this video of BTS?

[Dakota]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue-aAqKO3pc

Seems a bit harsh to me.

[Bird_Brain]

What's so harsh about it? They are removing parasites from a skink? The skink IMO seems to be in very little discomfort and stress is minimal.

[Lea]

I think they had the skink's interest and welfare fully on their minds. It probably wasn't the best way to remove the ticks, but they tried their best not to stress her out. Dabbing a little neat alcohol on a cotton bud, near the head, weakens the grip of the tick (makes them drunk) and they can be pulled of easily.

Ticks can cause weakness and even death with problems like anaemia and infection. Unfortunately there will be plenty more out there for this skink and she's probably already feeling a little lethargic.

[Linnea]

o.o ticks in australia are quite something.

but yeah, wont the tick release fluids into the bts if its removed like that?
those small pencils with a wire in them, cant they be used?

[Bird_Brain]

I've always been told to just grab as close as possible to the skin with tweezers and pull.

[Lea]

Like Reptileking says, if you clamp around the head, the risk is minimal. Dabbing them with alcohol is sometimes enough to make them let go anyway and the alcohol is antiseptic, too.

I'm not sure what wire pencils are, linnea, so I couldn't say if they work or not. I find the alcohol quick, relatively stress free and effective, even on the little ticks. I've de ticked a lot of blue tongues, mostly shinglebacks and because it's relatively non invasive, aside from the cotton bud, even ticks in the ears and around the delicate tissue of the mouth can be removed almost risk free.

[Dakota]

It's not the fact that they are removing the tick, it the fact of the fire.. them burning the skink. Is that a common precedure? ..using fire?

[Bird_Brain]

They aren't burning the skink. They are putting it on the tick t try to get it to release from the skink

[Katrina]

Reptiles have an epidermis that is completely covered in keratin - they won't feel the heat from a match nearby. This allows them to bask on hot surfaces that are very warm to our touch. They don't have nerves in this layer so this also means they are susceptible to burns (they won't feel the heat / burning and move away until it is down to the dermis and a fairly serious burn). For this reason, we need to be careful when providing basking spots and 'warm' baths etc - they can't feel heat the same as we can and so they can't feel if they are getting burned until it is through the outer layer. But holding a match near to their body to get the tick to let go won't hurt the reptile at all - they don't have nerves in the outer layers (a little bit like our finger nails). I'm surprised that in your 5-6 years of research you didn't come across this.

[Dakota]

Reptiles have an epidermis that is completely covered in keratin - they won't feel the heat from a match nearby. This allows them to bask on hot surfaces that are very warm to our touch. They don't have nerves in this layer so this also means they are susceptible to burns (they won't feel the heat / burning and move away until it is down to the dermis and a fairly serious burn). For this reason, we need to be careful when providing basking spots and 'warm' baths etc - they can't feel heat the same as we can and so they can't feel if they are getting burned until it is through the outer layer. But holding a match near to their body to get the tick to let go won't hurt the reptile at all - they don't have nerves in the outer layers (a little bit like our finger nails). I'm surprised that in your 5-6 years of research you didn't come across this.

Actually, I didn't. I never thought to look up tick removal, as it's not a problem to me. I knew that they can't feel heat to much, reason heat rocks are not supposed to be used, because ease of malfunction.

[Linnea]

wire pencil. i think theres one in every home with dogs or cats here, so id be surprised if theyre not popular elsewhere? theyre very quick and easy to use.

[Bird_Brain]

wire pencil. i think theres one in every home with dogs or cats here, so id be surprised if theyre not popular elsewhere? theyre very quick and easy to use.

Never seen them in the US.

Googled them. $10 plus shipping? Ill stick with the tweezers lol.

[Linnea]

its argued against using tweezers here, easy to not get a good grip on the head. whereas the wire gets around it neatly on the first try so nothing is left. burning or using alcohol is also debated against due to the chance of getting those tick diseases thats been spreading rapidly in forests and glassland areas of northern europe the past few years. i dont know if those diseases are present in australia as well? you might actually be spared from them, and that would be awesome.

its sold in the pharmaceutical department (its usually a big shelf) for animals, in all drug stores. so if you go on holiday....i can recommend it. making one yourelf isnt all that hard either! (cheap and simple mechanism)
kenn, is this wire pencil available in belgium?

id prefer this method, rather than burning the ticks off at the very least. seems wasteful to use, rather than dangerous. but would it be functional to use on blueys?

[Lea]

Thanks for clarifying, linnea. It looks like it could work well, if a little fiddly to hold a bluey and hook it around the tick at the same time.

[Karen]

When I was younger my grandmother would actually use the fire method on me. I can imagine it was a lot less fun for me than it was for the skink! I would agree with LeaBilly that alcohol is the best method though, and it's what I used coming back from field school a couple years ago.