After pulling a tick off the dog you noticed something in the wound that you squeezed out and resulted in a large amount of non-living white pusslike material Was it puss or something worse?

Answer 1

I'm the poster again. I just wanted to make it clear that I was not quite sure I'd removed the head of the tick and I wanted to know if the little clump of this white stuff could have extracted the head as well if it was still lodged in there. I'm sure it wasn't living, it was just like puss but I'm pretty worried. While I can't say for sure without seeing this, what you describe presents exactly -- textbook -- as what happens when, as you say, you leave a part of the tick in the wound. When this happens, it naturally infects and the body reacts by attacking the offending agent. Dogs and humans go through this with ticks not uncommonly, and almost always without further complication. Treat as a small, infected ulcer, i.e. trim the hair so you can see what you're doing, clean the wound with warm water and soap, apply antiseptic (I like betadyne or 50/50 betadyne/hydrogen peroxide 3% for this), and bandage so the dog doesn't gnaw at it. If it starts healing in the first 12 hours, you're likely home free. If you notice it getting worse in the first 6 hours (or less if it's a lot worse), head for the vet. Worse means inflamation gets lots larger and hotter, red lines radiate from the wound, the dog becomes listless or shows a high temperature, etc. I note that my vet informs me of two things: Any converation about ticks eventually turns to Lyme's disease and (2) in dogs, Lyme's Disease is almost always very mild. When in doubt, call up your vet and ask him, but I think you should be okay.