Had a tick on the dog a couple weeks back, and ripped it out with a tweezer.  Now there is a small hard lump on her neck (I think it's the same place as the first one).  The skin is a little bit red in the area.

What would cause this to happen?  Didn't I get all of the head?  What should I do to treat this?  Would getting some Frontline solve the problem, or is it time for a trip to the vet?

NEVER...!!

pull a tick off any annimal or human, take a match, lighter or somthyng very hot, they will back out on their own, you most lykely ripped off the head & it is infected...........go to a Vet...........annimal doctor [:D]

Sounds like the ticks head is still inside the skin...it usually gets infected and eventually the dogs immune system will take care of it..I would watch it and see if there is a lot of swelling and redness. If so you may want to take your dog to a vet to have it cut out.
I grab the tick between my thumb and forefinger as close to the head as possible and apply steady even pressure..usually grabbing the skin with my opposite hand and gently pulling the tick out of the skin..Ive been real successful getting the entire tick out this way for years..We are loaded with ticks this year..
Best bet is to get some Front Line or equivalent flea and tick baths once every two weeks wont hurt either..

First of all, don't listen to the entire old wife's tales about matches, Vaseline, oil, etc... They are just that, wife's tales.  

You should NEVER NEVER NEVER use anything hot to remove a tick.  Heating that little bastard up will essentially pressurize his body, pushing all the nasty bacteria and disease into your body (or your dogs).  Also, never squeeze them with your fingers for the exact reason.  This is more of a concern with deer ticks since they carry lime disease, but rocky mountain fever is also transmitted this way.

Covering a tick with Vaseline is likely to suffocate it.  Then you've got a dead tick embedded in your hairline.

If you break off their mouth parts by yanking them off, it might cause an infection, but will probably only cause irritation until your body takes care of it.  It's sort of like having a tiny splinter at that point.  Leaving any part of a tick in your body increases your risk of contracting a disease.

Most of the time, if you remove a tick within 24 hours you won't contract anything.  What I'm saying is that if you're driving down the road and find a tick on your arm you don't have to stop and pull the sucker off.  Wait until you can do it calmly and carefully, but don't wait more than a few hours.  

Female ticks and nymphs enlarge up to 60 times their normal size when engorged on your blood.

The proper way to remove a tick is to get a tick tweezers, or some other small tweezers and grab them as close to the skin as possible.  If you don't have a tick tweezers, you can improvise with a stiff playing card.  Cut a very small wedge out of one end so that it comes to a very sharp point that points toward the center of the card.  Work the card/wedge under the tick from it's back side so that its body is on top of the card and only its mouth (imbedded in your skin) is in the absolute point of the wedge.  Now carefully, slowly pull the card up, keeping the ticks mouth in the wedge (use your hands, it won't hurt you) until you get it out.  If you do it right, you'll have a complete tick on top of the card and nothing left in your skin.  You don't want to push any fluids back into yourself after they've been in a tick.  Now take that happy little blood sucker, set him carefully on the ground, and STOMP HIM UNTIL YOU ARE SATISFIED!!!

If your dog has a very large swollen spot where the tick was, it sounds like it might be infected.  Especially if it is sensitive.  If it's just a hard spot and it's not bothering the dog I wouldn't worry about it very much.  Just keep an eye on it in case it gets worse.  If it starts to ooze or anything I would definitely take him to a vet.


(edited because I can't spell)

One more vote for a visit to the vet.  Then again, I really baby my mut and may be a bit over protective.

As far as tick removal, I take a Q-tip and dip it in nail polish remover.  Go back and forth over the tick and it'll let go on its own.  Then apply your prefered torture to the little beast.

Just a little FYI, if you stomp the big gray, blood engorged tick, you didn't kill it.  You just popped its food supply.  It will simply move on to something else and refill.  I prefer to dismember them.

I would take to the dog to the vet, you never know.

For minor wounds on our dogs we clean the wound and apply antibiotic cream, seems to work.

Around here if I too the mutts  to the vet every time they had a tick my vet bill would be more than my house payment. It's a tick!!! Pull it out as described above and go on.

Tweezers are the best way to remove ticks, Muad_Dib gave the proper removal method. The little lump is not unusual and I would not worry about it unless it becomes tender, gets larger, or oozes. Keep an eye on the lump.

Has the dog been vaccinated for Lyme disease, dogs can get it.

By the way the only infection I have every seen from a tick bite came when some one tried to remove it with a hot match head.

I would do a little research before getting the Lyme vaccine for your canine. Side effects are nasty.

hey, hot works!!!!!!

when matt had a tick on his legs,  held a lighter to the blade of my knife and then laid the blade on the tick.  on, off, on, off.

backed out in 2 seconds.

I pulled a tick off my arm once. He had not sunk his teeth in so I grabed it with tweezers took him for a visit to the god of Fire (gas range) held it over the open flame and it exploded like a pop corn kernel popping.

Pretty neat!

The absolute best way to get rid of a tick is gently tweezing it out.  You want to coax the little vermin to let go and back out on his own with the absolute minimum of trauma.

Nail polish, lighter fluid, vaseline, hot matches, chemicals etc. are all traumatic for the tick.  if someone dumped a gallon of nail polish on my head I KNOW I'd vomit...so will the tick.  All that stuff goes into your or your dog's body when it does. So you basically let the tick know that it can't stay, it's got to go or it will die, so it might as well let go on it's own.  

Once the thing is out of the wound, then torture it to your hearts content. I like burning.

I didn't say that hot wouldn't work.  What I said was that if you do use heat, you are going to force some of the fluids out of the tick and into your body.  If you don't want a blood born pathogen introduced into your system you shouldn't remove a tick with heat.

I have been having a problem getting dogs off my pet tick.  Would anyone recommend heating the dog, or using vaseline?

Looks like another vet bill if I were you. Something to prevent ticks and flees, Garlic powder just give him a little in with his food and a flee or tick wont touch them. I know this may sound silly but it works. At one time I had three dogs a German Shepard (Kai), Boxer (Ivan) and a Jack Russel (Shorty) ,ticks or flees never got on them. But I could go out in the yard  for a few hours and have to come in and do a tick check every time.

I pulled a tick off my shin a few weeks back. Grabbed it by the head with some good tweezers and slowly pulled it off. This one was only getting started and still flat. I stuck his punk ass in a jar and kept it just in case. I put some iodine disinfectant on it and watched the sore for about a week. Limes Disease will create a bullseye pattern in 5-7 days. Luckily, nothing on my leg but a tiny red mark.

given the surface area of the knife blade and the relative little heat applied, i seriously doubt it cooked the little bugger's ass enough to cause his blood to boil over.

the amount of heat required to do that is far more than necessary to get the job done.  all we need to do is make the damned thing uncomfortable and want to find a new dinner spot.  i can see where lighting the bugger's ass would cause some problems.  but i think there's bigger issues there, like burning the crap outta the tick victim.  

"mommy, i gotta tick!"

"okay, johnny.  lemme go get the acetylene torch to burn him off."

[rolleyes]

heat, not fire!  geesh!