Leech on my poor dog :(

marymc

My poor Border Collie gets a tick stuck to him from time to time, but today we found a leech on him. Yes, I'm serious, a big nasty leech. The dog has his own shed with clean, dry straw to sleep in, and he has a two acre cut grass field to stroll around during the day. He's never had one of these before and I know enough about leeches to know what I saw.

What I didn't know was that we had leeches in Ireland. In pond-less fields. How does that happen?

noddyone2

Lucky dog to have such a caring owner. Leeches do occasionally move around grassland, it will eventually drop off, or touch it with a lighted cigarette and it should drop off. The bleeding can be hard to stop after as they use an anti-clotting agent. Horrible things. I use 'Advantage' to stop my dogs getting ticks/fleas. It's put on the back of the dogs neck every few months, don't know if it will work against leeches, have to ask your vet.

pokertalk

better to let it get its fill off the dog and then fall off if u burn it or pull it it will regurgitate back into the dog whatever else it has being feeding on

Storminateacup

Can someone explain the difference between a leech and a tik

homerhop

Leeches will look like a slug, dark in colour and tend to move like a worm if that makes any sense to you, where as a tik will look like a robin run the hedge seed and when it starts feeding will swell, they are a whitish green colour


Tik
http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2009/02/12/1234476557-engorged_tick.jpg


Leech
http://www.google.ie/imgres?imgurl=http://www.sciencefriday.com/news/041907/leech.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.sciencefriday.com/newsbriefs/read/120&usg=__GhjGK9YPo3-xhjcMkp56yRFTFqQ=&h=379&w=415&sz=33&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=OwdzqOoo9lpV3M:&tbnh=116&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dleech%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DX%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-GB:official%26biw%3D966%26bih%3D414%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C29&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=114&vpy=65&dur=811&hovh=215&hovw=235&tx=88&ty=123&ei=7fiiTO7hOI_QjAeXlMWNAw&oei=vviiTNK4CpT_4Ab70Im0BA&esq=12&page=1&ndsp=10&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0&biw=966&bih=414

marymc

better to let it get its fill off the dog and then fall off if u burn it or pull it it will regurgitate back into the dog whatever else it has being feeding on

EW!

This leech looked -apologies in advance - more like a snot than the huge jungle-type leeches you'll find on google images. Still really gross. The dog has been fine since, thankfully!

pokertalk

Storminateacup wrote: »

Can someone explain the difference between a leech and a tik

good to see ya back storm btw

kenyard

marymc wrote: »

EW!

This leech looked -apologies in advance - more like a snot than the huge jungle-type leeches you'll find on google images. Still really gross. The dog has been fine since, thankfully!

thats a sign it had just attached itself i guess..
i had a few over in aussie when working outdoors. found one around my ankle one day when i got home and it was the same as a slug. one of the guys pulled one off his arm a few days later and it was like you describe. thin.

as for their movement i was very amused. it stands up straight, uses the top part and folds that in a u in the direction it wants to go. affixes itself to this spot and then drags the other part of itself that way. killing them. fire
probably similar to a tick they just drain a bit of blood (they then drop off themselves unlike a tick which just stays feeding and growing)

iv often found ticks on our greyhounds. they are everywhere. leeches i didnt know we had either thats a new one

good to hear your dog is none the worse anyway also

noddyone2

Hi, Read your interesting post. Where I lived as a young boy, the field behind us had an open well with leeches in it. They can move surprisingly fast in water. When used for medical purposes, they are starved for up to 2 years. I read lately about a quarry in England that is supposed to have the biggest population of leeches in the UK. Kids compete to swim across it with the winner being the one with the least number of leeches on him. Apparently the trick is to make the least splashes! There is also a 'horse leech', which does not go to horses, but lives off eartworm and such. Regards.

Wisco

You can just put salt on them and they shrivel up, go all gooey and die(same as slugs). We used to get them as kids swimming in lakes on vacation and would bring a salt shaker along just in case!

Graces7

For the first time in our years in Ireland, our cats are tick free... Still in farming country but cattle not sheep.

Previously they were coming in with half a dozen or more ticks every day and we stopped doing anything. The stuff you put on their necks did nothing and these two are siblings and wash each other.

They fall off after three days.

But bliss not to have them any more; cows are great.

enfield

I seen a great program on tv once when a vet shows how to remove a tick. You just cover it all over in a blob of vasalene and it suffocates and dies.
Easy peasy.