Traveller, so if you had been pulling ticks for 50 years, haven't you EVER SEEN any with the FULL HEAD inside the skin???
I see them pretty often. If not the full head, it's practically the full head.
Maybe you got nicer ticks than the ones here in Switzerland?!!
Yes, it could be some different species, I wonder!!?
In no way we can grab the head with tweezers when they are inside the skin, unless you cut into the skin!!
Just theoretically, when you read all these websites on how to pull a tick, they all say: grab the head!
As though that was even possible in some cases!! They just make me smile
I loved that OTOM idea and ordered one (they are based on France). I'll let you guys know if it works well.
As the cats have super sensitive skin, I would NEVER be allowed to pinch their skins without getting a cat scratch, specially when the ticks are on the eye lids, or on the mouth lips!!!
Try to pull a tick with the head INSIDE the skin, in those super sensitive regions WITHOUT TWISTING - the whole skin of the cat (eyelid and LIPS) would be pulled up together, and the cat would scratch you if not bite you.
If one twists (in my opinion counter clock wise works better, that's what I have been doing, my hand twists automatically like that), the tick comes out without much effort.
You don't damage their lips or their eyelids. Ticks will not let go the bite easily! the more we pull their bodies with tweezers, the more they try to grab the skin!
they are super machines to attach to the fur, skin, body.
Even when they walk on your skin, just rubbing with your hand will not take it off, like an ant or spider.
You need actually to aim the tick well with something like nail or pinching it with 2 fingers to take the tick off while he still DID NOT ATTACH but it's just strolling around!
Just trying to rub ticks off, washing them under the shower will NOT work, in most cases: it all depends if the tick wants to let go or not. If they do not want, it'll stay most of the time. No shower or rubbing can take them off, and they are only walking!
The only place easy to rub them off is on fur, in my experience.
I think they are a bit like cats: when the cat wants to keep the nails out to hold a mouse, it will still hold it, like a mouse-stick! Once it gets tired and wants to let the mouse go, it just does not put the nails out and the mouse is finally free.