The Original Tick Key – Tick Detaching Device – Portable, Safe and Highly Effective Tick Detaching Tool (Black)

By FAR the easiest, and LEAST PAINFUL tick removal tool we’ve ever used….we live in the hills or Southern California, and have a big backyard filled with shrubs and brush that our dogs love to just dive into when they hear the smallest of sounds (I guess they think they are hunting or chasing rodents, lizards, etc., but never catch anything). But all those romps in the bushes cause them to be HUGE TICK MAGNETS when they are out there….and so I diligently search them for ticks on a regular basis.I’m not sure what kind of ticks we have here in So Cal, but they are nasty beasts and can get to be BIG and ugly looking things I’d They well up on blood. One of our dogs once had a tick that was more about half an inch in length, and had the FATTEST abdomen I’ve ever seen (it must have been ready to drop off and lay those tick eggs). They’re not all that big (especially now that we check regularly), but they are bigger than anything I ever saw on the East Coast.Fortunately, the Tick Key makes is SO EASY to pluck them out…and after having removed hundreds of ticks with our Tick Key over the years, I’ve only once had a tick’s head “break off” and get stuck behind in the dog’s skin (that darn dog wiggled at just the wrong moment, so I pulled it at a weird angle).Basically, to use it, you slip the opening-in-the-middle of the Tick Key over the tick, and then level the tick key as parallel as you can against the dogs skin/fur. Then, gently pull the Tick Key in the direction so that the narrowing end of the Tick Key opening (which ends in a sort of “V” shape, with a very fine “point”). You pull until the V is around the tick’s head/neck (presumably right at the spot just above where its mouthparts are embedded in the skin). Them just pull it away from the dog, while at the same time pulling a bit laterally to keep pressure on the tick so it stays securely wedged inside that point of the “V” (pulling should be steadily, quick and forceful – but not too quick, since you don’t want to “yank”it).Nearly 100% of the time, I get the tick out on the very first try, and it always seems to come out alive, and in one piece (I’m not sure why – but that pressure from the V seems to cause them to release their bite, and they come out whole!).At that point, it’s wriggling unhappily (i.e., unhappy at being deprived of its blood feast on our dog!). Since squishing them causes a bloody mess (esp. once they’ve grown super big…don’t ever squish them at that size -you’ll regret it). So I usually just admire its evolutionary grossness, and the wrap it in a tissue and flush it down the toilet (without the tissue, it can sometimes float, and one managed to survive a first flush by somehow clinging to the bowl….so now they always go down the toilet in a tissue).I can’t really say enough good things about the Tick Key…we bought ours YEARS ago, and I only need to buy a new one now, since I somehow lost the old one (and so I decided to write a review given our complete satisfaction with this device that has saved countless trips to the vet to get tick heads that got stuck in using tweezers or other methods)