Help: Tick on Emu

[Tame Emu Guy]

Advice, please:

Emus here have ticks, but Greedy has a huge tick, much bigger than I’ve ever seen (say, as round as the nail on my middle finger), right up under her jaw. Moreover, she seemed oddly sluggish yesterday, and again today. She let me slide my hand right up her neck, which she has never ever done before. (Could it be something else? A small gray tumor? ‘It’ is a gray, tick-shaped thing, but the feathers of the neck obscure the spot where the tick’s head would be.)

I recall that over east there are ticks that will kill dogs.

Supreme Emu

 

[nurse_turtle]

Ticks will eventually fall off when they become so engorged with blood. Remove it if you can. If you can't, it will fall off on its own. I can't imagine it's anything really bad. If you have some petroleum jelly or other oil based ointment, put a good sized blob of it over the ticks entire body and head area, it will smother the tick and the tick will release itself.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Thanks, Nurse_Turtle. I'm still in a bit of a flap. We have paralysis ticks in Eastern Australia, and they have been reported in Western Australia. They will kill a dog. But all info is most helpful.

S,E,

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

I’ve botched it, readers. A farmer-neighbour assured me that it is a ‘kangaroo tick,’ and quite capable of killing her. She is not reeling ill, but she’s clearly unwell: been sitting for hours.
I geared up, attracted her with a bowl of prunes, latched high and hard on the top of her near-leg. She leaped high in the air, just missed with me with a mighty slash with the other leg, wrenched herself free, and bolted from the house-clearing.
Let’s see if she dies, or, if she lives, ever trusts me again.

S.E.

 

[chickenzoo]

So sorry...... Emu do not like to be held on to.....and they can hold a grudge for awhile. If you can grab the tick when she pulls away the tick may stay with you......yuck. If thete was a way to spray the tick with a repellent... We have adams flea mist here.... Or if their was a way to spray rhe tick with something brightly colored......so the other emu would be attracted and pull it off for you....

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Gee, Emu Hugger, you are close to the bullseye!!

[I'm so grateful for help from the breeders, who have so many experiences with their captive birds that are so valuable to me in my moment of need. I don't think I know diddly squat about emus, just that I can offfer a thimble-ful of info that comes from a different angle.]

Greedy has forgiven me, and today she is doing pretty normal emu stuff around the clearing. My neighbour-farmers have given me some 'Eprinox,' a parasite-and-tick killer that they put on the skin of their beasts. The application of it is today's project.

Yes!! Grab the tick, and let Greedy do the pulling! A great idea, and I shall report later. [If I can type: my arm aches. I can close my eyes, and see Greedy's off-side leg making a huge and powerful sweep at my head yesterday. I had to try, but it's like trying to grab a passing bus . . . ]

Supreme Emu

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

All hail Emu Hugger!!:

Finally got close to Greedy, grabbed the tick, lost my grip – and here’s the really interesting thing -- she stood still to let me have another crack at it. Result: big fat ugly tick tore lose. I inspected it. It was intact, with just a tiny bit of Greedy attached. (We always inspected them in the military, to ensure that the whole thing was out. You put it on a bit of white paper. A tiny tiny bit of rotting tick in your flesh will produce truly appalling infections.)
Thank you, all.

Supreme Emu

 

[Raptor65]

Good show! That's funny she let you have another try at it, maybe she got the idea you were after the tick.

 

[chickenzoo]

So glad you got it....... Nasty bugs they are. Hope she starts feeling better soon.....

 

[Wynette]

Great job!

When I was a kid, mom always used a match - light the match, blow it out, and then QUICKLY put the still hot end of the match to the tick's back end, and it pulls right out of the skin. But, that's probably not a good option when working with a huge critter with feathers!

Hope she's feeling better soon!