Hello all!
I have a stray cat we have been feeding and taking care of the last few months, his name is Dakoda, Koda for short. Just a week or so ago he allowed me to stroke him for the first time, which was amazing as he basically ran away at the sight of any sort of movement prior to that.
Well, a day or two after he became friendlier with myself and my boyfriend, we noticed a grey-brownish almost corn kernel looking thing on the side of his face near his whiskers. I had never seen a tick before so I wasn't exactly sure what I was looking at. After researching ticks, it appeared we had a deer tick situation. I have no idea how long it was there previously to us being able to get close enough to him to see it. He wasn't super comfortable with us at that point still, so there was no chance we could remove it. So we decided to wait a little and see if he would let us invade his privacy any time soon to get it off his face.
Recently, he has been coming inside once in awhile and aquainting himself with our other 15 cats. He didn't let them too close to him, but he wasn't very aggressive either. He actually has been doing quite well with the others. We actually think he is a relative of two of our other rescue cats from the neighbourhood as he looks just like them and has a very similar temperament.
Anyway, today we actually were able to extract the tick from his face, and I do believe we got the entire thing. We put it in alcohol and after it died we flushed it down the toilet.
He had been acting very normal prior to the extraction in every aspect, and really just up to about an hour ago. We did let him back inside and he laid on my lap and fell asleep like he normally would, the only difference now is he isn't too bothered by my other cats like he used to be (just earlier before and after the tick extraction) and he just seems sleepy. We actually have him in my room right now, and will keep him in all night for the first time ever, but it is weird because he doesn't mind at all and has been sleeping on my pillow for the last 20-30 minutes. We usually make him stay outside at night (or rather he prefers not being locked in a room because he isn't used to that yet) and really his indoor house visits only last a maximum of thirty minutes at a time, maybe twice a day for the last few days. I'm not sure if he is just getting comfortable in the house and with the other cats (his two suspected relatives are very good cats and love other cats) because he just hasn't been able to relax entirely since he lives outside, but now he is finally able to do that, or if this has something to do with the tick.
I live in northeastern Ohio, just in case any diseases are relative to my location. Any questions about how he's acting now, please ask. I'm not really sure how else to describe him other than relaxed/comfortable or almost carefree. I am genuinely worried though, so any help means a lot!
Also, this was the tick..
And here is Koda..
I have a stray cat we have been feeding and taking care of the last few months, his name is Dakoda, Koda for short. Just a week or so ago he allowed me to stroke him for the first time, which was amazing as he basically ran away at the sight of any sort of movement prior to that.
Well, a day or two after he became friendlier with myself and my boyfriend, we noticed a grey-brownish almost corn kernel looking thing on the side of his face near his whiskers. I had never seen a tick before so I wasn't exactly sure what I was looking at. After researching ticks, it appeared we had a deer tick situation. I have no idea how long it was there previously to us being able to get close enough to him to see it. He wasn't super comfortable with us at that point still, so there was no chance we could remove it. So we decided to wait a little and see if he would let us invade his privacy any time soon to get it off his face.
Recently, he has been coming inside once in awhile and aquainting himself with our other 15 cats. He didn't let them too close to him, but he wasn't very aggressive either. He actually has been doing quite well with the others. We actually think he is a relative of two of our other rescue cats from the neighbourhood as he looks just like them and has a very similar temperament.
Anyway, today we actually were able to extract the tick from his face, and I do believe we got the entire thing. We put it in alcohol and after it died we flushed it down the toilet.
He had been acting very normal prior to the extraction in every aspect, and really just up to about an hour ago. We did let him back inside and he laid on my lap and fell asleep like he normally would, the only difference now is he isn't too bothered by my other cats like he used to be (just earlier before and after the tick extraction) and he just seems sleepy. We actually have him in my room right now, and will keep him in all night for the first time ever, but it is weird because he doesn't mind at all and has been sleeping on my pillow for the last 20-30 minutes. We usually make him stay outside at night (or rather he prefers not being locked in a room because he isn't used to that yet) and really his indoor house visits only last a maximum of thirty minutes at a time, maybe twice a day for the last few days. I'm not sure if he is just getting comfortable in the house and with the other cats (his two suspected relatives are very good cats and love other cats) because he just hasn't been able to relax entirely since he lives outside, but now he is finally able to do that, or if this has something to do with the tick.
I live in northeastern Ohio, just in case any diseases are relative to my location. Any questions about how he's acting now, please ask. I'm not really sure how else to describe him other than relaxed/comfortable or almost carefree. I am genuinely worried though, so any help means a lot!
Also, this was the tick..
And here is Koda..
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