I’d like to share an experience I had using homeopathic remedies to remove common ticks that were attacking the skin of a dog, The tick is a tiny animal with eight legs that crawls on grass, leaves and shrubs looking for a pray to feed itself. Ticks are parasites that feed themselves on the blood of their host, which can be any animal or human. Ticks are also efficient carriers of disease. They attach firmly with their body while sucking blood. They feed slowly, remain unnoticed while feeding and take several days to complete feeding. It takes two to three days for nymphs and four to seven days for adults to become fully engorged. Usually it takes 36 hours for a tick to infect. If they do not find any prey, they soon die.
There are two groups of ticks, sometimes called the “hard” ticks (Ixodidae) and “soft” ticks (Argasidae). Hard ticks, like the common dog tick, have a hard shield just behind the mouthparts (sometimes incorrectly called the “head”). Unfed, hard ticks are shaped like a flat seed. Soft ticks do not have the hard shield and they are shaped like a raisin. Soft ticks prefer to feed on birds or bats and are seldom found on dogs or cats.
A friend of mine had a dog which used to roam outside to guard the house. One day I received his call that the dog was attacked by ticks and was scratching his skin all the time. The dog’s hair had fallen off in patches. He asked me if there was any homeopathic remedy which could help the animal.
I had studied Staphasgria from Homeopathic Drugs Picture by M. L. Tyler and J.H. Clarke’s A Dictionery of Materia Medica. Both mentioned that the remedy removes head lice. If it removes head lice, why not try it to remove other parasites on the body? Boericke mentions Sulfur for use in dry unhealthy skin where every little injury suppurates and with itching, burning; worse scratching and washing. The body of the animal was in bad condition and there was the chance that some infection was transferred. This condition also is covered by Sulfur. I gave three doses of Sulpher 30c to be given early mornings for three days. I gave Staphasagaria 3x to be given thrice a day for three days. The remedies worked very well. The ticks were detached from the skin within three days. The injured patches on the skin were also cleared. The wounds healed and clear skin appeared in about two weeks. The hairs also started growing slowly. I have used this same formula afterwards with success.
Tick on leaf
Tick that spent a day or more sucking the blood of a dog before removal