While serving my internship my first year out of veterinary school I happened upon a similar blow torch moment. As an intern you cover a lot of emergency time. On this particular night a women came in all in a tizzy with her cat and a couple of young kids in tow. While attempting to ascertain a history all she kept ranting about was what a dumb sh*t her husband was and how he always leaves on business at the least opportune times blah,blah,blah. Finally after calming her down I was able to get the story. Seems she found a tick attached to her cats ear. Her first attempt to get rid of said tick was to apply nail polish remover to it. When that did not work she (wait for it) took a lit match and touched it to the still wet with nail polish remover ear. Whoosh/Flash .....and a trip to see me. I took the cat out of the carrier to survey the damage. The cat had a 1st degree burn to his pinna (could have been a lot worse given the circumstances) and still attached to the ear and still alive a moving was a chard little tough as nails tick. Rats and bugs truly will inherit the earth if our own stupidity results in our distruction.
Gian4
