I've had three Balinese street dogs in the last few years. Two died from tick poisoning, and the other one was stolen (maybe for a Warung RW = dog sate place).
The two that died were regularly visited by a vet (from Ubud), who, in retrospect, was totally incompetent. At one time, she injected insecticide for a skin condition.
My current dog is a pure Beagle (about 7 months old now). We use Frontline and he seems OK with that (Beagles can be very sensitive to all kinds of medications).
As for removing any ticks, I don't believe that stressing the tick out works very well (it might cause the tick to inject more poison into the dog). The same goes for trying to pull the tick out.
I think the "correct" procedure is to cut the back off and leave the head part intact.
There are many different kinds of ticks. Not all of them are life-threatening. Personally, I don't know how tell the difference.
Like others have said, it's next to impossible to control ticks. You might have ticks in your garden. I would suggest checking your dog physically everyday and removing any ticks you find.
Plus, use something like Frontline drops and/or a tick/flea collar.
I hope your not-too-well friend gets better soon.
:angel:
like we did yesterday.