How to find ticks on cats — the gentle check with your phone camera

TickSpot Guide · Updated July 2026

In short: Outdoor cats regularly bring home uninvited guests during tick season — and cats have little patience for long inspections. The trick with TickSpot: short sessions of 20–30 seconds, whenever your cat comes over for a cuddle anyway. The inverted camera view finds ticks so quickly that your cat barely notices the check.

How the check works with TickSpot

1. Open TickSpot while your cat is lying relaxed on your lap or next to you.
2. While petting, gently push the fur against the grain and hold the camera 10–15 centimeters (4–6 inches) above the exposed skin — to your cat it feels like ordinary scratching.
3. In the inverted view, a dark tick stands out as a bright dot against skin and fur — even on dark or tabby cats, where the eye has almost no contrast to work with.
4. If your cat gets restless: freeze the image and check the suspicious spot on the still, instead of holding your cat down.
5. At the next cuddle, simply pick up where you left off — TickSpot is open again in a second.

Check these spots first

• Head and forehead — the most common spot on cats
• Ears and the thinly haired patch in front of them
• Chin and neck
• Armpits and belly — only if your cat likes belly rubs

Cats groom themselves a lot and remove some ticks on their own — but their tongue can't reach the head and the area behind the ears. That's exactly where a look through the camera pays off most.

Important for cat owners

Remove a tick you've found with a tick hook or fine tweezers: grip close to the skin, pull slowly and straight, don't squeeze — details in "Tick bite — what to do now". And: never use tick treatments made for dogs on cats — active ingredients like permethrin are toxic to cats. Use protective products only after veterinary advice.

Note: This article does not replace veterinary advice. If you notice inflammation, stuck tick remnants, or changes in your cat's behavior, seek veterinary advice.