Dogs and ticks

Question
Hi, we have a chihuahua/pug mix dog named Sammy. A couple days ago he came home from an overnight with my daughter at a friends house and seemed to be shaking his head in a fashion that led me to believe that something was IN his ear.  I looked in his right ear (the one I thought was affected) and found nothing, however, while petting him today and rubbing behind his ears, I found a deer tick just a little outside the crease at the bottom where the ear meets the head on his left ear.  I have determined that this was the cause of him shaking his head, as touching that area caused him to repeat the shaking behavior. it was so tiny (but engorged) that I almost could see it (he's also a black dog so that made things more difficult).  We attempted to remove it but he has some trust/abuse issues from a previous owner, so holding him down was difficult as well as him being black and it being so small and the area it was in.  All we had were regular tweezers and the tick exploded and basically the head and most of the body is still embedded.  Do you have any suggestions on how to remove it any easier?  Is he likely to have gotten some disease from it (as I think it's been on him for at least 32 hrs)? And any suggestions for future removals?  I intend to invest in a more "needle" tipped pair of tweezers tomorrow, but would still like to know the risks of it still being embedded and any other suggestions for the future (and in case the new pair doesn't work either. I don't have a problem when they are the regular, more common larger tick he has picked up.  Any suggestions would be greatly helpful.  Thank you for your time, sorry it was so long, and thanks for giving your time to this site.  I have found it quite helpful in the past.
Briana

Answer
First of all, there is no point in trying to remove any more of this tick. The rest of it will fall out as the skin heals. It's dead, so it's not going to do anything.

Secondly, you might want to get some tick prevention for him- a spot on from the vet or a preventic collar. They are not cheap but they work really well. I don't know where you live but Lyme disease is spreading all over the USA, and any tick on a dog is one too many.

There is no way to know if he was infected unless you take him to the vet and have some blood titers done- again, these are not cheap.

Prevention is your best bet, along with getting him vaccinated for Lymes, although I think the common thinking on this is that it's not very effective.

So get him a collar or some Revolution - anything that will kill and repel ticks. Do not use OTC brands as they not only don't work but many of them are very, very toxic.