Ticks are black, but when start to swell after attatching to a host, they turn a light fawn/ off white greyish colour. Or at least the body does, the head remains black. The whole tick would look like a tiny black dot with legs at first, then grows to roughly the size of a baked bean ( and resembles one to) if left. Once it's gorged itself and had its fill it will drop off and wait for something else to pass then jump on that.
If your puppy managed to scratch it off, she would only scratch the body part off, the head would remain embedded in her skin. Ticks have two barbs on their mouth parts which prevents them from dropping out until their ready to, that's why you can't just pull them off. If your puppy broke the body off, you would be able to see a dark dot where the head is still attached, if you couldn't, then it wasn't a tick, as there is no way a dog could scratch a whole attached tick out of itself. Ticks spread and carry some seriously nasty stuff too, so if the head is left in, put antiseptic liquid or cream on and around it.
Ta for that, it's hard to tell so we'll probably take her to the vets. We have been putting some cream on it though.
BTW, we call her a puppy even though she's 10 years old, it's probably our imagination but if we call her a dog she looks indignant
I use a tick remover on the cats - a couple of quid from pets at home - it's basically some wire with a narrower end that hooks onto the tick, pull it off wrap the varmit in loo roll squash and flush, that's what I do anyway, it's not easy to check our pets what with them squirming about but it's best to try every couple of days to give them a good looking over so us owners can remove any that are there safely.
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Ta for that, it's hard to tell so we'll probably take her to the vets. We have been putting some cream on it though.
BTW, we call her a puppy even though she's 10 years old, it's probably our imagination but if we call her a dog she looks indignant