I have found that using the flea comb is the only way to keep ticks from getting on Gracie. The tick preventative medications do not prevent the ticks from attaching to the body.
We always keep Gracie out of the tall grass and the woods during tick season. Thankfully, we don't have them in our lawn so she can walk the trails and play in the yard without getting them. Before I bring her in after being outside I run the flea comb through her hair making sure that it reaches to the skin where ticks and fleas like to hide. As yet I have not found one on her but I'm not going to take a chance.
We used the Frontline flea and tick product for cats on our indoor outdoor cats and they still came home with engorged ticks on them. It seemed as though the ticks loved the stuff. We have woods around our home and fields farther off that the cats love to hunt in but those are apparently breeding places for ticks where I live. So before they are allowed inside they get the flea comb (which they have come to love) and I have a tick puller right beside the comb.
The tick preventative may eventually kill the tick but they still get a chance to engorge themselves on our pet's blood so what is the sense in it? The idea is not to let the ticks get hooked them to start with! Once an infected tick bites an animal they can get sick even if the tick dies later on. We haven't had any deer ticks here and I hope they don't get this far but I read somewhere that they are moving closer to our area. |