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Originally Posted by bellajayne  My husband found a tick on Guinness a few weeks ago - it was full so it had been on him but was sitting in his hair not attached. I took both Guinness and Hazel to the vet to have them looked over and tested. They both tested negative for lyme but the vet said they can contract multiple things from ticks that is dangerous not just lyme. He put them both on an antibiotic to try to "interfere" with anything the tick may have given them. (I say them because they lay curled up together all the time so while it was in Guinness' hair, I want to make sure she is protected also because who knows if it was actually on Hazel.) He wants me to bring them both back 8 weeks post bite to see how they test again. I use advantix on both of them but unfortunately had not put it on them for December, January and February thinking it was the middle of winter and we had a few warm days. Live and learn. We don't live in a heavily wooded area but do live in the country with tall grass all around my lawn and we walk them up to our pond. I talked to my vet about the vaccination and he remarked that if I remain faithful about putting advantix on them monthly then there is no need to get the vaccination. I live in western ny. Learn from me and put the preventative on them year round...I wish I had! I am so on top of it with them both...they both have trupanion, they both get their heartworm pill monthly, annual dental...you name it so it makes me so mad at myself that I dropped the ball on this! |
The problem with giving antibiotics when there is not a known infection can create antibiotic resistance. I personally think I would have waited to see if an tick illnesses popped up. I would treat every month for ticks that's just my personal opinion there are several months I think its really unnecessary. I'm in Maryland and we don't always have big winters but I don't use flea and tick preventive in December, January, and February.