Ticks and fleas Hi all, well it is now the season for lovely fleas and ticks. I spent my time last year obsessing over fleas, which my dog did not have. I did end up using Frontline for 3 months in the summer and it KILLED me to put that nasty stuff on her. I used a product called Triple Sure which is cedar oil and also a product from the Mercola Pets website that has natural oils in it to repel buggies. That was last year, along with checking her body every night. THIS year, I did the same thing, along with checking her body from head to toe every night and combing her with a flea comb. Last week, the day after I checked her, I came home for lunch and went to put her harness on to walk her and I felt this THING. It was as dead, squished TICK stuck to her fur. I picked it off with tweezers, threw it in the toilet, watched it plump up to a giant tick, yes freaked out, looked at her skin and saw where it bit her. She sleeps in my bed with me so you can imagine how ummmm distraught I was. I called my vet and described the tick because I was worried about Lyme Disease (which I had just got her checked for the week before), and they said it sounds like a dog tick. I cannot believe that my dog got a tick in freakin Chelsea, MA, a total city. Anyway, my question is, how worried should I be about diseases from this "dog tick"??? And I also would like to know you all's opinion on the spot on, nasty pesticide stuff like Frontline, etc. |
Natural remedy's can actually some times be more dangerous then spot on treatments one because there is no regulation and testing done and two some "safe" products are not safe for dogs. Callie is a tick magnet and Advantix is the only think that works here. My family had two dogs growing up neither where treated with fleas and tick treatment and they still ended up with cancer. I would use frontline so you can relax about fleas and ticks. |
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I have actually done tons of research on what I am using on my dog and I can't find anything negative, but I HAVE found a lot of negative stuff on Advantix, Frontline and other spot ons. Not to mention the fact that fleas and ticks are now becoming immune to all that crap, just like bacteria that affects humans are becoming immune to so many antibiotics. I know that animals can end up with cancer (like your family's dogs), but it just really, really bothers me to put pesticides on my dog. |
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I use Frontline on Buster and Maggie. Two weeks ago when we were in Alabama I found a tick on Maggie (I had one on me as well). I got most of the tick off of Maggie but had to go to the vet to get the rest of it. This is the first tick I've found on her and none on Buster. Each month I split the vial of Frontline between the two of them, for their weight they don't need the whole vial. And yes, it's nasty and they don't like it but I feel that they need some kind of protection and I've heard that some of the natural and holistic meds can be bad for them. |
I don't like them either - I only use Advantix about 3x a year though so I'm not too worried about it (in the warmer months). I use a spray if we're going to be walking through heavily wooded trails and I just spritz him all over just to attempt to keep any ticks off. :) It's called "U Tick Me Off" by Mutt's Nose Best. Seems to work good! Jackson came up limping 3yrs ago and it was due to Lyme's Disease test coming back positive. A small round of doxycycline and he was all better. :) He's tested negative the last 2 years... but lymes is so tricky, you can get false positives, etc. Kind of confusing. |
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I am going to look up that U Tick Me Off. Love the name. Cripes, I don't even go through woods, trails, grass, etc. I don't even let her go into the baseball park across the street because there are way too many HUGE dogs that go there, plus people let their dogs poop and don't pick it up. Nice for the baseball teams that play there!! The only place she is "exposed" to grass is at my friend's fenced in yard. The grass is really short and they treat for ticks at the beginning of the warm weather. I have been talking to people around where I live and everyone is saying how bad the ticks are this year. Along those lines, a friend of a friend spent a ton of money on the chemical spot ons for his huge dogs and one of the dogs got Lyme Disease anyway. And he lives in a city as well. So, the spot ons don't seem to be the answer either if a dog can STILL get Lyme Disease. I have to wait 4 - 6 weeks after the tick bite to even have her tested again for Lymes, so in the meantime, I am just watching her closely to see if she shows any signs. The vet on the phone seemed pretty sure that it wasn't a Lyme tick, but the big dog ticks can also carry diseases. |
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The one year when he tested pos for Lymes was when I was using Frontline - I swear it turned him into a tick magnet. I was pulling them off left and right almost every day. Once I switched to Advantix, we didn't see much anymore. I applied a dose 3 weeks ago on him when it started warming up and I think it lasts a lot longer than they say ... I'll probably give him one more dose in July and that should be good enough for the remainder of the summer. Otherwise, I just check him (and I) over every night. |
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I am also going to be much more vigilant about spraying her with the natural flea and tick repellant stuff. Thanks for the info!! |
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