Tick Issues!

[elizabethann]

Boy, are you folks experiencing a bad tick season? It's only April and the ticks are awful! I found FIVE ticks on Fenway tonight and ONE tick crawling on the inside of my pant leg! Of course, now I keep feeling things crawling all over me and think it's a tick. I hate ticks!

[Toby's my baby]

Lol, not having a BAD season, normal, but I've picked two off Autumn so far. I need to get to town and buy some tick meds. I hate when I find a tick on myself, especially before bed, cause then I have to keep flicking on the light to make sure every little tiny itch isnt a tick

[~Ginny~]

What's a tick?

[Tralee]

a blood sucking bug that is really small and can give mammals diseases and they can live up to 10 years without eating

[dogzr#1]

Well I don't know because my neighbor sprays our yard every three months to prevent fleas and ticks from coming into our house and getting on our dogs. I don't like ticks at all!

[sammy101]

Mine have never had ticks,but fleas are absolutely terrible here

[wolfsoul]

We've only had one dog come in with ticks this month. It was TERRIBLE. We found 6 on him, and three of them had already fed, so they were huge, about the size of toonies. We thought we had got them all off and then I took him into the bath and as I was wetting down his face, I found the biggest one under his eye --- HUGE and white and feeding. We pulled it off and it's legs wriggled all over, it was sick! We found a flea on the same dog. Poor guy!

[elizabethann]

Well I found another tick on Fenway this morning and when I was taking a shower and soaping up, I felt something fall off my leg and I looked and it was a tick!!! I had long pants and a long shirt on last night so I'm not sure how they got on me.

Does anybody use a flea/tick shampoo on their dog? I was thinking I could use that on Fenway. But are flea/tick shampoos to be used before the ticks get on the dog or after? Does anybody know? I know there was some controversy about Hertz shampoo so I wouldn't use that. But is there anything else?

[K9soul]

I found a tick on Tommy already last week which seems kinda early but then we've had a very warm latter part of winter and early spring. I have frontline I'm going to use on my two, especially since we like to hike in the woods etc. Mine are also vaccinated against Lyme's. My vet said just last year he had over 100 cases of Lyme's just in his clinic, just from this area, and it's growing every year! My RB Willie got it once (before the new Lyme vaccine) and I never want to go through that again.

[cyber-sibes]

I found a tick on Tommy already last week which seems kinda early but then we've had a very warm latter part of winter and early spring. I have frontline I'm going to use on my two, especially since we like to hike in the woods etc. Mine are also vaccinated against Lyme's. My vet said just last year he had over 100 cases of Lyme's just in his clinic, just from this area, and it's growing every year! My RB Willie got it once (before the new Lyme vaccine) and I never want to go through that again.

I didn't know they had a vaccine for Lyme disease now. I'll look into it for my dogs, too. I haven't noticed any ticks or fleas around here yet, but if it's bad other places, it's just a matter of time. I'm off to buy some Frontline!

[elizabethann]

I found a tick on Tommy already last week which seems kinda early but then we've had a very warm latter part of winter and early spring. I have frontline I'm going to use on my two, especially since we like to hike in the woods etc. Mine are also vaccinated against Lyme's. My vet said just last year he had over 100 cases of Lyme's just in his clinic, just from this area, and it's growing every year! My RB Willie got it once (before the new Lyme vaccine) and I never want to go through that again.

Fenway uses Frontline too but he still gets them. I was told that with Frontline that the tick bites the dog and then dies after ingesting the chemicals. I was going to use K9 Advantix becuase it's suppose to keep the ticks off the dog, but you have to keep cats away from the dog for 24 hours after applying it and I knew I couldn't do that so I chose Frontline.

I'm looking for natural remedies on the web. So far, I'm reading garlic pills can help to keep the ticks off because they don't like garlic. Perhaps I'll make Fenway a collar of garlic? But I have to do something. These ticks are disgusting.

Thanks for your reply.

[lv4dogs]

We don't usually get ticks in this area but the mosquitos are out already!

[king2005]

My old guy never had a flea or tick issue. I don't think ticks are all the common where I lived unless the dog was living in the bush & would pick up deer ticks. I always used advantage on him & that kept fleas away for when we went camping.

I found a tick on Rob's mothers cat & brought her to the father & he picked the blood sicker off. We put it in a water bottle & it creeped us all out as it would squirm about.. so we shook the bottle like mad trying to kill it.. it didn't die!! So we set it on fire.

[caseysmom]

Every easter we go to a cabin by the beach, the past 2 years the dogs always get ticks. This year we put advantix on them and there were no ticks this time and luckily to reaction to the meds.

I had both dogs vaccinated against lyme disease also, although supposedly the ticks in california don't carry lyme disease.

[K9soul]

Fenway uses Frontline too but he still gets them. I was told that with Frontline that the tick bites the dog and then dies after ingesting the chemicals. I was going to use K9 Advantix becuase it's suppose to keep the ticks off the dog, but you have to keep cats away from the dog for 24 hours after applying it and I knew I couldn't do that so I chose Frontline.

My vet recommended Frontline Plus, I'm not sure how much a difference that makes but I do know I just don't find ticks on them when I use it, occasionally I'll find a dead tick on them but it's obvious it hasn't fed at all. I understand wanting to use more natural remedies, I'd certainly prefer that. I kind of double up and do both. I have a cedar spray (pet safe) that is supposed to help repel ticks and mosquitoes and I spray them all over with that before we go into the woods etc. A garlic supplement in their food probably isn't a bad idea either.