Ticks again

[Jane S]

I don't think they are fleas- they did the whole sticking into me and Stuart thing and had to be twisted out with the tick tool- I thought fleas just munched and hopped away elsewhere??
Fudge is on program once a month in her dinner and she always eats it- shouldn't this safeguard agfainst beasties?

That's odd :? Sorry, don't know the answer - none of the ticks I've ever seen have been small & black & I've never had one attached to me ..yuk!  Could you perhaps remove one & take it in to your vet for an opinion? Once you know what they are, you'll be able to get the right treatment hopefully

Jane                    

[Tracey J]

Our vet told us that Molly's tick (big one) was from sheep or deer, but there are other ones that are small and black too.  My neighbours daughter had one on her back - yuk.  I'm not sure where the wee ones come from though.                    

[Laura]

The tick I pulled out the back of my leg was Small and black - size of the coloured bobbles on top of pins .  It was so tiny that I couldn't use a tick twister to get it out - had to be tweezers.  The tick I had was a deer tick - yuk! The males are smaller than the females and are darker in colour.  The male nymph is even smaller still!!

[Shirley]

We had two ticks this week   both on Morgan!!  One was on his face where his whiskers grow out and every time I went to get it with the tick picker he made a sharp exit.  I went to the vet for some frontline but he didn't advise killing it with that as he said it was harder to get it out with the head attached when it was dead - said it was easier and safer to take it out alive     so off I went to the chemist for surgical spirit - this made it loosen it's grip and it was so much easier to just pull it out of his face     The second one was on his tummy so he couldn't see the tick picker coming at him and it was much quicker and easier to get out.  My skin crawls when I think of one possibly attaching itself to me      

[vicking]

i know how you feel Shirley my skin goes cold just at the thought of them my eldest dog mia has had a few. i hate all parasites kids with nits upset me too and as a hairdresser i seen plenty  

[LROGERS]

Where we used to live, there was a low life at the back of our house, he hadn't cut the lawn for at least 5 years! Toffee our working cocker was just 2 months old at the time and used to pick up at least 6 ticks a week from going anywhere near the property boundary.
We weren't' confident enough with the tick hook the vet gave us, we were concerned we would leave the head behind when trying to remove ticks from a wriggling puppy, and the vaseline method used to get the house and the kids into a greasy mess. The lady down the road suggested Teatree oil, sure enough just part the dogs fur to expose the ticks body and dab the tick until wet with the teatree oil. The ticks used to die and drop of within 2-3 days. We use frontline once a month in the summer but recently in Wales, Toffee picked up a couple of ticks that remained for 3 days. We treated them in our tested way and they disapeared.

You can get teatree oil from the supermarket in little bottles.

Good luck Lyndon

[PennyB]

I guess that you mean Lyme dissease. Our Joris has have Lyme disease in March. He was almost a month on antibi's. He recoverd well. Dogs have symtomes from attacks from high fever, diaree, don't want to eat.

Now we are just a week back from France. In France Joep went very ill he have had babesiose. We are so lucky that he has cardiomyopathy. Because of that we went in a very early stage to the vet because he wasn't eating for 2 days. We thought that he had problems with his heart, but his heart was ok so the vet took some blood. Now he is fine.

We used: frontline, scalibor and stronghold  :?  and still he got ill. We checked our boys every evening and we didn't find a thick anywhere. The vet in France recommend aventix. That isn't for sale here in Holland, so I bought enough for next year, when we go back  

We can get Lyme disease as well and I think its mostly from deer ticks.

[Sue H]

Ticks are horrible, and more prevalent when walking through areas frequented by stock (sheep/cows etc).

If you try and yank them out, the mouth-parts can stay in, causing subsequent infection.  The tick-removing thingys are good in that you can sneak up on them - get really low down- then whoops!  

We have found at the Blue Cross that anointing a tick with Frontline will kill it - maybe Frontline doesn't protect against ticks, but then again they can attach to all sorts of parts of your dog which you may not have sprayed.

If you have a short-haired dog, I have heard that covering the tick with Vaseline (or petroleum jelly) will smother it and cause it to drop off - but in the case of Cockers, not many parts are either short-haired or inaccessible by the tongue!

I can remember getting a tick of Popppy, my Lab, and pinning it onto an eraser so that the kids could see it - four days later, its legs were still 'rowing' - gross !!

[bluegirl]

The only time when any of my cockers have had ticks is when we used to go to the Lakes. We had a static caravan on a site. Sheep where grazed on the land and deer were also present. Every time we went, ticks would come home with us. I thought they looked alittle like black crabs when normal size and like coffee beans when engorged with blood. We used to put a blob of vaseline over them, which stopped them breathing and then pulled  them out making sure their heads came too. We used to stop them wandering off by putting them onto a dish of fairy liquid which immobilsed them whilst we checked it was all out. Then we'd squash 'em.    

[suzieq]

Can anyone tell me where i can get scalibor collars for my two boys, Zak and Strider? I frontline them every 4 weeks but they still come home with the dreaded ticks.

[shonajoy]

I've got Frontline Combo for Indie when we go up north next month, it's supposed to be for ticks too - anyone any experience of its' effectiveness?

 

[gc]

I've got Frontline Combo for Indie when ....

combo? Can you please provide some more info? I haven't seen in here yet... thanks.

[Magic Star]

Shona and George

I use Combo, it must be effective as we have had no ticks or fleas   Oh I so wish I hadn't said that  

[shonajoy]

I've got Frontline Combo for Indie when ....

combo? Can you please provide some more info? I haven't seen in here yet... thanks.

It's supposed to be dually effective for fleas and ticks, you'd needx to ask your vet. I work in a vets and we only got it in a couple of months ago.