Worming / Flea Programme

[I love cockers]

Hi...been to the vets earlier and noticed a poster about lungworm which got me thinking that I should be protecting my pesky puppy from this as she licks slugs and loves to bring snails into the house given half the chance to play with them - the vet said they havent seen any lungworm cases around my area yet but better to be sure.......

So what i am wondering is do i use advocate (monthly as recommended) on my pup now and not use frontline which i would have used? If this is the case then what about protection from ticks? I dont want to overdose my puppy on chemicals using both. Not sure how bad ticks are around here.

What do you all do?

(have been using drontal so far for general worming)

[mezzaj]

Hi I've never heard of lungworm before, so I looked on dogpages.org.uk and that was a bit informative.  My Lucy loves to bring snails into the house - if she can sneak past me with it.  It makes me cringe when she crunches it   her fav thing is to come close to me and let me know that she has something in her mouth and then run off.  When I let her out in the garden for her bedtime wee she usually goes snail hunting then as well. 

[bluemoonrose]

Not sure which part of the country you're in - but here in the South West I believe longworm is present.  So much so that our vet changed Ollie over to Advocate from 9 weeks.  We don't use a specific tick treatment and haven't encountered any yet - but have heard that giving your dog a garlic capsule in their food every day can be helpful as the garlic gets into the blood stream and the ticks don't like the taste (same applies to fleas).  Apparantly if you do find a tick attached, you can take a cotton wool ball saturated in alcohol (a spirit such as gin, vodka, whisky, brandy) and saturate the tick and surrounding fur with it - then the drunken ticks will fall off and you can dispose of them, otherwise you must use the special tick remover tool and twist them off - don't use tweezers otherwise you might leave the head inside the dog.

[LindyLou]

Hi I've never heard of lungworm before, so I looked on dogpages.org.uk and that was a bit informative.  My Lucy loves to bring snails into the house - if she can sneak past me with it.  It makes me cringe when she crunches it   her fav thing is to come close to me and let me know that she has something in her mouth and then run off.  When I let her out in the garden for her bedtime wee she usually goes snail hunting then as well. 

Please don't let Lucy pick up or "crunch" snails!

My vet has recently had to pts a young dog who contracted lungworm from snails. It can be fatal!

The snails carry the lungworm parasite and dogs (particularly young ones) can be infected from the trail of mucus in some cases.

The symptoms range from breathing difficulties, poor blood clotting, vomitting, tiredness etc etc.

I believe some areas of the UK are more prone to this than others, but is spreading due the warm and wet climate.

I am quite vigilant in removing any I see from the garden even though Baxter has no interest in them

[Helen]

Apparantly if you do find a tick attached, you can take a cotton wool ball saturated in alcohol (a spirit such as gin, vodka, whisky, brandy) and saturate the tick and surrounding fur with it - then the drunken ticks will fall off and you can dispose of them, otherwise you must use the special tick remover tool and twist them off - don't use tweezers otherwise you might leave the head inside the dog.

that is the absolute WORST thing you could do, douse a tick with alcohol - please don't follow this advice anyone!

see the thread here:-

http://www.cockersonline.co.uk/discuss/index.php?topic=59433.0

[I love cockers]

Hi I've never heard of lungworm before, so I looked on dogpages.org.uk and that was a bit informative.  My Lucy loves to bring snails into the house - if she can sneak past me with it.  It makes me cringe when she crunches it   her fav thing is to come close to me and let me know that she has something in her mouth and then run off.  When I let her out in the garden for her bedtime wee she usually goes snail hunting then as well. 

No I hadnt heard about lungworm till i saw posts about it on here...and then havent thought much of it as those that have mentioned it are down south (I'm in yorkshire). It was only when i went to the vets and saw the poster (and the picture of a lungworm looks well scary...like a deformed snake!) that I realised that there is a risk here too...granted maybe lower than other parts of the country but it will obviously spread and be UK wide at some point and I would prefer it if my dogs are not the first casualties in my area

Any ticks I do see will definitly be removed by vet / vet nurse