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Stinking Ticks!

Caraline

Caraline

Well-known member
This is more a vent than anything....

In the past 3 weeks we have removed 7 ticks off Sonny. We have the deadly paralysis tick here in Australia and I am so worried. We Frontline the dogs every fortnight and I do think the ticks were dead, even though they had burrowed in. I have been restricting Sonny from being outside the house too much, but really I can't keep the poor little fellow locked up forever. Unfortunately there is absolutely no way of tick-proofing our place as we are on acres, full of thick Aussie bush.

Of an evening when it is cuddle time, we check the dogs thoroughly, so hopefully we wont miss any and hopefully they aren't on him for too long.

I don't like it though. :mad:
 
I feel for you. It is so restricting, and that's really difficult. Are the ticks bothering them all year round, or is there a tick season?
 
I wish I had something better to offer for comfort, ticks are nasty creatures. When my son was 6 he got lymes disease from one, thankfully we caught it in time. I just read some tick removal advice yesterday, although I haven't tried it myself yet....
Apply a glob of liquid soap to a cotton ball. Cover the tick with the soap-soaked cotton ball and swab it for a few seconds (15-20), the tick will come out on its own and be stuck to the cotton ball when you lift it away.
 
i know you said you already use frontline, but for extra help you may need to put a tick collar on sonny. good luck!
 
Cathy Moon said:
Are the ticks bothering them all year round, or is there a tick season?
Click to expand...

Cathy in this coastal strip of Australia it is tick season all year round, however this is supposed to be the low time as we are in the middle of winter. This is the time of year that the larva turn to nymph (tiny ticks). I've never seen them like this here so I am dreading spring & summer which are our really bad season. In the 8 years that we have lived here, we have only ever gotten 1 tick of one of our dogs prior to this. Maybe it is just that we have only had long haired dogs this past 18 months, as it was just Boxers before & their hair is very short... doesn't drape all over the place.

Kirsty said:
but for extra help you may need to put a tick collar on sonny. good luck!
Click to expand...

Is it safe to use a tick collar in conjunction with something like Frontline? I must look into that. Thanks.
 
My parents have that problem in Massachusetts with their Cavalier, too. I had a small tick crawling on my finger yesterday---yuck!!

Can you treat your yard with something? Is there anything that is safe to use?
 
I feel for you! And that's terrible that this isn't even prime tick season yet!

I would probably treat the immediate yard with something and then try to keep your dog within that area.

We took Daisy on a walk in a wooded area this Spring and she came home with 3 ticks. We use Frontline Plus, but it says it doesn't kill them for 24-48 hours, and it only takes 24 hours to transmit Lyme's disease, so that really bothers me. I hate ticks. I see no use for them in the environment and would be very happy if they were eradicated! Could you get some chickens? I've heard that they are great at keeping an area free of ticks because they love to eat them.
 
Caraline said:
Is it safe to use a tick collar in conjunction with something like Frontline? I must look into that. Thanks.
Click to expand...

thats true, might not be safe. guess you could ask your vet. i did a search for you and somebody on another dog forum said this stuff works well:
Neem Protect Spray
its all natural and you spray it on before you go on your walks into the bushes or woods.
 
Apply a glob of liquid soap to a cotton ball. Cover the tick with the soap-soaked cotton ball and swab it for a few seconds (15-20), the tick will come out on its own and be stuck to the cotton ball when you lift it away.
Click to expand...

I'd not heard of that before....so glad you posted it. Guess I will need to put some liquid soap in my first aid kit now as well.

Looked up the neem spray. Thanks also for that link Kristy.

I no longer use Frontline on my dogs (I do give them a supplement to ward off ticks and fleas though). We don't have a tick "problem" but like to know there is something like this to use if we go into a problem area.
 
A long time ago,i was staying at a friends in Devon and i found one on my foot having a drink,i had to wait till it dropped off,i stayed up for a while and when it did drop i killed the thing.I hate them as well.
 
We live in a beach town and don't really have a tick problem here. I am concerned though as we will be traveling later this summer up to mountains and forested areas that are known to have ticks. :eek:

I plan on switching from Advantage spot flea treatment to Frontline Plus so Dottie is protected agains fleas and ticks. I will ask the vet next time I am in, but for those of you who live in ticky areas, does this spot treatment prevent the ticks from jumping aboard and attaching, or does it just kill them within so many hours after they bite?

I would think that if the tick does bite then it is really not much of a preventative treatment, as the tick could have already passed on Lyme or other creepy diseases to the dog. Yuck and Double Yuck!:yuk:
 
Unfortunately treating the yard with something isn't practical, we'd probably have to mortgate the house to buy enough product as we live on acres & forget about just the ground, you'd have to treat the bush & I tell you we have lots of it. Aint going to happen I'm afraid.

I do have a great little gadget for getting the ticks off safely though. It looks like a tiny wrecking bar. You just slid the slit of the bar under the body of the tick, twirl slowly a couple of revolutions & tick, head & jaws come away intact.
 
I just bought that thing, too! Thankfully I haven't had to use it yet! My luck when I do need it, I won't be able to find it.
 
Caraline said:
This is more a vent than anything....

..... We Frontline the dogs every fortnight and I do think the ticks were dead, even though they had burrowed in. :mad:
Click to expand...

Caraline,
We live in Maryland which has a lot of ticks, so we use Frontline + on Charlie.
I've picked off a couple of ticks from him over the years, but it seems to work fine. I believe Frontline is only good for fleas, so you may want to switch over to Frontline + since ticks are the problem in your area. :paw:
 
Cant offer any advice other than saying Im so glad I dont have that problem and I hope you can find a solution soon. Ticks are awful pesky critters- YUK!!:paw:
 
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