Discussion
Tick season seems to have started 
The mutt is just a year old now and a very springy Springer who does love a bit of deer chasing!! We have taken 3 of the bu
rs from her head today.
I don't mind removing them and although I've taken them out correctly (head and all)they were rather large and have left some quite nasty swollen lumps.
She is on monthly Advocate spot treatment for worms, heartworm, fleas, mites etc. I'd like to give her a preventative tick treatment but am a bit hesitant to use too many chemicals on her.
Do you have any suggestions for what you use on your dogs or what combination of spot treatments are compatible?
The mutt is just a year old now and a very springy Springer who does love a bit of deer chasing!! We have taken 3 of the bu
rs from her head today.I don't mind removing them and although I've taken them out correctly (head and all)they were rather large and have left some quite nasty swollen lumps.
She is on monthly Advocate spot treatment for worms, heartworm, fleas, mites etc. I'd like to give her a preventative tick treatment but am a bit hesitant to use too many chemicals on her.
Do you have any suggestions for what you use on your dogs or what combination of spot treatments are compatible?
Get onto whichever vet your getting the Advocate (or prescription for) from. The same company which make Advocate also make Advantix, which is effective against ticks. Your vet should be able to contact the manufacturer to find out what the safe interval between using Advocate and Advantix is.
Our Springer has what is believed to be an auto immune condition and we don't use any chemicals on her because of this.
We've found that she doesn't appear to pick up any more ticks than any of the other dogs around here - the chemical solutions don't stop the ticks attaching and feeding, they just encourage them to drop off.
We've found the best approach is to check her regularly ie daily and remove anything using a tick remover - we use http://www.otom.com/how-to-remove-a-tick She doesn't get any nasty swollen patches, they just remove cleanly
We've found that she doesn't appear to pick up any more ticks than any of the other dogs around here - the chemical solutions don't stop the ticks attaching and feeding, they just encourage them to drop off.
We've found the best approach is to check her regularly ie daily and remove anything using a tick remover - we use http://www.otom.com/how-to-remove-a-tick She doesn't get any nasty swollen patches, they just remove cleanly
There is a new collar out made by Bayer and safe to use with Advocate called Seresto. (We only got them in yesterday) I think they're about £30 but they last 7-8 months.
May be worth looking into.
Removing with tool described above is very effective but some ticks do find some bloody awkward areas to attach to (such as near the eyes) however it is an effective way to keep ticks under control if needed.
May be worth looking into.
Removing with tool described above is very effective but some ticks do find some bloody awkward areas to attach to (such as near the eyes) however it is an effective way to keep ticks under control if needed.
Edited by bexVN on Thursday 5th April 18:51
Jill450se said:
Do you have any suggestions for what you use on your dogs or what combination of spot treatments are compatible?
Garlick in the food. Makes the blood taste awful and the ticks leave and even fleas just go away..... A bit of wormwood in the food can also assist with worms and apple cider vinegar at a 50/50 mix with water will also reduce fleas.Also saves putting chemicals on your dog.
Jasandjules said:
Garlick in the food. Makes the blood taste awful and the ticks leave and even fleas just go away.....
Garlic is a good idea, we used to put dried garlic flakes in Lola's food when she was on steroids in an attempt to deter fleas. The irony for us is that dogs with healthy immune systems naturally deter fleas but as Lola was immune suppressed she was susceptible to the fleas but we couldn't give her the chemical treatments. I wouldn't use the systemic flea and tick treatments now.
Stu R said:
Yup, ours have picked up a couple in the last day or two alone.
On a similar note, is Frontline as good as it once was? Has hitherto been great for ours, but it doesn't seem to be as effective this year.
My understanding is that both Fronline and Advocate have significantly reduced ability to deal with ticks and fleas - I think it's a case of too much overuse - a bit like humans and anti-biotics. On a similar note, is Frontline as good as it once was? Has hitherto been great for ours, but it doesn't seem to be as effective this year.
We haven't treated Lola with systemic treatments in over 2 years, we had one episode of fleas when she was on an immune suppressing dose of steroids and we treated that with the topical type spray usually used for puppies, other than that (touch wood) she's had no fleas and she's a dog who spends her life rooting around in the undergrowth.
She does get ticks, but as I said above, no more than our neighbours' dogs.
Piglet said:
My understanding is that both Fronline and Advocate have significantly reduced ability to deal with ticks and fleas - I think it's a case of too much overuse - a bit like humans and anti-biotics.
We haven't treated Lola with systemic treatments in over 2 years, we had one episode of fleas when she was on an immune suppressing dose of steroids and we treated that with the topical type spray usually used for puppies, other than that (touch wood) she's had no fleas and she's a dog who spends her life rooting around in the undergrowth.
She does get ticks, but as I said above, no more than our neighbours' dogs.
That's our understanding as well, for the same reasons. Nature adapts.We haven't treated Lola with systemic treatments in over 2 years, we had one episode of fleas when she was on an immune suppressing dose of steroids and we treated that with the topical type spray usually used for puppies, other than that (touch wood) she's had no fleas and she's a dog who spends her life rooting around in the undergrowth.
She does get ticks, but as I said above, no more than our neighbours' dogs.
That's why garlic and so on are used by us now, far prefer natural products to chemicals on animals, after all, I don't like putting chemicals on me either.
Old remedy was to apply grease/ mange etc to body of tick . It was thought that with head buried in host animal, that the tick breathed through it's skin-cover skin in something to strangle breathing and tick would drop off . It seemed to work. I've used it on ticks on my body , having lived in sheep farming country ,and in an African country where we used to have to check the toddlers daily for signs of ticks.
bexVN said:
Garlic is not risk free. It contains thiosulphate the same ingredient found in onions which can cause haemolytic anaemia.
Admittedly a lot less of a risk than onions but still something to be aware of especially when considering the history of Lola.
And a lot less risky than spot on chemicals etc?!?! Admittedly a lot less of a risk than onions but still something to be aware of especially when considering the history of Lola.
Jasandjules said:
bexVN said:
Garlic is not risk free. It contains thiosulphate the same ingredient found in onions which can cause haemolytic anaemia.
Admittedly a lot less of a risk than onions but still something to be aware of especially when considering the history of Lola.
And a lot less risky than spot on chemicals etc?!?! Admittedly a lot less of a risk than onions but still something to be aware of especially when considering the history of Lola.
I was merely pointing out that natural remedies can have there side effects to
bexVN said:
Garlic is not risk free. It contains thiosulphate the same ingredient found in onions which can cause haemolytic anaemia.
Admittedly a lot less of a risk than onions but still something to be aware of especially when considering the history of Lola.
Garlic can carry a risk and there appear to be two distinct schools of thought on it. My research indicated that a dog would have to ingest significant quantities of garlic to have an adverse effect and we're taking about a few small flakes spread across her food (she was on home made chicken and rice casserole at the time).Admittedly a lot less of a risk than onions but still something to be aware of especially when considering the history of Lola.
We believe strongly that each of Lola's episodes was linked to a chemical treatment, starting with the week we (at the vets suggestion) gave her a booster jab, a wormer tab and a spot on flea and tick treatment in the same week. Knowing what I know now I'm horrified that we did it.
It is as ever personal choice I'm just in favour of making owners aware that there are risks of these treatments and that they may wish to think about how they use them and how often.
We also used Billy No Mates which is a herbal flea repellent, if you google it you'll find it.
I agree information is key. I am not actally against natural, my cat has had homeopathy tx I'm open minded.
I'd be interested to know if garlic is good enough to get rid of a flea infestation and if so how?
Did your vets report the reaction because they should do if they believe there was a link.
I'd be interested to know if garlic is good enough to get rid of a flea infestation and if so how?
Did your vets report the reaction because they should do if they believe there was a link.
Edited by bexVN on Friday 6th April 08:26
bexVN said:
I'd be interested to know if garlic is good enough to get rid of a flea infestation and if so how?
No it wasn't on the one occasion that she had a real infestation, we tried everything to avoid the chemical spray, we hoovered constantly, steam cleaned everything (not her!) And whilst we could knock it back we couldn't solve it.In the end we used the Frontline spray that is recommended for puppies, we put her back up a level on the Pred (we were at the lower end of tapering). We used the room sprays in part of the house and didn't let her in there at all for weeks (it was Dad's part of the house and he was away). I think from memory we had to spray her twice according to the instructions which we did but in reality the first spray seemed to deal with the problem and thankfully she didn't react to it.
We haven't used a spot on since then and that was Feb 2010 and she's had no further issue with fleas. We give her garlic less often now as she doesn't seem to need it but we do pop some in if making her wet food.
We didn't set our to be different but have had to adapt because of her problems. I'm not entirely anti chemicals and medication, Lola would have died without the antibiotics that kept her in check for a while and then the Pred but it is clear to us that she's a sensitive soul and we avoid unnecessary treatment and she's currently fantastically well but we never quite know what's around the corner with her.
bexVN said:
Did your vets report the reaction because they should do if they believe there was a link.
Sorry long and O/T post coming up...We're not big fans of our vets, they are a large training practice and the effect of this seems to be that we never see the same vet twice despite trying hard to do so and they have a high turnover of staff who presumably finish their placements and move on. Most of their vets have also never seen an auto immune condition so aren't familiar with them - that's not a criticism, everyone has to learn somewhere but it does mean that we've had some really poor advice about treatment and we have to double check everything that they suggest to make sure there are no contraindications given her issues.
Their out of hours service is fantastic and a couple of the older vets are much better but are rarely there as they are split across a couple of practices and farm work.
They are very much of the school of thought that there aren't any issues regarding vaccinations or other chemical treatments so they are more than happy to keep recommending these treatments to Lola.
A lot of the links to the treatments only emerged with hindsight once we had a better idea of what was wrong with her which was some time after the first instance and they aren't really interested in considering whether there are any links.
We don't talk about the fact that we feed her RAW!
We have to stick with them as they are the nearest practice and they have decent out of hours care - if Lola "crashes" she goes down very quickly and as she is often left with my Dad he needs somewhere close that he can take her - the next vets is 15 miles away and they don't have the same out of hours set up.
We are lucky to have a fantastic vet at the Uni Hospital at Langford, who has given us great support and is still determined to get an ultimate diagnosis for Lola. Now they have a CT scanner she really wants Lola to have another episode so that we can get her through the Scanner to see if there is a "real" infection hiding somewhere causing the problems.
I know you're a vet nurse and I don't mean to criticise all vets and those involved, the nurses at our vets are lovely with Lola we just don't feel that they particularly want to consider that they flea treatments and boosters that they push may not be in the best interests of all dogs.
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