Tick Season is Upon Us... Help?

[Shai]

So tick season has returned. I haven't found any yet, but a couple agility classmates have picked ticks off their dogs in the last week so it's just a matter of time, and probably very little of it.

Our ticks are...bad. Really bad. Last spring despite keeping the dog yard clear of debris and mowed close to the ground, the dogs picked up ticks several times just going out to potty, without ever entering the main yard much less the woods (which is hundreds of feet from the house).

I hope the chickens will help as well, but considering the prevalence of tick born disease and the recent doxycycline shortage, I am wondering if anyone here has tick repellants/meds with which they have been happy. For me, it needs to be cat-safe (Brie) and of course be safe for the dogs. And effective...Web came up Lyme positive in 2009 after being UTD on Frontline the entire year prior.

I don't ask for much, right?

 

[*blackrose]

I've been a horrible person and haven't kept the dogs up on their tick prevention. With my childhood dogs we used Frontline Plus and didn't have any issues.

This summer, if I notice a tick problem, I'm going to use the Parastar Plus I have. I haven't had any issue with it in the past, nor have I heard of anyone in my area (well, Indiana) having issues with it not being effective.

I wonder if the tick collars or repellent wipes would be of any use to kind of "supplement" the topical, to try to repel the ticks? I know quite a few people who use the supplements on themselves before going hiking to help keep ticks off of them, and they say it works. A topical is going to kill the tick...which means the tick first has to latch on and feed. So regardless if it helps repel or not, I'd be looking for a topical that has a fast tick kill time. I think lyme disease is transmitted after...12 hours? of feeding, so look for a product that has a tick kill time of less than 12 hours.
Of course, I don't know how quickly the other tick borne diseases are transmitted...but at least you'd be lyme worry free. And, of course, if you are in a very high risk area, it may not hurt to vaccinate for lyme.

 

[Elrohwen]

Ugh, so not ready for the ticks! I haven't found any yet, but they'll be out any day.

I'm in the Hudson Valley, which is also one of the worst regions in the country, so I feel your pain. Watson had Lyme twice last year (or once and it wasn't treated fully). He had the vaccine, so it's not particularly effective. My vet was able to get the vaccine company to pay for much of our testing and treatment though by proving with a Western Blot that it hadn't been effective.

He's been on Vectra3D since late last year and I love it so far, but I don't know if it's cat safe. I wanted something that was rabbit safe (though they don't have much contact with him) and most things that are rabbit safe seem to be cat safe I think. It's not recommended to use on rabbits, but from my research online the chemicals aren't especially toxic to rabbits.

Previously he was on Revolution with the Scalibor collar and I wasn't happy with it. The collar killed lots of ticks but doesn't repel. Some were able to bite him and get engorged before dying, and we would pick dozens off every day who were just crawling around. They would also die and fall off of him in the house and we would find dead or zombie ticks all over the bedroom floor. Ick. He also got Lyme with this system, so obviously not very effective. With Vectra, I don't think I've pulled more than a handful off so it repels very well.

 

[*blackrose]

He's been on Vectra3D since late last year and I love it so far, but I'm not sure if it's cat safe.

It is NOT cat safe. It's actually extremely toxic to kitties. That is one I'd avoid if you are at all concerned your cat will come into contact with the dog after you apply it, unfortunately. :/

 

[Elrohwen]

It is NOT cat safe. It's actually extremely toxic to kitties.

Well darn! That's too bad.

 

[sassafras]

I've always used Frontline and I don't have complaints about it.

Usually at the beginning of the season, I give it once and then repeat it 2 weeks later, then monthly. If I know I'm going into a heavy tick area (camping or something) I'll repeat it a day or two before I plan to leave even if it's before the month is up.

And.. tick checks at the end of every day when we're somewhere that they're heavy. Honestly, I think dogs just chew off a lot of the ones that they can reach but I will look around their head and ears especially.

It takes over 24 hours for Lyme to be transmitted, so really any product should kill them before that time (super warrior outlier ticks excluded).

 

[joce]

I have always just looked them over vs applying something but the way it looks tick season is going( have hear of four people already finding them on horses and dogs in the snow!) I am going to have to use something.

I was gonna wait a year for chickens but maybe not!

 

[Shai]

FWIW, Tick collars are not an option for me as I have wrestlers and collar-grabbers.

I do daily tick checks but Kim and Web have super thick double coats so I'm always afraid I will miss one if it manages to crawl through.

 

[JacksonsMom]

We have ticks BAD here. Jackson was showing symptoms with Lyme disease back in 2009 (holding rear leg completely up, joint stiffness) but was treated with a round of antibiotics and 7 days of pain meds. He's tested negative every year since but I know the tests for lyme can be tricky.

I don't use flea/tick preventatives year round because it's just not necessary (heartworm, is another story. I will continue to give that all year). I typically end up using them in June and July and August. I found that last year I applied K9 Advantix in late May and never re-applied all summer and never found any ticks. Maybe last summer was just tame around here. The summer before I would find them left and right even on Frontline.

Anyway, I've found Frontline Plus to be so-so for us here in MD. I used to still find lots of ticks on him while he was on it, although I can't say if they were being killed by the med or not, but just still attaching.. I don't know. But the ONLY thing I find that literally keeps the ticks away is K9 Advantix which unfortunately is not cat safe so I'm not sure what to tell you.

I may personally give Frontline Plus another try this summer since it's a lot cheaper than Advantix.

 

[Shai]

I should probably add that I haven't used any topicals/meds to kill them since 2009 or so when Web tested positive for lyme exposure despite being on Frontline Plus all that time...just have monitored closely. But last year was *so* bad and I've seen a lot of deer around the neighborhood this winter which never bodes well so I may need to use something this year...

 

[Elrohwen]

The tick population and especially the incidence of Lyme is more dependent on rodents and small mammals than on deer, so it's hard to tell visually how bad they will be in a given location. By the time they are on deer they are typically in the adult stage, but need the rodents to feed through the nymph and larval stages. My parents live in western PA with deer literally living in their backyard and have never seen a tick. We have a much smaller deer population (I go days without seeing any) and Watson was picking up 20+ ticks per day, staying in our yard and on mowed paths. Ours are almost exclusively the black legged deer ticks too, which is annoying since I have to be more paranoid about lyme. I hate ticks so much.

 

[Saeleofu]

I use Frontline or Advantix. Advantix is toxic to cats, so you have to make sure it's 100% dry before letting the dogs around cats.

There is a new oral tick pill out from Merial, but I can't remember what it's called. All I know is I read the poster and it said side effects were diarrhea and flaky skin and went "NOPE." Especially the flaky skin part. Logan already has that problem, I'm not about to give him a pill that exacerbates it.

 

[Elrohwen]

There is a new oral tick pill out from Merial, but I can't remember what it's called. All I know is I read the poster and it said side effects were diarrhea and flaky skin and went "NOPE." Especially the flaky skin part. Logan already has that problem, I'm not about to give him a pill that exacerbates it.

I haven't heard of this one. I'll definitely have to ask my vet about it the next time we're in there.

ETA: Sounds like it's only for dog ticks, which I think Revolution claims to protect against as well. Unfortunately the vast majority of our ticks are deer. Bummer.

 

[PWCorgi]

The new pill is called NexGard, we just had a lunch and learn on it at the clinic. It can be used in conjuncture with Frontline Plus too, if one so chooses.

I will be giving the NexGard a try this year, because I hate putting the topicals on, and this way I can just give them their heartworm pill and flea/tick as two treats and be done.

 

[Southpaw]

That product is called Nexgard but it's only labeled as killing the American dog tick which is the same as Revolution I think. Frontline is supposed to take care of all the 'common" species.

Thankfully my dogs are magical and don't pick up ticks. I just spray them with dilute ACV and we frolic in the woods to our heart's content lol.

 

[elegy]

I'm all about the NexGard. I haven't tried it at the height of tick season, but I guinea pigged all four dogs on it, nobody had any trouble, and it was effective against my flea problem in the house. (Frontline was NOT.)

There's some dumb reason why it's not labeled for anything but American Dog ticks but it doesn't have anything to do with effectiveness (at least according to our Merial rep, and I trust him).

 

[Southpaw]

There's some dumb reason why it's not labeled for anything but American Dog ticks but it doesn't have anything to do with effectiveness (at least according to our Merial rep, and I trust him).

Oh yeah, now that you say that some info is coming back to me - did it have something to do with one of the control groups not using it properly, or was that something different? I seem to remember being told one of the control groups screwed something up when it comes to what they're allowed to put on the label.

 

[noludoru]

Rose geranium oil - watered down in a spray.

 

[Barb04]

I use Frontline Plus. I know they used to sell just Frontline but I always used the Plus when I lived in NY, CT and now in TN.