For those who use Bravecto (I'm picking up my first treatment for my two tomorrow), I had another thought - what about mosquitos? Advantix repels/kills those as well as tick, but I can't find any information that says that Bravecto is effective against them. Do your dogs suffer from mosquito bites? Or sand flies?
Charlie will get the odd red bite mark, which I assume is mosquito, but could be anything - in the UK, of course it's not a big concern to me. I no longer worry about sand flies in the UK, I suppose that is something you have to worry about in Spain though.
I guess I'll have to suck it and see. We're not going to be spending much time at the beach if we get this property - we're not really beach people, although it's nice to go for a stroll along it first thing in the morning, before the bugs come out to play anyway. I just know my sister's cocker was quite ill last year after being repeatedly bitten when we were in Spain, despite wearing a Scalibor collar. The same thing happened to my friends' dog - they thought she was going to die she was so poorly. In neither case was it definitively the bites, and the vets didn't know exactly what was wrong with either dog, but both suspected the mozzies. I know they can carry heartworm, so we need to ensure that we're well covered for that. Other than that, I guess it's a case of seeing whether they're bitten or not. It's just not easy, is it?!
I don't find it easy, and that's just in the UK where I think we don't have quite as much to worry about. I did worry about sand flies because I had read a report (on the internet ) about them being a problem in Cornwall, but turns out it's not about sand and Leishmaniasis is not a concern in the UK (not so Spain though). There are bitey creepy crawlies on Cornish beaches, but nothing more than itchy bites to worry about.
I found this article that states that Bravecto and Scalibor are well tolerated when used concurrently, (in a very small study group), so I could consider using collars when I do go to the beach - although this then raises environmental questions. https://parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1756-3305-7-105
When I say "the beach" I mean the general area we go and stay, which is a hotspot for them because there are lots of waterways as well as the sea. We don't actually spend much time on the sand at all when we're "at the beach". Where we're buying isn't sandfly territory because there's no running water locally. We're a few kilometres from the big local river.
I must say... for you guys this might be new disease, of me its old news unfortunately For protection ve avoid high, shady and vet grass. Our walks are usually on a ground that is dry and there is a lot of sun there. We also use spot ons. Knock on wood, we havent had any trouble until now.
Thanks, Nade. My issue is that I've been using spot-on treatment (Advantix), but this isn't effective against the number of ticks that there currently are at the farm in Spain we're trying to buy. So I am going to try Bravecto, which is an oral medication for killing flea and ticks, but that then leaves the dogs vulnerable to other things. So, I'm trying to find a solution to cover everything!
For ticks no. They dont like the sun and sandy places. They tend to hide in bushy parts, where its colder and there is moisture.
If you are avare that you have ticks on the ground, smart thing would be to mow the lan ofc and Maybe find a solution that is used to treat the ticks on the ground. We have something like this. I think it might help. Good part is that its not toxic for people and dogs, or to say its not toxic for warm blooded animals. So you might think about getting some kind of solution like this to treat the ground itself.
Hehe, yeah, thanks, except this is a farm of 77,000 square metres It's very overgrown at the moment, and we will be tending to the land in time, but out first priority it making the house habitable - right now, there are no doors, windows, no electricity, water, sewerage... so trimming the brush isn't top of the list
