Well, I found Katie's first tick last night We have been using Advocate, but evidently it doesn't work for ticks because the bug was still squirming when I removed it. Back in the states we got brown ticks on our dogs all the time and there was some worry about Lyme disease from deer ticks but none of them ever got it. I am panicking a little about what diseases she could get, but I have to remind myself that I have removed hundreds of ticks from dogs and none of them actually got a disease so, although I should be concerned, a full blown panic attack is unnecessary. Not sure if the ticks here in the UK carry Lyme disease, but they probably have all kinds of other goodies. Any advice from UK peeps on what we should be using? Should I use Frontline in addition to Advocate? I read that Advantix works really well but we have a cat in the house and it is toxic to cats so that won't do. What do you all recommend?
Re: Tick season Ticks can be a nuisance, but after 40 years of dog ownerhip neither my wife nor I can recall ever knowing a dog that became ill from a tick bite. Where we live (Wales) we get a lot of sheep in the countryside so ticks are prevalent. We use Frontline in the "off" season for ticks and switch to Advantix during the warmer weather. We still get the occasional tick but a daily check helps us to find and remove them quite quickly.
Re: Tick season I've never known a dog get sick from a tick bite and one of the kennels I used to work at was in the middle of the country so it was fairly normal for a dog to come back from a romp in the fields with a tick. We just used to remove it and not worry too much as they were treated with frontline every 12 weeks anyway.
Re: Tick season Was just about to post this as a topic but here is just as good .... http://www.express.co.uk/news/healt...-bloodsuckers-found-in-1-square-metre-of-park
Re: Tick season Oh, I hate ticks. I use frontline in the springtime until early summer, but not the rest of the year. Ugh.
Re: Tick season I have two cats in the house and am perfectly happy to use Advantix on my dogs. Permethrin (the bit in Advantix that makes it effective against ticks) is, as you say, highly toxic to cats but if you make sure there is absolutely no contact between dog and cat until the Advantix application site is dry, and don't use it if your cat grooms the dog then you should be fine. Frontline and all the other fipronil-containing products work OK but the time to kill of the tick can be >24 hours depending on how long it is since the last application. Scalibor collars work the best at actually repelling ticks but again contain a pyrethroid similar to Advantix so similar precautions apply with cats, and you have to be very careful about contaminating waterways if your dog is a keen swimmer. I've just tried some Bravecto, a new flea and tick combo which is in tablet form and lasts 12 weeks. No issues about using it in a household with cats as it is in tablet form, although it is not licensed for use in cats itself. Hope this helps.
Re: Tick season I'd be really interested in hearing more about Bravecto especially price and availability?
Re: Tick season [quote author=MadMudMob link=topic=5782.msg74278#msg74278 date=1399391957] I'd be really interested in hearing more about Bravecto especially price and availability? [/quote] Sorry MMM I had promised to look this up for you before on the work computer and completely forgot! Apologies! I've just run a comparison of Effipro (cheaper version of Frontline), Bravecto, Scalibor and Advantix and in our practice Bravecto would be about £5 more expensive than the rest if they were all used at intervals appropriate to give good tick cover over a 12 week period. It is a prescription-only medicine. I've had a good look at the data supplied for licensing and it seems very good. The proof of the pudding however is always in the eating and I'm taking my two tick targets up to The Cairngorms in a few weeks and will let you know how we get on.
