Hello all, I'm posting from deepest, darkest Spain without the luxury of my high-speed internet; forget the lack of toilet facilities, the lack of 100Mbps fibre means I'm really roughing it! Willow - it's always poor Willow that does these things! - has got bites all over her tummy. They're different to the mozzie/fly bites she had before we treated her with the Frontline Tri-Act, in that they're not red. However, they're very raised, have a very obvious hole in the centre and are covering the thinner hair around her tummy and armpits. She doesn't seem to be overly bothered by them, in that she gives them a quick lick every now and again. They came up last night, and I kept a close eye on her, but she was settled. By this morning, they had gone down, just with the pin-prick holes visible, but after a quick run around first thing, they had inflamed again; I presume due to either increased blood flow or being tickled by the long grass. I should have got a picture of them; there must be around a hundred bites. I am almost certain that they are ant bites and that she laid down on a nest. We have lots here, which I'm gradually treating, but they just seem to move on to another place when I get one area sorted - any tips on ant killing gratefully received! At least they're not in the house... Anyway, I'm blabbering now. I'm keeping her quiet this morning to stop them coming back up and see how she goes later on. If they come back up this afternoon, I'll pop her to one of the many local vets to get some cream or antihistamines to help them out. Poor little Willow. She has such bad luck!
We have been to Spain on holidays with our children and our first lab. We let her swim in the evening after sundown and every morning before sunset. After that we tried to keep her calm and in the shadow of a tree because of the warmth. She could have some spots of heat rash. But I think that the see will take care of the ant rash. Is it possible to let him swim and clean it through the see water?
Oh Fiona...sympathies....we are plagued by them here.They dont seem to bother Dexter though,just the humans although I seem to have got a certain degree of immunity.Pre Dexter ,the day before visitors came on holiday I used to get Pest Control in to spray....then I got fed up spending £50 for 2 days relief .....they are so resilient.My MIL who gets bitten badly said she'd read sugar by the entrance to their nest will poison them.....that was a grand occupation for her on one visit,I personally don't think it worked.....I've got a new Gardener and he has really made a difference to my lawn,where it wasn't thriving he said it wasn't the weather it was ant activity.I'll ask him what he used,I had to keep Dexter in for 24 hours .........shamefully I have to admit to a horrible quick fix when George and Sophie come .....I boil the kettle and poor it down the parts where the little blighters pushed up through the pool grouting .... I'm glad willow isn't too badly affected despite the amount....the children here can react quite badly when they get bitten x
We're very near to one of the biggest rivers in Spain, the Ebro, and she had a lovely swim there yesterday evening, even though it's not sea water - we're inland about 40 minutes from the sea. It's not mad hot here at the moment; yesterday was our hottest day so far and it got up to just under 30C, but today we have a light cloud cover, which is keeping the temperature down, along with a lovely breeze. The dogs are quite settled here now so; at first, they followed us everywhere we went, but now they're happy to laze away the hot parts of the day in the cool of the house.
I think i'd give her an anti-histamine right away. I got at least four deer fly bites on Saturday, two on my thumb. By that evening the joints in my thumb were aching and swollen and I ached down to my wrist. If the ant bites are at all alike (possibly not as I don't think they inject an anti coagulant) they hurt later if not sooner. A remedy for most bites is to dab with vinegar and ice them.
Thanks, Snowshoe. I don't have any antihistamines because my vet didn't want to give me any for her hayfever and I'm reluctant to just buy my own. I'm going to try a different vet here later this afternoon to get some in stock. For now, the swelling has gone right down and she's not fussing them at all, so I think she's doing OK. We get black flies here - the dogs are protected by their Frontline, but if I don't use repellant on myself, they bite me, and they're horrible! Far worse than mosquito bites. The area gets tender and bruised, alongside the itching. Ick, nasty bugs.
She's fine, thanks. Sorry I didn't update sooner. So, we discovered it's not ants at all, it's some very small flies, that look just like fruit flies. When it's wet, after a storm, they appear and target her. They aren't interested in Shadow in the slightest; the two dogs can be sat side by side, and you'll see the flies head for Willow They bury into the hair on her tummy and armpits, where they bite, bite, bite. They them promptly die, because of the Bravecto, but that's not the point. I talked to my vet and he said there's really nothing that can be done to stop them biting, but he recommended a steroid to deal with the itching if it was a problem. That seems strange to me, because I'd have thought an antihistamine would be the way to go, but he says that antihistamines don't work on dogs! How can this be, when the itching is caused by an excess of histamines?? Someone with more knowledge might be able to clarify this - I thought it was a strange thing for him to say. Anyhow, for now, we have a simple avoidance plan. When the flies are out, Willow is in. We have only seen them around the house in the evenings when it's rained, and that doesn't happen much! Also, there were some by the river in the late evening at a different place we went to. As soon as I saw them, I gave her tummy and pits a vigorous rubbing to kill them all (much to Willow's delight at the spontaneous belly rub) and took her home. It's so strange that they're not interested in Shadow, though. I wonder if it's to do with the colour of his coat, or whether it's because of some scent he gives off - or a particular scent Willow gives off.
Sorry Fiona, just noticed this. So, these are not sandflies then, that can carry Leishmaniasis? I have heard that the scalibor collar is very good as a repellent against sandflies (but not sure if W&S are already wearing that). Sandflies apparently mostly come out in the dark and most of all evenings and mornings, and particularly when it is damp or near water, main season is May to October.
No, definitely not sandflies, they don't look anything like them. More like fruit flies. I am using the Frontline as a repellant against sandflies. I'm not keen on using Scalibor collars because my two still tend to chew at each other's collars when they're wearing them and they play together. I'm wondering if Advantix is any more effective against these particular flies than Frontline, but I still can't find any relevant information about what combinations of other drugs are safe to use alongside Bravecto.
Although, now I look into it more, it seems sand flies don't always look like the pictures I'd seen previously when reading up about leishmaniosis. So, maybe they are! Argh, now I'm scared! I treated them with Frontline Tri-Act in addition to Bravecto specifically to protect them from sand flies, as well as to be a repellant to ticks (on top of the Bravecto which kills them). They only had their last dose a week ago, so it should still be effective. Bugger, bugger, bugger.
Didn't mean to scare you, but I know from friends with a summer home in Spain how insidious the little horrors are.
How did I not know that "midges" are sand flies??? You'd have thought that little nugget of information would have come up when I was looking into them before. We have no water directly near us, so they're not a problem day to day, but it makes sense, then, that they come out when it's wet, and that they hang around the river. Where we normally take them doesn't seem to be affected, but the water is pretty fast-flowing. Where we went yesterday was a little side-shoot of the river and there was some stagnant water in a reed bed nearby (amazingly, the dogs didn't investigate!). We'll be avoiding that, then. So, I'm now unsure how to proceed. I can't apply anything else for two weeks at least, but I still have no information on Advantix with Bravecto. The dogs have another four weeks left until the Bravecto is due to be renewed. There is a spray-on insect repellant for dogs in one of the shops here, which is a mixture of permethryn and tetramethryn. I wonder if that's worth a try? I'm just worried now about harming her by overdosing on something. Gagh! I think once the Bravecto wears off, I'm going to see if just going back to Advantix is any better. I'm certain that it's better than Frontline, and I've not found any dead ticks in weeks, so maybe all the strimming that J's done has made enough difference to the number of the little blighters, which is the reason I moved from Advantix to Bravecto in the first place.
It is a worry, isn't it? It seems that avoidance is indeed the key, so it's a good thing if you have no standing water around you. Gack - I have found two attached ticks this week - ON ME!!!!!!! One this afternoon - had to go to the school nurse to get it removed. So gross, so disgusting.
To me it sounded also like sand flies we had in Spain. We were in the north, above Barvelona, in Empuria Brava. We were at the beach, near a river. Our vet told me that frontline isn't working anymore. She advised us advantix ands scalibor against ticks... We do now own a house in the woods where ticks from deer and wild boars are bothersome... Can't you give your own vet a call from where you are in Spain? Or contact through the Facebook chat? Perhaps that will make you more at ease? My sister uses the spray on repellent. She says for her dogs it works very well. She has Doberman's.
You have to be vey careful.... My son in law got borelliosis. Could you sent the ticks for examination? It takes 14 days to see if a tick is wearing borelliosis. I guess I don't have to tell you what to do further...
When Finn was scratching like mad, the vet thought it might be an allergy and prescribed him human Piriton, not licensed for dogs so had to sign a disclaimer. Anyway, it worked but have switched to a generic one which is one fifth of the cost. As the pharmacist said though, if I tell him its for a dog, he's not allowed to sell it to me. So for the first time in my life I now have hay fever when I go the to chemist!
Thanks, I will keep a close eye on the tick bite and also keep an eye out for symptoms. The ticks are terrible here this year...
Remember Annabelle used OTC Piriton all the time - it is cheaper to buy as Chlorpheniramine 4mg in the UK rather than branded Piriton. I can never remember if it is half the dose for a dog or double though (maybe you could ask @Lochan or ping her on FB) I would use steroids (Prednisolone) for really severe allergies that don't respond to antihistamines but your vet would need to give this. What about (ahem.....) something like apple cider vinegar spray? In the interim? I think the likes of essential oils might be out because of issues with licking.
