# Best tick preventative?



## Summerhouse (Jun 12, 2015)

Have a read through this a very recent discussion on a dog forum
Best treatment for ticks


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Thanks Summerhouse. Anything that is effective has potential side effects, of course. I think I will do a twice daily comb through for a while and see if the two I found were coincidence or the start of a plague before treating them.


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## JudyD (Feb 3, 2013)

fjm said:


> What have you found to be the best and safest tick preventative? First time I have ever had a problem here in Lancashire, but two in a few days indicates a bad year ahead! Has anyone any experience of Bravecto?


I used Bravecto for the last three months of the season last summer/fall, started it again in March, a day or two after I found the first ticks on Blue. This is a terrible year for ticks here, but the Bravecto seems to be handling it, and I've seen no side effects. I've found a few crawling on the dogs and one or two barely attached and very dead. (Both dogs are clipped very short now, because the nasty critters were riding in on the long coats, then jumping ship and crawling on us. Luckily we've found them before they attached to us.)


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## CharismaticMillie (Jun 16, 2010)

fjm said:


> What have you found to be the best and safest tick preventative? First time I have ever had a problem here in Lancashire, but two in a few days indicates a bad year ahead! Has anyone any experience of Bravecto?


Frontline Plus


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## JudyD (Feb 3, 2013)

Frontline Plus worked for us, too, but Blue plays with Jazz by grabbing her by the neck, so we had to keep them apart for two or three days after we applied it, to keep him from ingesting it.


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## kmart (Apr 28, 2015)

After pulling 30+ ticks off my dog this summer, I have a few thoughts. 

1. Most people don't like the drops. If you're not worried about fleas, then the drops can seem a little chemical-y and scary. Plus, they don't always work for ticks. 
2. There isn't much that prevents them, so much as kills them after they bite. Collars don't seem to work for an entire dog, but it does seem to keep ticks away from one of their favorite spots, around the ears. But I don't really like collars because of the chemicals and it being so close to the dog's face all the time. 
3. Cedar oil spray does seem to be somewhat effective at repelling, but not 100%. I've definitely noticed fewer ticks when using it, but we still get them. 
4. The only 100% foolproof method I've found is to stay on the trail, out of the tall grass and brush. We went out for an hour today, and about 10 minutes of it was on a deer trail. I found one tick on her after grooming. 
5. Bug killer in the backyard. "Pet friendly." Sprinkled on the yard, then soaked in water. That seems pretty effective for ticks in the backyard. 
6. If you're certain your dog has ticks, I like to soak them in a neem oil shampoo. I have done that a few times, and it seems like they really loosen up afterward and it's easier to pull the whole tick out.


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## maryann0312 (Apr 7, 2016)

I 've been using the combination of heartgard + nexgard for years. Never heard of Bravecto, tho


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## seminolewind (Mar 11, 2016)

Years ago, I used to use a dip. Never found a flea or tick. Smelled like pepper.


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## Summerhouse (Jun 12, 2015)

If you want to try natural prevention methods there's Billy no mates and Skinny dip pre walk spray. Not tried them myself to give any thoughts.

CSJ Billy No Mates Herbal Flea, Tick & Mite Repellent for Dogs


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## marialydia (Nov 23, 2013)

Frontline Plus has always worked for my dogs, and still works, although there are reports here that it's losing effectiveness. I like the topical aspect (don't want to give a pill that gets in the whole system). One of my neighbors has King Charles Cavaliers and she has the Seresto collar and says that any ticks she finds are dead (same as with me).

I agree with kmart that prevention is key. That's one of the reasons why both my dogs have short summer cuts -- for Pericles that includes his German ears with tassels.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

I have cut Poppy very short - not so easy with Sophy, but she is mostly white so even a tiny dark creature stands out. We had a big infestation of Frontline resistant fleas a couple of years ago, so I have rather moved away from it - but I have the spray to treat paws against harvest mites. I think I shall go for rigorous watching and grooming for now - fortunately they are both tiny so it doesn't take long to search every inch of skin.


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## jcris (Feb 19, 2015)

Hello,
I too have used Bravecto but only for the last few months. Both my spoo's are very curious and are rarely on leash. I have used Advantage, Seresto, Frontline and Trifexis in the past. Trifexis seemed a good answer but doesn't cover both ticks and fleas. Bravecto covers both and is given only once every 3 months. I worry about over medicating my girls and long term use but I guess a choice must be made. I currently have no issue with fleas or ticks so the Bravecto seems to be working well. I wonder though if long term use will change those results? I noticed when using the topicals that their effectiveness seemed to wane over time. All these meds seem way over priced. That I suppose is just the animal care world playing on pet lovers desire to care for their pets. I think that's true in many areas of care and feeding. Marketing is such a bunch of .... Oops, sorry. I will try and weigh in more as time goes by.
Take good care of yourself and your pets,
Jcris
I'm curious what "more natural" solutions exist?


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

We use Advantix II to good effect. The only ticks I've ever found attached were already dead within about 6-12 hours after they would have been picked up. One of the ingredients in Advantix, permethrin, can be sprayed on people's clothing. I put it on my pants and shoes when in an area I am concerned about. Ticks love me and we have lots of tick borne diseases on Long Island, not just Lyme but anaplasmosis, rocky mountain spotted fever and babesiosis as well. Sadly dealing with ticks is a big part of the problem with tracking around here. 

I don't worry about ticks in my yard because we don't have deer in our neighborhood and I think the dogs keep raccoons and opossums away since I've never seen either of them here. We do get white tailed rabbits though. If they have ticks that they leave behind (and they probably do) I suspect the chickens eat them since I've never seen one in my yard or had one on me from being in the yard. The birds love all sorts of creepy crawly things (slugs, bugs...).


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## ApricotsRock (Jan 10, 2014)

I also use the Advantix II on Rookie. It worked last summer - so far so good this summer.

I have heard that chickens love to eat ticks...made me think about getting chickens.

I laughed as I went through Lily's list - we have all of the above animals cruise through the yard at one point or the other.


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## JudyD (Feb 3, 2013)

I read somewhere recently that opossums eat ticks, too.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Permethrin is a no-no because of the cats. So much to consider!


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Oh yes, I forgot about permethrin and cats. BF has asthmatic reactions to cats (although is fine with just about everything else) so no kitties at our house. Advantage can be used around cats.


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## jcris (Feb 19, 2015)

I used to have a bunch of chickens. It surprised me that they were such good pets. They would follow me everywhere and were great at keeping mice and bugs at bay. I loved them little knuckleheads. Sadly I Can't have them in city limits where I'm at but someday.....
Jcris


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## poodlecrazy#1 (Jul 2, 2013)

I don't have to worry as much about fleas and ticks as most people because we don't have them here. But if they are on a dog that comes from somewhere else they can survive on the dog or jump (fleas),crawl on to other dogs. In my line of work I handle dogs and cats that come from many different places and some very filthy environments that allow a population of fleas and ticks to survive. Because of that I have had a few cases of my girls getting a flea or tick on them that has used me to hitch a ride. Because of this I have resorted to using a preventative every now and then when we notice a pet come in that has fleas or ticks. I do not like it one bit even though I use the safest chemical preventative I know of (Revolution). This summer has just started and the bugs have been crazy! I know my girls are going to be at risk for fleas and ticks a lot this summer so I have decided to make my own natural insect/pesticide replant based on the stuff that Dr. Karen Becker uses/sells. I'm also going to use it on myself in hopes to keep the little buggers off me! Some of the ingredients include Geranium oil, Wintergreen oil, and Citronella oil. Dr. Becker sells three products with these ingredients, a collar, a spray, and topical drops. She recommends using one or the other for low risk dogs or all three combined for high risk dogs. These are actually preventative/repellents used in hopes to keep the bugs of period or to keep them from actually biting your pet. Hopefully it works because I hate bugs!!


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

jcris said:


> I used to have a bunch of chickens. It surprised me that they were such good pets. They would follow me everywhere and were great at keeping mice and bugs at bay. I loved them little knuckleheads. Sadly I Can't have them in city limits where I'm at but someday.....
> Jcris



They are much more fun as pets than I thought they would be. They can be very funny and they do help earn their keep with the eggs and the pest control. In New York City chickens are allowed but most places in the metro area where chickens are permitted there is a prohibition on keeping roosters.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

It is a particularly bad spring for ticks here - very mild, wet winter followed by a cool spring. At least the dogs are getting plenty of practice at accepting all over handling! They get rubbed all over, including inside the ears and between the toes, at least twice a day, plus a good comb through. Poppy thinks it is heaven; Sophy is not so sure...


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Poor Poppy! I am getting so paranoid I came close to trying to remove a nipple today. She was lying half twisted round, so it was oddly positioned, but even so!


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## jcris (Feb 19, 2015)

I'm right with you!
I have been there done that, as much as I hate too admit it!
Haha
Jcris


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

I bought some Wondercide, a natural product that smells good. It worked but I had to put it on every other day or so. It also make their hair slightly oily or something...it just was kind of weird. It did kill fleas though. I've used Advantix 2, Revolution and I forget what all. Those seem to work and the wee ones didn't have any adverse reactions. 

Here's something I read about this product....this looks scary. I worry about ingesting these chemicals. It's bad enough to have to put them on their skin, but to take internally...scares me more.

Trifexis and Adverse Effects | Whole Dog Journal

Where I use to live in north Idaho, we didn't have fleas... so that was 10 years of pure bliss. Now here, I put that insecticide stuff on my lawn in spring. It apparently, is okay for pets after watering in. That should help keep the fleas down. But they can still get them out in fields and such. Grrr. I hate fleas!:argh: So far this year...haven't noticed any yet.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Well, touch wood, but after three in a week I have not found any more. I am still being vigilant, of course, but am even less inclined to go for a systemic treatment.


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## glorybeecosta (Nov 11, 2014)

Look closely at what you use if you have toy poodles, my vet only had one item to use on her as she was 3 pounds. For years I use Frontline from 0-22 pounds now frontline packaging starts at 5 pounds. My vet gave me the only thing he had for Cayenne, if anyone want the name let me know, not handy right now.


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## Asta's Mom (Aug 20, 2014)

I use Bravecto on Asta -- he roams fields and woods and not one tick yet, although my husband has found a couple on himself! Love that you only have to give Bravecto every three months. Good luck with whatever method you decide on.

-- Claire & Asta


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

glorybeecosta said:


> Look closely at what you use if you have toy poodles, my vet only had one item to use on her as she was 3 pounds. For years I use Frontline from 0-22 pounds now frontline packaging starts at 5 pounds. My vet gave me the only thing he had for Cayenne, if anyone want the name let me know, not handy right now.


I used the cat Frontline on my toys while it was still effective - a close examination showed identical ingredients, and one big multi pack covered all four animals. They may have changed the minimum weight on that too, of course.


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## Lou (Sep 22, 2012)

Hi  

I'm having an extremely annoying case of reappearing ticks, on me! More on me than on the poodles. I must be delicious!!! Lol 

I'm losing my mind over these suckers! They are the small not too gross kind. But I have tried everything. Washed all my clothes in hot water and hot drier (shrunk everything) vacuumed, sprayed every blanket, mattress, carpet with house-tick-prevention-spray. Washed my hair and the dogs with the dog shampoo for ticks and fleas, I sprayed the yard with Ortho, drenched it like a mad woman! 

Aaarrrhhhhhh!!! Don't know what else to do! 

I'm moving away to a house 3 hours away, in 2 days. I don't want to bring them with me. 

And today was the last straw!! A huge fat engorged son of a gun on Lou's eyebrow + a small one in the same bite , weirdest thing ever! Gross! 

I put a drop of Advantix II on her skin 1 inch away from the tick hoping it would fall off, it didn't. So I removed it with a fine tooth comb. There were 2 ...

Help !!!

I'm about to cry ... I know I'm always so dramatic .. But I am soooo frustrated 

Any suggestions please. 

Thank you. 

By the way. Miss you guys. My life is stabilizing so I'm going to be coming by to read y'all's posts more often. I'm looking forward to it  

Hugs!


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## Lou (Sep 22, 2012)

Ps. I put alcohol & neosporin on Lou's eyebrow after I removed the ticks. 

Any suggestions to get rid of the ticks - I'm seeing 1 or 2 ticks almost every day. For the last week or so...  

I'm going to call pest-control company to spray the house I'm moving to (and the yard too)

But what can I do at the current place I'm living ? Thank you


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## marialydia (Nov 23, 2013)

The topical and the ingested tick control meds all work over time - either by making the host (our dogs!) unappetising for the ticks, or by poisoning them. At least that's my understanding. So it's not necessarily surprising that a spot application didn't work...

Are your pooches being dosed regularly with the Advantix? If not you could put it on them right away. If they are, and it's not working, you could call the vet and see if there's something else that can be used in addition. I was surprised when we had a flea infestation a few months ago that topical and ingestible can be used sequentially, if really needed. 

I know these are powerful chemicals, but with a super elderly dog, and a young one with infected hot spots...I had to do something!


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

That sounds horrible, Lou. I think I would contact your local pest control companies and see if they can suggest anything.

We are having a deep cold freeze here in Lancashire - won't kill them, I know, but does at least stop them feeding and breeding.


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## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

Noelle and I have been battling fleas. I tried Frontline, Advantix 2, Dawn dish soap, sprays, powders, a flea collar, no luck. Finally I got Bravecto. It gave her runny poop for a day, but that's it. Not a single flea since. If it works on ticks like it worked on fleas, Bravecto will solve your problem.


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## JudyD (Feb 3, 2013)

Click-N-Treat said:


> Noelle and I have been battling fleas. I tried Frontline, Advantix 2, Dawn dish soap, sprays, powders, a flea collar, no luck. Finally I got Bravecto. It gave her runny poop for a day, but that's it. Not a single flea since. If it works on ticks like it worked on fleas, Bravecto will solve your problem.


Bravecto does work on ticks. I gave it last year, stopped it in September, I think. Then we had a terrible time in the spring. The ticks were thick here. They rode in on our clothes, the dogs brought them in, the ones that didn't bite the dogs jumped ship and came for us. Luckily neither of us got bitten, but the dogs did have a few attach. I restarted Bravecto in March. We've had no fleas or ticks since then. (And it's good to see you back.)


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## kontiki (Apr 6, 2013)

I am having a hard time trying to figure out what to do. Frontline products gave my Spoo terrible seizures. I was so frightened that he might die. This happened for about 5 months. I then started doing research and discovered that many other dogs had had seizures, and some even died, plus other symptoms from using Frontline. So I just refused to give it to him, although my vet argued with me.

He quit having seizures - that was about 4 1/2 years ago if I remember correctly. The strange thing is that he has only had 1 tick in all those years since, and never so much as one flea, even though I have traveled with him in the mountains, as well as in Georgia, the Carolinas, and Florida. Last summer all of the many dogs on our block were getting lots of ticks, in spite of all of the chemical products they were using. We only had that one and it hadn't embedded yet. I am wondering if maybe his diet is helping.

My concern is that I want to travel with him to Costa Rica, and last year CR made a new regulation that any dog coming into the country would have to have one of those horrible spot on treatments before doing so with a vets signature that they had seen it applied. 

So I didn't go to Costa Rica. I will not risk giving him one of those horrible seizures again. I am not sure what to do as I would like to go to a Spanish Language school there for about a month.

I looked up some of the more natural tick repellent ones with oils, etc. I took descriptions of all of the ones I found but my now vet said she is sure they would not accept it. My Spanish is not nearly good enough to negotiate with their government officials!

Any ideas?


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## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

Does your vet have a recommendation? If Frontline is too risky, maybe your vet has an alternative? And if so, can you let us know what you found? So sorry this is happening.


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## kontiki (Apr 6, 2013)

Click-N-Treat said:


> Does your vet have a recommendation? If Frontline is too risky, maybe your vet has an alternative? And if so, can you let us know what you found? So sorry this is happening.


No, sadly, all of her recommendations for tick and flea preventives that she thinks Costa Rica might think equivalent have chemicals in them that I am not willing to risk on him. 

He is very sensitive to medications. The first time I flew with him (he is my Service Dog) the vet gave me something that was supposed to calm dogs down in case he was anxious. She said to try it out first as some dogs react in different ways to medications. So, several days before we were to fly I gave him the recommended dose. He went around humping the air, (with you know what showing), with a dazed look on his face, for about 3 hours! 

Fortunately I had a few days to practice before the flight. I took him riding on buses , going to the airport so he could be around lots of luggage and noise, having him be pretend patted down by security, etc. He did marvelously without any medication, on the flight and in the airports. 

I am so glad I tried the meds out first. Can you just imagine dealing with that in an airport and on the plane??? Arrgh. It was rather mind boggling. There was no way to distract him. 

Other meds have not worked well either. Several times he had an ear infection. The medication actually made it worse.

When we have to fly in the winter and they spray de-icer on the wings it makes him throw up, after first trying to get his nose as low to the floor as it will go. I bet that stuff is not good for us either and we just aren't sensitive enough to be aware of it. He's like the canary in the gold mine.

Does anyone speak Spanish well enough to be able to negotiate with a Spanish speaking official vet in Costa Rica??? Are you an angel maybe?


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