Tick prevention

[MMSmith]

Seeing the recent heartworm prevention thread made me think. A couple of years ago I switched from giving Heartguard and frontline to giving trifexis (heartworm, intestinal worms, flea prevention combo). Ticks I haven't worried about too much, instead just checking Henry over after a hike. However, like a lot of places, we had a very mild winter and I'm concerned the ticks will be bad this year.

What do you all recommend? I'm open to anything really, I've never given just tick preventative.

[Mya&theSiebenDackels]

Frontline Plus or K9 Advantix 2 seem to work the best for me when it comes to ticks. Living out in the country we have ticks and fleas really bad so flea and tick prevention is a must for my dogs.

[dogs4jen]

You could try a tick collar, Preven-tick I think they are called, since you are already doing something for fleas.

[Megan]

We have lymes disease here popping up like crazy. Gavin actually get the vaccine. He has a lot of allergies so we don't use anything and only have pulled off about two ticks last year.

If Lyme is big in your area I would suggest getting the vaccine. We decided to vaccinate the horses this year as well. One of them came up positive for lymes the initial test and now needs 80 pills daily for 34 days. I'm kicking myself for not having th tested and done last year.

We are also in the country, and since we can't do the tick drops I added a flock of free range guinea hens who feed on ticks. I only have 10 and am thinking of doing another 15 this year as its expected to be very bad.

[Enigma]

I use Advantix, it works best for my two dogs.

Luckily I have bright coloured dogs so I see ticks crawling on them most of the time and I just remove them myself before they get a chance to bite.

[Misskiwi67]

The ticks are out in FORCE here in Iowa, and if you live in an area where lyme disease exists (make sure your vet is testing for it, even if you don't have it), then you need to have something effective. Most topicals work well, but I've recently tried the preven-tic collar, and I liked it a lot. It was cost effective, and worked great.

The problem with it is its back-ordered now!

[MMSmith]

The ticks are out in FORCE here in Iowa, and if you live in an area where lyme disease exists (make sure your vet is testing for it, even if you don't have it), then you need to have something effective. Most topicals work well, but I've recently tried the preven-tic collar, and I liked it a lot. It was cost effective, and worked great.

The problem with it is its back-ordered now!

With a tick collar, can I take it off when we're at home or on our normal walks and not out on a hike? Or does it have to stay on all the time to be effective?

[Misskiwi67]

With a tick collar, can I take it off when we're at home or on our normal walks and not out on a hike? Or does it have to stay on all the time to be effective?

It has to be on all the time to be effective. The collar acts like a slow-release patch. The medication is systemically absorbed, and requires close contact with the skin to be effective. Its recommended that dogs with long hair have a small area of their neck shaved to ensure appropriate contact.

I would take the collar off to go to agility class so I wouldn't look like a "bad/cheap/irresponsible" owner with the OTC worthless collars, but otherwise my dogs wear them at all times.

[AmstaffMommy]

we are in the lyme disease CAPITAL of the USA.... really our county in Virgina (Loudoun County) is #1 nationwide for Lyme Disease. YHEAAA!

Anyways, the ONLY thing that seems to work for us is K9 Advantix, before we started using that we would still pick ticks off him in the spring, summer and fall.

Frontline - Failed
Vectra 3D - Failed

Advantix is for cat free homes though, do you have cats?

He gets the Lyme vaccine too

[MMSmith]

we are in the lyme disease CAPITAL of the USA.... really our county in Virgina (Loudoun County) is #1 nationwide for Lyme Disease. YHEAAA!

Anyways, the ONLY thing that seems to work for us is K9 Advantix, before we started using that we would still pick ticks off him in the spring, summer and fall.

Frontline - Failed
Vectra 3D - Failed

Advantix is for cat free homes though, do you have cats?

He gets the Lyme vaccine too

We don't have cats, and I have had good experiences with the K9 advantix in the past. Looks like I'll be picking some up this weekend! We went out for a little hike at a local park, and I had to flick a tick off my leg. Checked Henry over but didn't find any. I'll also ask my vet about the Lyme vaccine. I honestly didn't know there was such a thing for dogs. And I'm in the same-ish part of the country as you-I'm in Knoxville, TN, so I'd imagine the risk for Lyme exists here too.

Thanks all for your responses! Does anyone use any holistic methods to prevent ticks?

[Misskiwi67]

Thanks all for your responses! Does anyone use any holistic methods to prevent ticks?

No way, lyme disease is just as terrifying as heartworm disease (only because I live in a low risk area, but still). No way would I risk failure when there are so many proven safe options.

[elegy]

Frontline Plus still seems to work fine here (PA - LOTS of ticks/Lyme in our area). I still find ticks, but they're dead. I did a trial of Certifect (Frontline + low dose Amitraz) last fall, and while I did notice more of an odor and it's a bigger volume than Frontline, I would use it again if I felt I needed it.

My biggest complaint about the spot ons is that they're DISGUSTING. That's why I'm so bad about using them, especially on the pit bulls (it's not as bad on the hairy Border Collie).

[MMSmith]

Frontline Plus still seems to work fine here (PA - LOTS of ticks/Lyme in our area). I still find ticks, but they're dead. I did a trial of Certifect (Frontline + low dose Amitraz) last fall, and while I did notice more of an odor and it's a bigger volume than Frontline, I would use it again if I felt I needed it.

My biggest complaint about the spot ons is that they're DISGUSTING. That's why I'm so bad about using them, especially on the pit bulls (it's not as bad on the hairy Border Collie).

I feel the same way about the spot ons. Not to mention I usually wind up bathing Henry WAY more than once a month in the spring and summer. He loves mud and smelly dead things. Yum.

I think the tick collar would work well for us. I could take it off for baths and not ruin its effectiveness.

[star_frances]

MissKiwi - Are the tick collars safe to use if you have cats in the house that often cuddle with the dogs? Are they safe for me to be around as I am pregnant? They sound like the best option but I want to be sure we are all safe.

[Misskiwi67]

MissKiwi - Are the tick collars safe to use if you have cats in the house that often cuddle with the dogs? Are they safe for me to be around as I am pregnant? They sound like the best option but I want to be sure we are all safe.

Amitraz is toxic to cats, but should not affect the cats as long as they don't lick the dogs collars.

It is NOT safe to be consumed, it is toxic/deadly if the collar is eaten.

I have no idea about safety when pregnant... sorry...