Tick season is here

[deerdown]

What do you use to protect your dogs?

We've used Frontline Plus, Bravecta, Wondercide and the Seresto Collar... looking for feedback on what others use.

We have an Aussie that I'd like to protect. On her recent vet trip, the doc said they see Rocky Mountain Spotted fever most in dogs.

He said whatever we do, use something. He suggested Simparica. Thoughts?

 

[203ntyp]

Good question. We are skeptical of what's safe applied to dogs for ticks, seems there's a lot of side affects with all of them. We used Frontline on our previous retriever who ended up getting tumors and cancer. We're using the Seresto collar on or new dog, keeps ticks at bay but I heard scary side affects about them too. Our son's dog got Lyme disease two years ago and I want to avoid that with our dog. Has anyone ever tried anything natural for tick repellant?

 

[Hawk32]

The collars can cause hair lose and skin irritations. Some dogs react to them differently. There have actually been a few law suits filed because of the collars. A lot of people are buying meds that are for double the size of their dog and splitting them in half to save on money. canadapetcare.com and vetmedsforpets.com are a little cheaper. Frontal plus, simparica, and nextgaurd, all have decent reputations. Simparica trio will do worms, fleas, and ticks.

 

[Sligh1]

We pulled 6-8 off our dog. The ticks were dead or dying due to medication but need to look into above & hear some more posts on this. Thx guys.

 

[IowaBowHunter1983]

Always used brovecta personally.

 

[IsThisHeaven?]

I run multiple bird dogs year round. Be careful with any of the topicals, especially if your dog goes into the water. Any tick prevention involves your dog ingesting or absorbing poison, so there could be side-effects from any of the flea/tick treatments. I use and have had the best luck with Serestro collars and I have tried almost everything. I understand all of the allegations out there. Again, the use of any flea/tick preventative includes the risk of side effects up to and including death. I believe I heard something like 1,200 deaths since 2012 (not sure if that's been confirmed as casually related or not). There are lots of knock-offs of the collar and they've sold tens of millions of collars in that time-frame. I have not had problems with the collar and my friends/family have not either. Hopefully it keeps working. My vet has no concerns. Last fall I took the collars off my dogs in October. It warmed up and I didn't want to waste more collars with winter coming soon so I picked up Bravecta at my vets. About a week later I found an attached and bloated tick on one of my dogs and I had to put her on the two week treatment.

 

[deerdown]

Can you elaborate why the treatment was necessary?

 

[IsThisHeaven?]

The treatment wasn’t necessary. We could have not treated and monitored with blood work or symptoms. I chose to treat it, and the vet agreed. The tick was attached and full, so if it carried a disease my dog would have likely been infected. Treating it preventatively was low risk and cheap (especially compared to treating a tick-born illness).