Flea and Tick treatment

[corgimom]

Originally Posted by adkmehrman

I use Frontline Plus on a monthly and just yesterday found a tick on Koda just 2 days beofre he was do for his monthly dose. The tick had bitten him but had also died probably shortly after biteing him. I could not get the head out so I took him to the vet who was only able to get half of the head with great difficulty. The vet even went as far as making a small incision by the bite to try and get the head but was not able to get the whole thing out. The vet told me that I don't really have to worry about Lyme Disease becuase the tick has to get the size of a grape before they can contract Lyme disease. This was not my normal vet as I was not at home should I get a second opinion on putting him on Lyme dieseas medication?

Boy, I was just at my vets yesterday and we were discussing ticks, but I had not heard of them having to get the size of a grape to transmit it. I think they have to be on there a certain length of time, but I don't know. You can have a blood tet done on Koda(don't know the cost) and I don't know exactly how long you have to wait from the time of bite until testing, but there is a certain titer that it checks for - I was talking to the technician yesterday and she said her Corgi got tested for lyme disease at 9 months old and it was positive and she never knew he even had a tick on him. Then started him on antibiotics.

Can you call back and talk to your normal vet, not that the other one doesn't know what he is saying, but maybe for your own piece of mind - then you could ask him about the blood test and the cost - do you know if it was a deer tick?

I personally am not one to play the "wait and see " thing, for peace of mind, I have to have answers.

[adkmehrman]

I don't know what kind of tick it was becuase it was so dried up that it was not recognizable. I am going to Assume it was a deer tick since I really do not know of anyother kind of tick in the Adirondacks. I think I will call my usual vet and ask if I should have him tested.

[milles2]

Again... Ick!!!! I was feeling pretty punked out yesterday and started running a fever. My MD has me on the antibiotics following the tick bite so I called and they said just take it easy and watch the fever.

So as I'mlying on the couch w/ chills I have Tuck keeping my feet warm and Lul snuggled next to me. I'm rubbing her tummy and feel a lump.

Being absolutely level headed (ha!) I immediately think she had cancer and is dying. I look closer at the lump and it's tick. Ick yet again!

So I got tweezers and pulled it out completely. I called the Vet and they said since I gave her thr Frontline treatment + Sentinel + she had been vaccinated against Lyme, that she should be OK but to watch her carefully and bring her in if she acts strange.

Can't wait to change her over to K9 Advantix. Tuck has always used it and I've never seen a tick before this year.

I was driving thru PA on an interstae and there was a dead deer alongside the road. On its stomache were several big tick bites, you could really see it. I hear they attach to deer and never leave. I can't even deal with the thought of these things biting my guys. So everytime they go out and come back in we have a thorough exam. Never had to do this before....

[Chip's Mom]

Susan:

I hope you get to feeling better soon. I will be thinking of you. Those ticks sound horrible. Hopefully, with the colder weather, they will go away.

[woogiebear]

I would desparatly LOVE to find an alternative to Frontline Plus! I have used Frontline Plus on both my Corgi's and all three of my cats. It is NOT working. My cats are indoor only cats so they get the fleas from the Corgi's. The Corgi's are indoor as well (I don't have a fenced in yard) but I walk them to potty 3-4 times a day. (STILL potty training). I have treated my home and all animals and I just can not afford this anymore. I live in Houston and we have two seasons here. Hot and Darn Hot. Along with the fleas unfortunatly come worms and I have been steadily having flea/worm problems all year. It is wearing me down! I can say this however, I very recently had a very scarey experience regarding a flea product and I am scared now of what I can use on my pets. My husband put this flea stuff on Spoilt and Rotten. (more on Spoilt, he is larger) It was like a mousse you foamed up in your hand and then rubbed into his coat. Well, after a couple of weeks of this I noticed that while Spoilt was lying at my feet, I looked down and his head is just a wobbling away. Like a Bobble dog or something. I thought he was having a seizure with the exception that it was only his head, not his entire body. Rotten is about 4 months older than Spoilt and he is smaller with shorter hair. I am only thinking perhaps this is why Spoilt may have had a reaction and Rotten did not. All I know is I hacked off my right leg and sold it to take him into the Animal ER to get checked out. They could not give me an answer as to what caused it. They said they felt strongly that it was a toxic side effect from perhaps that flea stuff since they tested him and could find nothing wrong with him at all and this stuff was the only new thing that had occurred in his daily life. I went home, found the stuff and threw it away. I have not seen any more instances of the head wobbling since that week. There were a few more instances, but they were milder and milder each time. I even took him to our vet a few days later and he said the same thing. That is another reason why I would love to find something that will A) WORK B) I can use on both cats and dogs and C) doesn't require me to sell both my kidneys to use.

[Chip's Mom]

The Frontline wasn't working on Chip either but finally figured out that he needed the next size do to his weight. The vet explained that since Corgis are long the medicine wasn't reaching all the way to the end and that is where the fleas were. Now that I bought the right amount for his weight, the fleas are all gone. You have to treat all of your pets at the same time with the proper dosage in order to rid yourself of the fleas. You also need to treat the bedding, furniture, carpet etc. All of your cats would need to be weighed also. Are your corgis and cats on heartworm medication. That should help with the worms. Glad to hear that Rotten is doing ok. Toxic side effects can kill your pet.

[woogiebear]

Yes, I did the right amount for thier weight, did all animals at once, treated the house, but the little boogers are still around. yes, Spoilt is doing fine now, I just am very skeptical about what to use more now than ever before.

[corgimom]

Woogiebear,

I do not envy where you live; you have some nasty fleas. I hope you find an answer for what will work for you. What is the name of that Mousse stuff you used? (just curious)

I use the frontline Plus, every 3 months, and I have not had any problems with fleas on Cody. I have never treated my cats for fleas, but then again, they have never had problems with them and my one cat is now 12 years old.

[MissGambler'sMommy]

Chip'sMom is correct, using the right dosage is very important. Pay careful attention to the weight limit on the box. Having a home with cats and dogs, you also need to have them all on it, and unless you have very cold winter months, use it monthly. I use Frontline-Plus on my cats and Miss Gambler and have NEVER seen ONE flea since I started, I also use it monthly on all. When you have tapeworms(and I rescued a three week old kitten 10 years ago with tapeworms, and another cat from the Humane Society a few years ago that had tapeworms, so I've been there) it is almost guaranteed that before you can get control of it(and Frontline does NOT kill tapeworms, you have to get pills from your vet to give 30 days apart for two months)all other pets in your household will get the tapeworms. So it is a mean circle, and the only way to prevent it is to break the circle. kill the tapeworms and prevent future outbreaks by using Frontline-Plus like clockwork on ALL pets in the household.

[corgimom]

I just got done speaking with the vet about getting Cody a booster for Bordatella - it is almost 9 months ago that he had his bordatella vaccination and my vet said at about 9 months, the immunity starts to wear off and since Cody will be boarded for Thanksgiving with other dogs at the day care, he feels it is best to give him his booster. He has seen a lot of Kennel cough going around.

Also, about the Frontline Plus. He feels, where I live, colder climate, every 3 months works, however, he said it is a good idea to do it monthly in the summer. This is for flea protection, but for ticks it does only protect for 1 month.

With the Frontline Plus, he told me that it is not absorbed into the bloodstream, but rather Migrates over the coat into the hairs subaceous glands(spelling?) and they excrete oil which in turn releases the frontline and that gives the protection. This is why he likes Frontline versus the other "potent" stuff out there that is absorbed into the bloodstream.

He said with the large size dogs, he tells people to apply it between the shoulder blades and also further down towards the butt. He also said with a Corgi, it would not be a bad idea to do the same and to apply the correct dosage based on their weight. So just passing this info on.

[Chip's Mom]

Thanks for the info Linda. I will try that with Chip the next time I apply it. He has been flea free for awhile now so hopefully no more fleas for the winter. The tail end is where Chip always had his fleas. Never past that area so I would say this will work.

[Hayashi_eri]

oh this thread is so helpful! I have just started Buta on Frontline plus, nothing has changed actually & I found a tick on her last night sort of freaked me out a bit

[Mvons]

vitamin B complex is what kept fleas from biting me when we lived in the area that had fleas year round. Garlic did nothing.

Borax sprinkled on the carpet after vacuuming and left on for 3 days, helps dry up and kill any fleas in the thick carpet. I sprinkled it under all her bedding. She never reacted to the borax.

Borax mixture also kills ants. Borax the laundry additive.

Flea comb and regular bedding washing, and keeping her on the sidewalk, helped with the fleas. No lyme in Calif, so I only got her the vaccination when traveling out of state.

Where I'm at now, heartworm is the problem. 20 years ago encephalitis mosquitoes carried the heartworm. But the coast communities sprayed and you don't hear about encephalitis now. The medication for heartworm is much better than the old, but we only give in the summer when the mosquitoes are flying. We love the bats here (no rabies in our county in 45 years!) as they eat thousands of mosquitoes a night. The only time I saw a mosquito on my dog was on her nose, promptly I swatted. We usually headed in at dusk because I was a mosquito magnet.

Merrie

[DynaBMan]

I know this is an older thread, but my wife has been using melaleuca oil on Scotchie, our toy/teacup poodle. She was reading about using it in a book she had from a company she was buying some products from. She puts about two or three drops on him and he has no fleas or ticks. He is an inside dog, but he does go outside a lot. I plan on putting seven or eight drops on Duke, since he is bigger and will stay outside more, and see how it does.

[ColColt]

I've heard of a product called "Fleabuster RX for Fleas" that goes on the carpet instead of your dog. It has sodium borate, I think was the ingredient, and is a powder you put on the carpet and use a push broom to spread. It kills fleas by dehydrating them. After several days, vacuum it up and it's suppose to be good for a year or two.

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