Tick tock tick (ick !)

[WaterTiger]

Well in central North Carolina we had an early spring that was also long, cool and moist. While it gave us a wonderful crop of strawberries, the ticks are RAMPANT this year and I've already pulled five Lone Stars off of Cody (what a patient girl she is), and one off of my own knee.

YUCK !

What are you all using for tick abatement ? I'm trying to limit exposure of course, but they're all over the nature trails, the city park paths...heck they're all over my entire state. It's an infernal year for ticks. I'd like something that strongly deters a tick from implanting once it drops onto a dog.

I've got a 'natural' backyard with tall trees, two sides of hedges, and a mulched leaf-bed and ground cover (weeds ) surface. For all its natural benefit it's also ground zero for ticks. I've treated the yard once already with an approved permethrin product. It certainly killed off the mosquitoes and fleas, but not the ticks apparently. I'm planning on re-spraying to get the hedges more thoroughly, but I think the ticks are in the trees as well, that's pretty typical I think.

Any suggestions ? Collars, dips, shaving my dog bald ?

[Cindy]

We're in the Blue Ridge Mountains of VA and ticks are always bad here. We put Frontline Plus on the dogs but I'm not really sure how well it works considering we've had 2 dogs testing positive for Lyme and 1 for erlichia!! One year we bought a spray bottle of Frontline and tried to spray the dogs before taking them in really infested places. That worked fairly well (still used the regular Frontline with the spray) but it was rather pricey as I recall. Since the dogs are always in the woods and fields, the best we can do is check them over every night and pick off the ticks that we find. If you discover a "miracle" I sure would love to know about it!

[dmedric]

We are in Northern VA and live adjacent to a heavily wooded area. We use Frontline Plus too. While it doesn't prevent the ticks from landing on the dogs, it does seem to keep them from firmly implanting themselves. It's the Lymes ticks that scare me more -- they are so tiny. My Cooper had one on his eyelid the other day and if it wasn't for a friend of my son's, I would never have seen it. My dogs have been given the Lymes vaccine (I know not everyone agrees with it), but I'm not sure how much it helps. And yes, Cindy, I've had one diagnosed with erlichia too. I think we'd have to give up being outdoors to totally eliminate the threat.

[Cindy]

Yup, we started Layla on the Lyme vaccine in March since she tested positive and I'm sure my vet will encourage me to start Pippa on it as well. Apparently there's been a huge increase in the number of ticked related illnesses and all the vets are definitely pushing the vaccine which they hadn't been even a few years ago (at least not around here).