TICKS!!!!!!! oh, please help me! (dermatologist, house, buy)

[chicagomama]

My dogs have never had a single tick on them. Let me rephrase- we have never seen a single tick on them. This past week we took them to the dog park, where they haven't been for a while, and I noticed my one dog started to shed clumps of hair in the house. I thought it was just the heat starting to get to her, so we shaved her today (we always do in the summer). Low and behold, we found AT LEAST 20 ticks. I am mortified, feel awful for her, and terrified of the prospect of a tick infestation.

I called my bug guy, who can't come until this week, and right now I have the dogs in the garage. I am heading to PetSmart to see what they say. I have never seen anything like this- my dogs are spoiled, inside dogs....

What should I do!?!?!???? Please help!!! The stories on-line are just scaring me and people are saying I will never get rid of an infestation once it starts!!!!

[maggie2101]

I don't know what you should do about the house, but Frontline or Advantage works very well to kill the ticks on the dogs.

Having grown up in Los Angeles, I had never even seen a tick until I moved to Arkansas and then Texas. I found some dogs that had gotten loose from their yard and brought them into my house and they had ticks all over them. They dropped what I call tick balls (blood engorged ticks) all over the place and I have horrible memories of stepping on one barefoot.

I know it is really disturbing even thinking about them...good luck!

[Seoid]

Call your vet and ask for Capstar. Capstar helps get rid of fleas and ticks right away.

If your animals aren't on preventative like Advantage or Frontline- I'd also ask your vet about it.

[EasilyAmused]

Advantix doesn't work, IMHO. It may "prevent," but my dogs run through the woods with monthly Advantix and pick up deer ticks all the time(not in houston). One had Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever 2 years ago while on Advantix. Still has them riding along from time to time.

[elan]

Since your Vet probably isn't open today, I'd shampoo them with some Head & Shoulders. A dermatologist friend of mine uses it on his dogs (has for years) and swears by it. I would call the Vet first thing in the morning though.

[EasilyAmused]

I love Head and Shoulders on dogs. Doesn't repeal or remove ticks. Sorry. Great for the coats and skin though.

For the house, call a pro. Dry Ice traps or spray the whole house with Demon(not remmended indoors) are the only ways I've heard that are totally effective.

[testmo]

tick infestations is relatively difficult if you keep a clean home and don't have like 14 animals. trust me - if you have some ticks in the house they will find your pet and be on them pretty quick. Lived in the tropics for a period of time as a kid and our poor dog had his fair share of pests sucking him dry. ticks getting on us or sticking in the house never happened. my dad used to flip our dog over every night to pick off the ticks by hand. where we lived and in the 80s don't think they had access to things like Advantage.

every dog should be on advantage as a preventive measure. when i took in my rescues i'd groom them close by hand and remove all the ticks i found followed by a good bath and dip. that'll kill them all.

[chicagomama]

Thank you- they are in the garage for tonight. I am calling the vet in the morning and asking for Capstar!!!

[citizen_jane]

I agree with the others about putting your dogs on a oral or topical medication to prevent fleas and ticks. Your vet should be helpful in recommending a product because there are many choices.

My dogs have picked up ticks over the years and I came across this trick for removing them. It is so simple, I didn't believe it would work. I decided to give it a try just in case and to my complete astonishment, it worked exactly like in the video. I would recommend wearing rubber gloves and I put the ticks into a jar of alcohol. You basically spin the tick until it lets go. Every tick I have removed backed out alive and in tack.

How to remove a tick

[jimboburnsy]

Originally Posted by chicagomama

My dogs have never had a single tick on them. Let me rephrase- we have never seen a single tick on them. This past week we took them to the dog park, where they haven't been for a while, and I noticed my one dog started to shed clumps of hair in the house. I thought it was just the heat starting to get to her, so we shaved her today (we always do in the summer). Low and behold, we found AT LEAST 20 ticks. I am mortified, feel awful for her, and terrified of the prospect of a tick infestation.

I called my bug guy, who can't come until this week, and right now I have the dogs in the garage. I am heading to PetSmart to see what they say. I have never seen anything like this- my dogs are spoiled, inside dogs....

What should I do!?!?!???? Please help!!! The stories on-line are just scaring me and people are saying I will never get rid of an infestation once it starts!!!!

Frontline doesn't seem to work very well anymore. The local strain of brown dog ticks (which isn't that bad - they aren't known to be vectors for many diseases and they exhibit a strong preference for dog blood over human blood) can be controlled with Frontline application every two weeks, but they still have to bite the dog to be killed.

Advantix, to me, seems completely inneffective. If I treat the dog with Advantix I find a lot of fully engorged ticks that have dropped off the dog looking for a place to lay eggs.

Google "Scalibor Collar". It works well. The collar is impregnated with deltamethrin and, over the course of a couple of weeks, deltamethrin diffuses through the oil in your dog's skin. It has repellent and insecticide effect, so after a while the ticks will not even bite the dog.

The yard sprays that you can buy at Home Depot or Petsmart are marginally effective. Either have a professional treat your yard or you may find some relief by regular treatment with diatomaceous earth. This probably isn't something that you are going to do, but chickens will pick all of the ticks out of your grass in a matter of days.

Keep your grass short, don't let weeds get thick enough to shade the ground - that's great tick habitat. The most important thing in the house is to take away habitat. Any gap in baseboards or door casing, even if it's 1/16", is enough for ticks to hide in. Dust those areas with boric acid powder.

Ticks can live for a year without feeding, so if you have an infestation in the house it's going to be a persistent problem unless you do something about it.