Ticks

[Cathouse]

Does anybody know the season for ticks,? my dogs are picking them up all the time, I use frontline each month to protect them against tick fever but would like to know when it will be safer to go out

[Chrissid]

It depends very much on where you live, i.e. how warm, cold or wet it is all year round. I have problems with ticks pretty much all year round and I never stop treating any members of my menagerie.

Christiane

[Joanl]

LAST EDITED ON 18-Apr-04 AT 05:31 PM (GMT)

My Westie has been getting ticks most days (24) we give the monthly frontline combo treatment but she unfortunately picked up a nastie one, and caught the piri... disease, signs which we did not take seriously, lethargic, not eating, then on the 2nd day, very feverish , 3rd day took her to vet who took a scrapng from her ear, had it lab tested, and confirmed the disease had taken hold, loads of injections & tablets and told to hope for the best, signs not good, next day back to vet as there was no improvement, more blood tests, confirmed the disease had gone to kidney, more injections & tablets, and told 50/50 chance of recovery. She recovered much to the amazement of the vet. But be warned, the disease once caught will kill within a matter of days without treatment. I discovered that there is an annual injection which will further protect against the disease, but you need to ask for it. Our mistake... we had been giving frontline for dogs up to 10kgs, my Westie weighs in at 9.5kg, really on the borderline, we now treat her with the higher dosage, and so far not 1 single tick has attached itself whereas before they were always attaching & needed to be detached with the hook. Good luck to everyone in the tick areas, & I hope you do not have to go through the same experience as we did. Joan.

[Cerise]

As well as Frontline it is possible to get your dog injected against tickborne disease. The injection is only about 70% effective BUT our French vet advised that he had never known a dog die from Piroplasmosie once innoculated, even if they did pick up the disease.

The injection "Piridog" needs to be done separately from the other annual injections and is quite expensive (from memory about 40 euros per dog) but local vet considered it worthwhile for dogs coming from the UK as they would not have ever been exposed to the risk and, therefore, would not have built up any immunity. I have had my 2 dalmatians - aged 3 and 12 - done for the 2 years we have been here with no ill effects. It is important to continue with the Frontline as well.

Hope this is useful.

Maggi