I have heard a wee bit of garlic in the food can help - or diatamous earth

I dont know - I dont treat mine for fleas or ticks and (touch wood) I have only had to pick a couple of ticks off them in the past 5 years (and I walk them in ares where my friends dogs get loads) it may be the raw diet - or luck

Billy No Mates........works brilliantly on my tick magnet

Ticks are a real problem here in summer. No flea control stuff stops the tick attaching (even if it says they will die within 24 hrs. who wants a tick on their dog for even 24 hrs?)

The advice is, in areas where they are a worse problem (like where my bella is boarded coz it is farmland all around) to wear a good tick collar too. Fortunately she is short velvet coated so they would be dead easy to spot and the only one she's ever picked up was on the inside of her ear.

With my old cavalier it was a nightmare. I only missed one of them - it had attached itself right between two of her toes - end on - so the comb missed it. I was alerted by her chewing at it - off to the vets - it got infected - cost a fortune etc.

The stray dogs here are a real sight in summer - they have them hanging like bunches of grapes all over their brows and off their lips - ewwww! Poor things.

I use Advantix, as mine are forever in really bad areas for ticks

Willow has been picking up ticks like crazy these last few weeks (hedgehogs in the garden may contribute to the problem) so we went to see the anti-tick people at Crufts. They told us

• Frontline is NOT a repellent, it only kills the ticks once they bite
• The same people who make Frontline make a tick repelling-and-killing formula, but it's prescription only
• For humans, anything with DEET kills ticks, but clearly NOT recommended for pet animals
• If you want to try a natural repellent (for the UK anyway), calendula is said to work (I guess as an oil or shampoo)

Willow is currently modelling eau-de-calendula, and the tick rate has gone from 3 or 4 a day to 1 or 2 a week. I plan on talking to the vet about the repelling-and-killing stuff, but there's usually a reason to make something prescription-only, so we may or may not try it.

I swear by Scalibur.. I put them on my dogs in April and leave them on for the whole year... seems the best so far x

I use Advantix on the dogs and just make sure the cats don't get too close to the dogs for 24 hours.

Last month a neighbour accidently dosed his cat with Advantix, and the cat was very ill but did survive. Who knows whether there has been longer term damage though......

I have cats too . My understanding is it's ok as long as you don't put it on the cats .

My cat is quite elderly (21)


I don't think her immune systerm is all what it used to be and I would not want to put that at risk any further by giving the dog something like Adventix? Or scalibur collars whch are not safe for cats. Millie comes into quite close contact with the cat when she is feeling tolorant.

I have tried garlic before works complete wonders for the chickens but no good for the dog

The breeder was using stronghold (does anyone know about this?)

I only use Advantix on mine when we are off to the Highlands, as they get so many on them up there. Where I live we don't have a tick problem thankfully. When I take the dogs off the hill to woods or fields for walks, where there may be ticks, I give them a brush over and make sure there are none on them.