Dogsey

Interesting, Liz.

It was something I looked at as Frontline just doesn't work on Rosie so we use Stronghold and keep our fingers crossed on the tick front.

She rarely goes into long grass areas, but the dreaded ticks are always a worry.

Unfortunately, we know that she has an allergy to flea bites and Stronghold so far has been very effective on that front

It's not the bite that is the real problem with ticks but as I said earlier Mollie rubbed hers off and had the head embedded in her, and I believe they spread diseases like lymes disease.

It is not where Pereg goes that is the problem for me, it is the fact that so many loose and/or stray dogs can, and do, come into my yard, and it is highly unlikely that any of them have ever been vaccinated against anything let alone treated for worms and external parasites.

That must be a problem and a worry Malka

Never had a problem with ticks on any dogs in the UK. Must have been very lucky. First tick problem in our family was when one attached to my daughter - her abdomen - on her travels before Uni - arghh!

Ticks were a problem in Limassol (which is a bid odd because it's mainly a concrete jungle) and I had to groom my dog daily and carefully and she STILL got bitten (despite 3 weekly Frontlining) and one caused a bit prob when it got her in the webbing between two toes.

Since moving further east I've had no problems apart from the one on Bella after being in boarding. A tiny one, attached just inside her ear (in fact looked like a bit of the blobby part of the ear) but even the owners of the boarding check them daily and tell you to do so when you collect because it is farmland all around.

The effective collars that you need alongside the Frontline and which can only be purchased from the vet, range from about a tenner up to around 35 euro. But Bella being so little and only needing the extra protection for a week or so - we go with the smaller cheaper one. So far no probs in the past 2 years. She is short velvet coated and dead easy to spot ANYTHING on her which helps.

I was the ace tick remover lady at the cat sanctuary in Limassol! Gawd there you could see the ticks hanging onto blades of long grass just waiting to leap on a passing animal.

My friend has a Newfie that seems to be a magnet for ticks and she uses Frontline so it doesn't seem effective to stop them latching on. I dose my dogs with Advocate but it doesn't cover ticks so my vet recommends Advantix. I hate these things and was grossed out to see a photo posted by a groomer of a dog in America that was so covered in seed ticks that you could hardly see any skin. The dogs gums were white and he was too weak to stand yet the owners didn't think to get him treated by a vet.