Ticks
 

Okay, I'm starting a new thread because I NEED support! I have never seen ticks in my life till I moved here - apparently they're commonplace out of town (where I live - be careful what you wish for!). I am not handling the presence of ticks very well (not easy to check 3 dogs for ticks when they all have heavy coats). I'm verging on asking for a prescription of Valium!!!!

So this is a place for people to offer sympathies, reassurances and advice (if you're a tick expert). If you want to ask questions of me about my experiences, be prepared for an hysterical answer........

;)

Re: Ticks
 

Ticks are not just in Canada.

When my kids were very young, and I lived in Germany, I found two ticks on my daughter (separate occasions). I was totally grossed out :eek:, but OH managed to get them out okay. :thumbup:

Never had any problems since, not even with dogs, and am hoping it will stay that way.

Good luck!

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Not In Canada yet so not sure whats available - but here in the UK we used to take our dogs up to the Lakes with us walking - we were often walking through fields etc full of sheep poo - prime place for guaranteed ticks - I just used 'frontline' on my dogs and it seemed to do the tick ( ha ha ok i mean trick i know that was sad!!!) Not sure how it works for ticks but i know its stop fleas breeding so probably works in the same way- you can get sprays and powders too that apply instantly to kill any that might be active on the woofy.

Best bet is to ask your vet whats current

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Hi If you use a vaseline type product, smother the tick in it it stops their ability to breath and they die and fall off a dotor told my freind to do this when her daughter got one (need a puky smily)....I bet olive oil would work as it would block there breathing bits (i think theyre similar to gills) too....Good luck

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Hadn't heard that one Tashy :thumbsup: our dogs have had them in the past but we use frontline now and touch wood have no probs

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Hi Esme - our dogs all have tick collars - they work great. But we have had to remove lots of ticks in our time (used to live near the New Forest!).

Always use tweezers to pull the tick off. Don't touch the tick and it's best to wear gloves when you do this. Grab the tick as close to the head as possible and pull the tick gently out. If the head of the tick remains in the skin, try to grab it and remove as much as possible. If you are unable to remove the entire head, don't worry - it's not life threatening. Your pet's immune system will eventually dislodge it.

You can try to suffocate them (we used to use all sorts of things!) but even if they do suffocate they won't fall off (honestly!) so you still have to do the icky bit.

Good luck! J :)

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Thanks for all the suggestions - you guys are awesome. Anyone with non-medicinal (herbal/naturopathic) recommendations?

I manage to have developed a technique for pulling off the 'un-engorged' (flat) ticks but have difficulty when they're bigger. There is some body still lodged in one of my dogs' lip - I've been putting polysporin on it to at least keep the possibility of infection at bay. Is it best to leave it "as is" and let it eventually work its way out? I had difficulty removing that tick even using tweezers as close as I could to the skin.

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out in the new forrest mate of mine popped behind a bush to relieve himself. later on that night noticed a big old tick smiling up at him .:ohmy:
You may of heard the screams in Canada:rofl:

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We used to use a "Flea and Tick" Collar, but I still recall our collie getting a couple of ticks in deepest Sussex. :eek:

Collars can be quite toxic though, especially when you first remove them from the packet. I remember mum used to leave one out in the garage to "air" for a few days before putting it on the dog.

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I will ask a friend who is a vet she has used some alternative treatments on animals, I wonder if Tea tree would do ?

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I use frontline at the moment aswell, best thing on the market for ticks and fleas, may need to get a supply before we move over????!

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Good point do you think that would be okay in the cases ? is it classed as a drug just thinking sniffer dogs ?

Re: Ticks
 

Hi,

To be honest, i'm not a fan of Frontline - it is very good at doing what it is meant to do but why put a chemical into your animals system if they don't have fleas or ticks, as it is recommended to Frontline them every 3 months.

I have used it in the past & may do in the future (2 dogs & 3 cats) but only if one of them has fleas & then i'd do them all at the same time.

For ticks I use a Tick Remover. The 'V' shaped prongs are placed gently round the tick where it has attached its self & then you gently turn it (like you're unscrewing) until the tick comes out - usually still alive.

I always wear gloves & then dispose of it carefully - usually squished in kitchen/loo roll & then in a bag & straight in the wheelie bin.

Re: Ticks
 

I'm not sure:confused:

This is one aspect of the emigration lark I am yet to look into:rofl:

I bet there will a rule about it being classed as drugs in some way, will have to stuff it down the socks;)

Re: Ticks
 

Don't worry Nikki - we had loads of ticks when we lived near the New Forest but absolutely nothing here (well for the last two years anyway) and we do go into the "wilderness" quite a bit ... J :)

Re: Ticks
 

When we stayed in Scotland, our dogs used to get ticks all the time even with frontline although it did reduce them (lots of deer and sheep in the area). We used same type of thing as Arris, which we got from the vet. Best thing ever for removing them - and this from a girl that used to don full protective gear for getting rid of them to start with!

However - my life is now blissful - we are in Newfoundland, and there are no ticks on the island! woo hoo!

Re: Ticks
 

I think you can get something from the vet called defend, put it on the base of the neck and the tail...a couple of drops seems to do it. Our neigbour had one on him last year and he ended up with Limes disease, so if your dog has one still embedded watch out for unusual behavior. Well now you have seen the ticks how about the black flies...have you seen any of those down at your end of NS?

Re: Ticks
 

That's good to hear, maybe the cold weather helps to keep the numbers down???

Whereabouts did you live before the move?

Re: Ticks
 

There are meds on the market for the dogs to take that repels the ticks and there are tick and flea collars and powders. Talk to your vet asap.

Re: Ticks
 

The old remedy for clear a head with lice was to shampoo with oil. Does work.

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Just outside Poole ..... but my son lived in Christchurch (he's moved now to Verwood).

Have you got long to go before the move? J :)

PS - apologies for going off topic ....

Re: Ticks
 

Eeeuuuuuwwwwww..............I need the green prongy thing to scratch myself now as I am itchy as all heck! I am all kinds of squeemish when it comes to these things. My friends mother used to get a lit cigarette and burn the tick off......it didnt take a second and the dropped off. Handy of you are a smoker, though I always marvelled at how she could then continue to smoke the cigarette........surely it was a little tick tainted??

No advice whatsoever from me then, but glad for the heads up!

Poor pooches!

Re: Ticks
 

http://www.masta-travel-health.com/tickalert/

I'm not medical, so if I have this wrong please correct me.

Ticks are a large problem in central Europe.
I used to live in Switzerland where there were ticks. The local government recommended a vaccination against the encephalitis element of tick bites. Ticks can also spread Lime disease, against which there is no vaccine.
I had all my family (and kids) vaccinated against ticks, but you still had to be vigilant.
It seems that this is known in Canada - I did a google and came up with:
http://www.saskatoonhealthregion.ca/...ccine_tick.htm

HTH

Re: Ticks
 

Hi Esme
First things first. Get a GRIP ! (of yourself):blink: I have three hairy dogs , (always have had , come to think of it ) who , on occassions have picked up ticks. Ticks are prevalent in most parts of the world and are certainly common in the UK (hmm...possibly with the exception of London etc......toooo polluted there for them:rofl:) Get in touch with your local Vet and get medication to treat your dogs with. The name escapes me just now , but they'll know. You simply treat your dogs during the tick season ......simple as that. No panic, hysteria or any other abnormal behaviour required !:p They'll live..........trust me:thumbup: I LOVE my dogs and would not let any harm come to them..............:wub:

Re: Ticks
 

I guess where you move to does have some impact. I lived in Ontario for 4 years and never saw a tick but there are areas of ON where they are apparently widespread. I have friends who moved here from Red Deer, AB and they've never seen a tick in their lives either. I also have a friend from New Glasgow, NS and she's never seen a tick.

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They haven't lived :rofl:

Re: Ticks
 

Your friend Snoopy has had the worst (in numbers, Esme has had the supersize ones, but only two!). I'm up in Hx on Tuesday and he's going to be shorn from head to foot - not glamorous, but one less dog to worry about!!!

Re: Ticks
 

Re: Ticks
 

I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but you should be more worried about West Nile Virus than ticks. Ticks are yucky and disgusting. I got one out with vaseline but I usually try to avoid going where ticks are if I can.

West Nile is different. I know someone who got West Nile and he was paralysed all down one side. He is fine now but its nothing anybody wants to get. So far as I can tell, it affects different people in different ways. Some people can get stung by a mosquito carrying West Nile and don't even know until they have a blood test and then it shows up. I think the only people who have actually died are people who are very old and have other issues as well.

I was selling a carpet at auction last year and couldn't get in touch with the guy to find out what it sold for. When he called me back he said he had been in hospital for two days because he had West Nile. And he was probably in his 40s.

Sorry to hijack your tick thread but there are worse things than ticks.

Re: Ticks
 

Not yet here but I am very familiar with them - mainly from the Rockies. They're a pain in the ass but not prehistorically UGLY like ticks. I'm told there have been no cases of Lime Disease here in Digby but there have been up the valley and down in Yarmouth. I will keep my eye out for unusual behaviour, but this is a fox terrier we're talking about. What do you class as unusual??!
Does the Defend come in a bottle that I can regulate No. of drops I use from?

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Wow, that scared poop out of me! :unsure:

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Hey Esme
My OH and me are going to be up your neck of the woods sometime soon whilst out cruising on the bike.............:thumbup:and if I hear of somebody from'away' behaving odd....wandering around , turning over every leaf of grass muttering about awful little blighters,:unsure:etc.....you can expect a severe telling off !!!:p:p:p

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:rofl::rofl::rofl:

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ooh, you are awful (but you may not be far from the truth!! :p )

Re: Ticks
 

We had an acreage in Hampshire and often had deer roaming. We would regularly pick up ticks. We smoothered them in vaseline and left them for 20 minutes and then with tweezers you had to remove them in an anti-clockwise direction to make sure you got all the legs out. If you left anything behind you could end up with infection. :)

Re: Ticks
 

I was judging at a dog show in Missouri a few years ago. After the show I was in my hotel room getting ready to go out for dinner. Standing in the bathroom, in the buff, I was looking in the mirror and saw something black on my boob, I glanced down and :eek: identified an ENORMOUS (well it was on my boob girls...)
tick, I leapt about a bit and swatted my boobs some. When my heart had calmed down a bit, and I had stopped hyperventilating (brown paper bags really do help :blink::rofl:) I thought I had better find the bloddy thing and dispose of it.
It was NOWHERE TO BE SEEN...I was not about to go out and leave this thing in my bathroom so I got down on my hands and knees to search better, this was when I discovered that it was nothing if not industrious, it was climbing up the inside of my thigh :(:thumbdown: at this point, I found that in another life I could easily have been a top class athlete, from all fours to standing in less than the blink of an eye, whilst simultaneously swatting for England (at that time.....probably would be Canada now) the tick, not to be defeated went spinning from thigh to toe, where it clung doggedly while I danced some wild dance never to be repeated (I hope)
I finally removed the thing with eyebrow tweezers and made sure it was dead before flushing it down that good old tick disposal unit found in all good hotel bathrooms :thumbsup:

I have in my time removed probably hundreds of ticks from my various animals, and have no problem at all doing so..........but my god, when I found the thing on ME I was (thank goodness I was in the room on my own, my oh would still be dining out on it now) absolutely horrified!!

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Sorry ..... but too funny!!!! :rofl::rofl::rofl:

Re: Ticks
 

too funny indeed! i had one camping once, with the brownies. The only problem was, it was the first night, and i was a leader....

so the other leaders decided to make an example of being 'ever vigalent. And me being a leader...had to grin and bear it.

So there i am, seated in the 'first aid chair' and along comes the otther first aider (heaven help us, they were making a production out of this) with gloves, apron, safety goggles and a huge butchers knife.

Now I knew this chappy fairly well...and he removed it with the very tip of said butchers knife. No harm, no foul.

The girls were suitably diligent on tick checking.

Re: Ticks
 

Oh, what a wonderful story, well told! I did laugh and it helps to know that other people have had similar experiences. I have an absolute fear of finding one on me - especially if I find it at night and it's out of reach (I live alone - no one to ask to take it off, although a friend is on alert and will expect a call. I just don't check after 10pm!!!!)

I have a reputation at work for being somewhat hysterical about ticks - especially after I called in to one of my colleagues when I couldn't get an engorged one off my border collie. She ended up suggesting I bring the dog in, which I was in the process of doing. I stopped to check where the tick (that I had stabbed on someone's advice and which was oozing dark thick blood) was so she (the dog) wouldn't get goo on the car seat only to discover it had gone and a tiny tick was there in its place. I felt sure it couldn't be the same one and retraced my steps. Sure enough, there it was on the hall carpet having fallen off. Fallen off ticks I can handle!!!

Re: Ticks
 

Any OT jobs????!?!? :rofl::rofl::rofl: