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!

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?

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

Whereabouts did you live before the move?

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.

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

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 ....

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!

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

Hi Esme
First things first. Get a GRIP ! (of yourself) 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) 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 ! They'll live..........trust me I LOVE my dogs and would not let any harm come to them..............

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.

They haven't lived

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!!!

thanks, this is good advice and may be my only option!

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.

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?