Ticks this year where you live?

[Firelight Setters]

I have been reading all sorts of doom-and-gloom predictions that ticks are supposed to be terrible this year in areas like the Great Lake states, PA and New England.  What are you all seeing where you live?  Worse than usual?

I am heading to Maine and Vermont later this month to run dogs for a couple of weeks and I’m hunting MI in October so I’m hoping they aren’t as bad as the press is making them out to be.  Here in Kansas we have mostly just the big brown dog ticks and this summer they are about the same as usual.

[Thunder Bay Setters]

Have been told ticks are bad in Mi. But have yet to find any myself.  Anyone current on canine lyme disease, I didn’t think they were susceptible?

[October Setters]

I hope they aren’t worse than usual. Normal is bad enough. That’s the biggest downside to hunting the Lake states, at least as far as I’m concerned. Just about everyone we know who lives in the area of WI we go to has had Lyme, and two of our dogs have picked it up. Sometimes when you come out of a cover you can see dozens crawling, in sight on top of the hair, on the back of a dog. Who knows how many have already burrowed down in the hair out of sight. That trip is the only time we have to use any chemicals on our dogs.

We are very fortunate where we live- have never once found a local tick on a dog. Big game have them, but apparently it’s species that aren’t interested in dogs. Also no fleas, and no heart worm here (yet).

Lisa

[Classic Setters]

There are a lot of other tick diseases you also need to worry about other than just Lyme disease.  Some get more than one at a time.   Preventing tick bites is important.  Ehrlichiosis is much more common in MO than Lyme disease.

Fran

[Sugar Creek English Setters]

Ticks are a year round problem here (New York). 30 years ago ticks were a rare curiosity in most of New York. Long Island and areas very close to NYC being the exception back then. 20 years ago they became prolific in northern NY but not at home. Now pretty much anywhere in NY they are as Lisa described… if your dog is out in good cover they will collect very alarming numbers of ticks. I think its worth noting that really cold weather seems to have nothing to do with tick numbers. You can have a month of frigid weather, and then a day just above freezing, and you’ll find active ticks. The take away is always take precautions.

We have had very good success using Brevecto as an ever present sort of defense but dont think it is sufficient to protect the dogs when they get in the field. Then we also apply permethrin based sprays. Frontline and the Seresto brand collars work well too, in the sense that using them you don’t find attached ticks. Going to Brevecto avoided one more collar cluttering up the dog’s neck (Seresto) and obvious skin reactions we saw when using topicals (Frontline). Even with products that eventually kill the tick, without the spray the dog is a temporary vehicle to bring ticks into crates, kennels, vehicles, house etc.

We anticipate hearing many others use a similar approach but more importantly would like to hear if there is anything we missed too.

 

 

[Thunder Bay Setters]

Of the dogs who test positive, does anyone have an idea of the percentage who develop symptoms?

[Classic Setters]

We always have to do a risk assessment before deciding on using preventatives.  When we travel north we always use them as we don’t want to bring back Lyme disease.  In the many years we have lived in MO we have only had two dogs contract ehrlichiosis so it is a toss up if it is worth the risk.  We burn our fields every year which does help reduce tick populations.  We can’t use Soresto collars as the dogs live as a group and at times have removed and chewed up collars from each other.   Brevecto is not metabolized by dogs and is eliminated in the feces.  Something to keep in mind when disposing of the feces.  We compost them and the pile is a favorite area for our chickens to search for earthworms.  We have had a dog develop a skin reaction to the monthly permethrin products.  I don’t know if Certifect works better than Frontline plus as it also has Amitraz.  Dogs are not supposed to swim for two days after application according to the website. Then there is the issue of the transfer of the topical products to us for more than a week if we touch the dog. I don’t know what the best choice is at this point.  Perhaps someone can suggest something that is a better choice.

[October Setters]

I haven’t done it for a while, but every time I’ve looked at toxicity of the chemicals I’ve come to the conclusion that Fipronil (Frontline) is the least scary of the effective choices. None of them are benign.

Complications following eating an Amitraz collar killed a dog owned by Joan Mizer, and we had one eat one of those while he was in his crate (by himself) during the drive home from WI one year. He survived but required hospitalization for a couple of days. Amitraz collars were like a miracle when they came out, but Frontline has been even better. We don’t use any collars now due to the risk of eating, and rely solely on Frontline.

Foggy1- Off the top of my head I don’t know what percentage of Lyme positive dogs don’t show symptoms, but it’s a significant number. There is debate on what this means exactly, and whether these dogs really aren’t affected in any way.

As Fran pointed out, you need to consider more than just Lyme. In addition to the fact that the vaccine doesn’t work that well, you can’t just vaccinate and then go hunting thinking the dog is protected from tick diseases. Tick control is the number one thing by far.

FWIW, I think I get fewer ticks on myself because of applying Frontline to the dogs at the beginning of our grouse and woodcock hunt (I get some on my hands every time despite trying not to- probably should wear gloves). I know of people who live there who put in on themselves. Not advocating that however:-)

Lisa

[Classic Setters]

I know a lot of people let their dogs sleep in the bed and on the sofa but keep in mind if you use the topical monthly preventative you probably are getting it on you.  May not be  as much of a dose for adults but may be for children who may also have the genetic potential to have an adverse effect.  Genetic susceptibility along with a environmental toxin or virus, etc could be the cause of syndromes like autism.  There is so much we still don’t know.   Just something to consider when using tick preventatives.

Fran

[Firelight Setters]

I lived in Vermont prior to moving here to Kansas 3 (4?) years ago. Ticks went from pretty non-existent to hordes although some specific areas interestingly remained somewhat tick free. Over the years I had many dogs diagnosed with lyme, a couple with anaplasmosis and one with ehrlichia. My terrific vet saw a lot of tick disease in his clients and after thought and research he decided that it was best to treat if testing positive. His thinking was don’t give the spirochetes the time to get comfortable and settled into the body because he felt that was when more severe and chronic problems arose. That thinking seems on target with human exposure too. People who recognize early symptoms and quickly start a full month of meds seem to usually be fine whereas the people who didn’t even know they had a tick bite and were ill for months or years before diagnosis seemed to have more difficulty.  My dogs who contracted Lyme in the early days before we had/knew about testing had symptoms and a couple had chronic problems but the later ones who were treated quickly showed no symptoms.

Once Frontline came on the market I found a big decrease in disease in my dogs. I continue to use it when I grouse hunt and my dogs have been testing clear. I, however, came down with Lyme symptoms last winter a few weeks after grouse hunting in MN. I immediately started doxy for a month, symptoms quickly disappeared and I have been fine since.

[Classic Setters]

My brothers dog in NJ recently contracted Lyme disease again while on Frontline plus. His Vet thought that the ticks in the area were becoming immune to it and they may need to use something else.

Fran

[October Setters]

Frontline definitely isn’t foolproof- a very few ticks will attach and stay alive. The circulating wisdom is that ticks are becoming immune to it, but I can’t say I’ve seen any difference from when we first started using it. If I do I’ll be re-thinking trying one of the other poisons.

I agree with treating any dog that tests positive.

I keep thinking one of us is going to come down with Lyme. I get a strong reaction to a tick bite within minutes, so they don’t stay attached to me very long. Probably why I haven’t.

Lisa

[Thunder Bay Setters]

I use Bravecto but I am up in the air as to whether the lyme vaccine is prudent or not?  Not a fan of vaccine toxicity and if a large percentage of infected dogs are asymptomatic, is the cure worse than the disease?

[John Wagner]

I lived in northern WI for a few years, and hunt there every year and I am out and about in the spring. I didn’t notice ticks to be any worse this spring.

When I lived there, I came to the conclusion that Frontline was not effective for me. My dogs regularly had attached ticks that had to have been on for > 12 hours. I moved to K9 Advantix, which you can’t use around cats, but that caused a reaction on my youngest dog. It did work better for me than Frontline. I now use the Soresto collar, but it never occurred to me that a dog would chew it off/ingest it! Scary. I do take the collar on and off, not every day but for example if we will be in the field for the weekend, it will go on Friday and off Sunday. I have still found it to be more effective, as long as it is on nice and snug.

John

[October Setters]

It may be that Frontline has continued to work for us because we are only there for 2-3 weeks. We put it on at the beginning of the trip and are home before it wears off maybe?
Lisa

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