Please Help....

[PrinceandSammysMom]

Hi everyone,

So it's getting to the end of April, and I have found one tick crawling on my Polmeranian, and one tick atatched to my poodle......

I hate ticks....


I have had my poodle for almost a year now, and I have NEVER seen a tick on him before today. We picked the tick off of my Polm before it atatched (actually, DH picked it off) but I had to get the tick out of my poor baby poodle.... I wasn't about to use my fingers, so I just grabbed some tweezers. I COULD NOT GET IT OFF!! Finally I got a leg pulled off, then a little bit of his butt, then a little more, until finally I thought i'd gotten it all.... but i'm pretty sure the stupid ticks head is still in there. What do I do??? Will it work it's way out? Or get infected? Can ticks give dogs diseases or make them sick?

I'm just completely grossed out, and mad at myself for not being able to get it all out..

Last summer we used Front Line on my poodle, but I don't know how we'll be able to afford buying twice as much of that stuff, now that we have TWO dogs...

So is there anything I can buy for my dogs, that will keep these horrible things off of them and NOT cost us an arm and a leg?........

[Punkygirl0101]

Ticks and parasites CAN give dogs diseases, and transfer illnesses to them.

Over the counter, cheap products, don't usually work and are a waste of money. Your best option would be going to a vet for flea meds. Actually, my friend told me she saw Frontline Plus at Target (And it was 3 months worth for 33$, maybe you could check that out?)

[dogs4life]

Punky's right, ticks do transmit diseases, but it depends on the species of tick and the area you live in to determine your risk. If you still have the ticks, your best bet is to preserve them in alcohol and take it to the vet so you can have ID'd. It's also best to talk to your local vet, wildlife manager or animal shelter about tick borne diseases to determine your risk, who knows you might be really low risk.

If you'd like to research a bit, maybe Google Ehrlichiosis, Tick Borne Illness or Disease in Dogs.

Since you think the head is still in your dog, I'd try to either dig it out (it will hurt your dog) or have the vet look at it and dig it out.

About prevention, we just do a tick check when ever we take the dogs in the woods, just like we do for ourselves and our kid. There are natural insect repellents if your interested, not sure about their efficacy but might be worth a try.

[Cassiepeia]

Yeah, ticks are bad news. My sister's dog died from a paralysis tick last year. Not sure if you have those ones in the US, but we have a lot of them here in Australia and they kill very quickly.

Cass.

[Doglover1988]

Go on ebay and buy some frontline. I got a 6 month supply for $30. I also only put it on my dogs when I see a flea or tick since I have 4 of them.

[GSD Keira]

IMO, forget the frontline plus and go with K-9 advantix...my sister lives in NC and i in NY. Both of us have found ticks on our dogs withthe use of frontline....but with the advantix, never found one. Not a flea or a tick in sight! and it protects against mosquitoes too! Plus, the advantix doesnt leave that oily look or feel at the application site.