Tick Filled Day

[Gracie's My Girl]

I am religious about checking for ticks and grooming our puppy. However, something terrible happened today.

I got Gracie up this morning and we worked on her training. In the process of praising her, I began to scratch behind her ears. I was horrified to feel tons of small bumps around the bases of both ears! I sat her down and begin to look at her closely. From the tip of her nose, to the tip of her tail...she was covered in hundreds of ticks. There were easily ten per square inch of her body! They were tiny ticks, just slightly bigger than the size of a period.

I was incredibly worried because I had checked her over throughly yesterday morning and had seen nothing. She is on Frontline, so it was a mystery to me how she could suddenly become so infested with ticks. However, I believe that she could have gotten them when I called her to me and she took a small detour through some tall grass and reeds on her way to me.

Dealing with the ticks has been a huge problem. I ran to the pet store and got some tick shampoo. We completely bathed her in it. Thankfully, it got ride of the majority of the ticks. However, the minority is still pretty large. I spent a good hour picking the left over ticks. I still have a ways to go, but at least it isn't as bad as it was. I am so thankful that I have get her used to being handled. It would be nightmare if she didn't allow people to have their hands all over her.

I don't think that Gracie minds too much though about all of this. We gave her a nice meaty bone to chew on while we pick ticks off! I wish I had her cool sometimes.

It is tough to realize that even though you can do your best to prevent problems, they still can happen.

As a side note though, I would love to know what others do to prevent ticks. I am starting to wonder if Frontline offers enough protection.

[BowWowMeow]

There is someone on the other forum who had this happen yesterday too but she lives in California. It is obviously a banner year for ticks.

I have seen a lot of posts from people complaining that Frontline doesn't work for ticks or fleas but I don't think it's supposed to repel them, just kill them once they're already on your dog.

I would avoid that tick shampoo from the store--it has been linked to serious side effects. Neem shampoo should get rid of them or I know some people use diluted Dawn dishwashing liquid.

[e.rigby]

Sounds like she got into a nest! I've done that before, while hiking I somehow came across a tick nest and was covered in little seed ticks after the hike :/

Frontline Plus (if you're using the plus) should kill them (hopefully) before they can transmit anything, and considering their all probably baby ticks they shouldn't be too bad. It'd be worse to try and pull them all out, as you're more likely to leave the heads behind...

Also, Advantage (I think, maybe it's Advantix) will repel ticks so they don't have to bite to be killed by the preventative medication.

The flea and tick medication from petstores has some pretty harsh pesticides in it.. however, if the ticks don't die within a day, I would probably use it during the day when a vets office is open (just in case your dog has a reaction) because that many ticks on a dog for that long can be trouble.

Dawn works at suffocating fleas, ticks don't seem as affected by it...

[e.rigby]

Crazy solution:

Fill your bathtub with 6 gallons of water, and one- two bottles of ketchup. Scrub up your dog in the water, like you are giving it a normal bath. Then squeeze some lemons or limes all over your dog. The acid from the tomatoes in ketchup, mixed with the lemons will create a chemical that causes all of the ticks to leave. Then, letting your dog soak in the ketchup for a 10 minutes will help heal the wounds and ease the pain.

Source: Dog jumped into a tick nest....? - Yahoo! Answers

[GSDAlphaMom]

It may be seed ticks they are tiny and come in droves.