Tick prevention?

[Bonne Bouche]

How do those here (with black doodles) check for ticks?

Do you have a routine that you do to check? How can you see so deep in the black fur, I'm having troulbe getting BB to sit still long enough to check him thoroughly.

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

My black doodle has pure white skin.  The area where she is white, the skin is pink.  So this would be easy to see.  Is the skin black on your doodle?  My white doodle has many areas with black skin.   Pure black skin underneath a thick coat of white hair.  Go figure?

  I really don't check for ticks much but make sure I apply K9Advantix each month.  If there is anything there is usually shows up by just petting the dog.  Those who live in areas with tiny deer ticks might do this different though.

 

[Bonne Bouche]

That seems so strange! Yes, BB's skin is blacky-purple, I just assumed all black doods would have blackish skin!

[Jacque Reynolds]

It is almost impossible to find small ticks, I usually only find them once they are engorged. Ugh.

My vet said that the flea/tick spot-on treatment only kills them AFTER they have attached and so it stops their egg cycle but doesn't stop them from getting on the dog and attaching. He said that if your dog is going out in a tick area, you can use the tick collar just for the time they are outside and it will repel the ticks. You have to use the kind with Amitraz (preventic has this) because the inexpensive collars don't work.

You can also dust some DE (Diatomaceous Earth) on the dog but be careful not to have him breathe it in and use only food grade: http://www.dirtworks.net/Diatomaceous-Earth.html

I have read about certain botanicals that are good to repel ticks but I don't have any experience with that.

My favorite tick removing tool is this: http://www.tickedoff.com/

Finally, if my dogs get ticks that attach and get engorged, I immediately start them on a round of antibiotics just in case the tick had a disease. If the tick does have a disease, they will put the dog on antibiotics so I do it as a preventative.

Oh...one more final thing (smiile) ...if your dog gets a LOT of ticks that are embeded, they could get tick paralysis...so you need to watch for these things if you are in an area of ticks like we are.

[Bonne Bouche]

Great response! Thank you! I never worried about ticks before, but after reading about them a little, its scary! We do live in an area with ticks, so we will look into geting some form of prevention or plan of action for this!

 

I'd enver heard of using DE like that, Very intersting!

 

THANKS!~

[Jacque Reynolds]

You are welcome...ticks and foxtails...the bane of a dog's world!

 

[Ann]

Great advice ..thanks! I also use K9 Advantix each month as we walk Bella in the woods on our walks. She has escaped all ticks so far, just found one on hubby!