Ticks

iman29 said:
Shelby has been on NextGuard and HeartGuard since the beginning. The NextGuard+ combo is even better we have an automatic subscription for her now with our vet.

I dont take her to trails or any woods but you never know.
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In this part of the country you don't need to go to wooded areas. I used to live in a second-floor apartment in Yonkers and would find several ticks inside every year. Lil bastards scare the hell out of me.
 
Just received word that I was in the treatment group for the Pfizer Lyme Study.

It was in the news that not enough participants contracted Lyme in the placebo group to get the confidence up to where they needed it.
Pfizer has decided to file for general use - looks like they are 95% confident that it is 70% effective.
If the complication rate is low, that seems a reasonable start.

I will be participating in the follow-up study which is a 5th dose (maybe - again double-blind)
 
My dog gets one tick on him literally each time he goes out to potty in the yard..for the last week. And the grass is dormant so maybe 1/4” tall in spots. Never been so insane.

Any chemical methods you all know about for yards?
 
mtn said:
My dog gets one tick on him literally each time he goes out to potty in the yard..for the last week. And the grass is dormant so maybe 1/4” tall in spots. Never been so insane.

Any chemical methods you all know about for yards?
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You can spray your yard with permethryn just got to do the right ratio and keep in mind its not good for cats if you have outdoor cats
 
Also, the nervous receptors that permethrin reacts with in insects are used for hormone regulation in humans such as testosterone. I treat my clothes with it, but wouldn’t want my kids rolling around in grass treated with it.
 
Plant chrysanthemums. They may not do anything, but they are the plant that pyrethroids are derived from. Also, encourage local fauna that eat ticks (fowl, rodents...) by keeping a more natural yard. Basically, if you encourage a more complete spread of flora in your yard, you'll encourage a more complete spread of fauna. We have (now that the outdoor kitties are gone) a more complete small-rodent ecosystem, that supports bigger/more varied things that eat THEM. Traipsing through the parts of the yard that are more conducive to ticks (deeper leaf litter) is a sure-fire way to pick one up, but the grassy/green areas are quite a bit better. We manicure a ~10-12 foot wide path in the grass, but no longer brush back the ground cover. I'm trying to (currently) encourage dragonflies to help deal with mosquitos [we already have bats 🙂 ], but that is apparently a years-long process...the main stumbling block seems to be having a full-water ecosystem.

Flea/tick collar if you don't have kids/cats. Flea/tick meds if you do. @zmartene can confirm, but I'm pretty sure there's a 1x or 2x a year injection now. They were trialing something like that when I worked for a vet ~10 years ago. As always, the most effective treatments are also toxic to cats. I tell this story to everyone because it's important: we had a cat that accidentally got dosed with canine flea/tick meds--all the fur babies were lined up, and mom got distracted when picking up the next vial--she spent 3 days in intensive care, and lived out the rest of her natural lifespan, but she suffered neurological issues for the rest of her life. The initial prognosis is quite grim, and she (and we) were lucky that she survived, let alone recovered.
 
You can spray your yard but the next time it rains or your grass grows, you're back to square one. And then those chemicals end up in the waterways and affect crustaceans in the rivers. The next time a raccoon or a stray cat or a deer walks through, you're reinfested.

(Disclaimer: talk with your veterinarian first, but: ) Use an isoxazaline (combination) on your pets if you can - Simparica (Trio), Negxgard (Plus), Bravecto (1-month), or Credelio (Quattro). You'll still find the occasional tick but it kills them before they can transmit disease. You may find occasional dead ones on them, half-attaches and dried out. A dead tick on your dog means it's not laying eggs in your yard, and it's not climbing on you.

Literally the moment there's a human drug like it, I'll be on it.
 
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zmartene said:
You can spray your yard but the next time it rains or your grass grows, you're back to square one. And then those chemicals end up in the waterways and affect crustaceans in the rivers. The next time a raccoon or a stray cat or a deer walks through, you're reinfested.

(Disclaimer: talk with your veterinarian first, but: ) Use an isoxazaline (combination) on your pets if you can - Simparica (Trio), Negxgard (Plus), Bravecto (1-month), or Credelio (Quattro). You'll still find the occasional tick but it kills them before they can transmit disease. You may find occasional dead ones on them, half-attaches and dried out. A dead tick on your dog means it's not laying eggs in your yard, and it's not climbing on you.

Literally the moment there's a human drug like it, I'll be on it.
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We have a fenced in yard and my vet said ticks are being brought in by the millions of chipmunks cohabitating with us.
 
Thanks guys.
I actually ordered bravecto years ago and was super concerned about the side effects, so I never gave it to him. Just Saturday i spoke with a lady at a pet store and she said her dog died recently at young age just four days after giving Trivecta for first time. And she won a settlement with that company. I’m ok with my decision.

I do have another seresto collar on order. Maybe i had a faulty one.
He did come back positive for anaplasmosis again so he’s on doxy now.

I used to have a chipmunk infestation. Had to take out a bunch. I think it’s a deer, squirrel, cat, mouse issue. Best thing i can do is install a fence I think.
 
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