Just an update for those who may have been interested. I put the Seresto collar on the dog near April 1 after a couple of weeks of finding many live ticks on him in the house daily for over two weeks. The next full day I had Grayson out on our property in the brush looking for woodcock but did not find any. When we got back in the house I did find two ticks on him which were removed and properly dealt with.

Since then we've not seen another tick. I have him out regularly in the same areas where he was picking up lots of them and now none. I can't think of anything else that may have changed other than his collar and I can't believe that the ticks are suddenly gone for some reason. And, I've found ticks on myself, but none on the dog.

Grayson's behavior or demeanor has not changed at all and no family member has had any sort of troubling reaction...so far, so good.

Seresto collars are on all 3 of my setters

Eric;

Sorry that I didn't see this earlier. You can find this at Tractor Supply and most pet supply stores. It has a smell but it's not horrible.

https://i.imgur.com/w8FKknXl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/YOuwqQul.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/a0XhO1Ml.jpg

We use Seresto collars on three setters and our oldest shepherd. The youngest shepherd will take an oral treatment until she's a year old, then she will have a Seresto collar too.

I heard rumors of dogs having seizures but never from anyone who owned a dog that actually had seizures. I checked with my vet and she had also heard rumors but had not seen it personally and she assured me that my dogs shouldn't have any problems. That was 4-5 years ago and none of my dog have had problems. I put them on in early March and keep forget about them until the first of January. Easy as can be.

There are oral meds that also protect against heart worm and that's tempting but like I said, I haven't had a problem with seizures, ticks, or fleas and so I'm pretty settled.

I am blessed that I don't currently practice where we have a lot of ticks, but in North and South Texas where we hunt during tick season I use:

Seresto collars (has flumethrin which is a synthetic pyrethrin that repels the ticks)

Bravecto (oral med that kills any ticks that bite the dog; lasts 3 months for deer ticks and 2 months for lonestar ticks -- our Texas ticks are tougher!!). You can use other similar oral products such as Nexgard, Simparica or Credelio, in place of Bravecto, but they are not labeled to last as long per dose. The others are labeled for 30 days.

Adam's flea/tick spray: Apply to the day of the hunt (another synthetic pyrethrin that repels the ticks.)

This is a boot and suspenders plan, but it is everything you can do to get rid of those blood suckers.

I have seen zero problems with seizures either new cases or directly attributed to any of these products, but there are reports. FWIW...

This is an important topic-

My son nearly died from 5 late-stage tick-borne illnesses in 2015. He was 16 and bedridden with physical and cognitive impairment, fever, fatigue, and debilitating panic attacks. Just an FYI he never had joint pain or any classic lyme symptoms and all his preliminary tests came back negative. He had babeisiosis, bartonella, erlichia, anaplasmosis, and borrelia bergdorferi (classic lyme). (He is fine now, after 2 years of treatment, and he is a third year engineering student in college :))

We have 3 dogs. I have always sprayed my yard and used the collars and shampoos without much luck. We now use Simparica- a once a month tablet that has an ingredient to kill ticks before they even bite the dog but the agent is benign for dogs to ingest. Kind of like the vitamin K effect to rodents is not harmful to other animals. I worked in a veterinary hospital years ago and went to school for animal veterinary science the first time around, so I am always trying to learn about and investigate the new treatments.

Simparica has worked so well that we have literally not seen a tick in our home or on our dogs in over 3 years. Maybe one dead one on the floor. A drastic change from the hundreds of ticks each spring and fall on our dogs. I cannot recommend it enough. I works on our terrier and our great dane to the same degree of success. It is prescription only, but I get the handwritten script from the vet then order it from chewy.com for half the price.

Worth every single penny...

Kerilynn

That's great advice Kerilynn from one who is obviously 'in the know'. Thank You!





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Hi Eric,
Adams is a spray or shampoo that is very safe for puppies and dogs. It works very well and has a nice scent when dry. It used to be available only at the vet, but now you can buy it anywhere- I know Walmart carries it. You have to keep the shampoo on for a few minutes to get the effect, or you can dilute the water with the shampoo and submerge the dog in the bath up to the neck for the same effect. The spray is also good, but you have to make sure to cover areas such as folds of skin under arms, around the hock joint, behind the ears, etc.