Captain Carrot. It's clear who is actually in charge now!

In full he's Captain Carrot of Cloud Nine (but just Carrot on paperwork, for obvious reasons). All my cats have been named after Terry Pratchett characters, and this suggestion by the OH was simply inspired
He even has his own Instagram account if you search for captaincarrotofcloudnine
And yes, we are merely his chosen crew

I thought Frontline was quite effective for cats. Would never consider Bravecto for a dog or a cat.

Also, as your cat is a kitten (age?)I would be extra cautious about what you give him.

Ah, well I asked the vet's, who have all his details, and that's what they recommended. He's probably 9-10 months old now so closer to adult than infant. I've heard horror stories about Frontline too. We'll try this, but I'm not desperately attached to any particular brand

We switched from Scalibor to Seresto a few years ago as Seresto is supposed to be better against Leishmaniosis, which we have in Spain. I have found a few ticks on our two (yes, Meloncollie, we have 2 now!), and the ticks usually are almost dead after starting to bite. Seresto is also supposed to be more effective if your dogs like to swim, which ours do.

PS - And also safe for cats, though I cannot speak to their efficacy on cats as we do not have one.

We’ve always used Frontline for our cat and never had any problems with it.

No idea about Bravecto as we’ve never used it.

Hi,
What is the best way to protect your dog (and your family) from ticks? I have used NextGard (tablets) for our dog and it has worked perfectly fine, it really kills all the ticks. I am just cobcerned if it has some negative side effect in the long run... What would you recommend here?

The 'best way' for your dog is to discuss the options with your vet. Ask your vet about the product you are using vs products posters have mentioned in this thread, ask about the pros and cons relative to your own dog.

Think of this thread as a springboard to further discussions. We can discuss our own experiences, discuss our preferences for our individual dogs. But what is right for my dog might not be the best solution for yours. This is doubly true if you are concerned about side effects.

Right now many vets are still limiting visits to emergencies or urgent care, which tick prevention likely does not fall under. So perhaps ask for a phone or email consultation.

You're absolutely right, but it does not hurt to hear about others experiences.

Well I have to say this seems to be the worst tick season for as long as I can remember
I don't know whether the Bravecto isn't working, whether we got more on ourselves than the cat, or whether there's just too many of the nasty blighters to cope with


I saw that Tierbedarf is selling an ultrasonic, non-chemical tick thing called Tickless. Any thoughts? It seems to get good reports, but I can't quite see how it would work

We have been using Tickless ever since we got our Shiba, I think I posted on this thread about 2 years ago (post 29, just checked). We still use it, it is not perfect as we discovered last summer when we found a couple of horrid ticks lurking in the thinner fur under his front leg and in his groin. Shudder. I then rushed to the vet with him for Bravecto. My reasoning is, Tickless does not bother the dog, hopefully it bothers the ticks and they are more likely keep away. However, ticks not so widespread or prevalent here in the Netherlands.

You cannot replace the batteries in the device, and in our experience, they each last about 6-9 months.

It's the worst year we've experienced so far for ticks. I picked 107 off our 2 dogs last week after 1 walk, 102 off the spaniel and 5 off the terrier which in itself speaks volumes.

Going to pursue some home made repellent based on Rose Geranium oil as we need something that reduces the number of ticks that stay on in the first place, Bravecto will do it's thing but i don't want an army of ticks wondering around the house.

Additionally we will change our walking routes as this plays a big part in it and then comb the spaniel after each walk to physically remove as many as we can.

I'm incredibly happy with my purchase of Seresto this year. I have allergies to many of the topical treatments but this doesn't bother me at all and I've found only ONE tick and it was dead shortly after biting. Last year in the same area where the dog picked up that one we'd find 20-40 after each walk. I'm calling that a major improvement. She's in the water a ton so sprays aren't really the most effective and I am really uncomfortable about using the chewables.

I thought I had it bad getting two ticks off my dog on the same day this week. For sure BL is not as bad as VD.
There is a spray I use, Martec Anti-parasite, to repel them, and Bravecto to kill them.
As you say, it's often by chance if you run into them, so difficult to know if any repellant works or not. You also don't know if it repels 100 ticks and only 2 get through, or it repelled none and the two still got through.

Keeping the dog away from the long grass along the edge of the woods and sticking to the trails is my tactic, and the finger tip search.

The Ship's Dog always had a Scalibor collar which worked really well. But I don't want to put a non-breaking collar on the cat, for obvious reasons. Which leaves topical preparations or some other solution


@CodPeace - where do you get Martec?

Qualipet usually have it on the shelf.

I've started to wonder if this might be why ticks seem so bad this year.

In the 'before times' I did as you do - stick to trails, avoid the long grass on the edges. But these days in order to maintain social distance I find I have to constantly step off the trail and into the field or forest. I suspect this might be why the mutts are picking up such an unusually high number of ticks.

Insert rant about folks who overtake by plowing through the middle, forcing everyone else off the trail...

Yes, completely agree. My internal dialogue now dictates (or am I dictating it?) each time that I have to avoid ignorant walkers / joggers / cyclists, and find a quick detour through low hanging bushes or trees, that if I don’t die from the Corona virus then I’ll die from Lyme disease.

This is only one of my daily forest walk internal dialogues at present. Others might include such stuff as “move over lady”, or others.

This despite walking at sunrise now.

Best time during the week is shortly after the joggers, who will be sitting on-call after 09:40, according to my findings. Weekends you can forget about anytime. Have bought a Goretex jacket, so hope that I can continue my walks in nature and in peace at least in the rain in the near future.

The chance of you catching covid outside from someone passing you is so close to zero as to be non existent.

I’ve been using Bravecto for three years on my two dogs, and I’m happy with it. Didn’t notice any secondary effect.

We need to switch to Adventix if we take them to Portugal to my OH family however, as Bravecto doesn’t deal with leishmaniasis.