Cats and dogs with ticks

Just a small question for Hope: one keeps reading that you should not use anything to try to suffocate the tick, like oil or vaseline, as it then enters into a life struggle which in effect lets the tick exude even more poison into the host...

Sounds like ticks are a major problem this year, good luck with finding the right deterent for them. Lyme disease is not very pleasant and Googling it tells you stuff that will give nightmares for life. My OH got it last year,fortunately very mildly and it cleared up very quickly with the correct course of antibiotic. Funnily enough, he can't remember being bitten by anything, or even seeing a tick, just possibly scratched by the undergrowth in a boggy patch at the back of our garden.

Hi

I'm doing a veterinary assistants course and have come across lecons on ticks etc..

Frontline does not stop ticks from going on cats and dogs, it is a 'medecine' which kills the fleas and ticks (along with other parasites) as soon as they bite the animal. Fleas it kills and their eggs. Ticks will be killed as soon as they lock down on animal therefore the poison emitted from the tick will not effect the animal!

if your cats have had lots of ticks and never had tick fever (highly dangerous and can kill the animal in question) then the frontline IS still working.

If your animal has a tick that you are worried about pulling off you can put a blob of vaseline on the tick this will suffocate the tick (they breathe through their back ends when attached to animal) and it will die and drop off! Rather than the pulling it as it will need to be twisted off rather than a tug (tugging leads to the 'mouth' of the tick being left in the body therefore the poison will still be transfered whether the body of tick is there or not).

I know they sell alot of 'mint collars' in shops which is supposed to 'stop' ticks and fleas from jumping on to the animal as it doesn't like the smell! i don't know really how effective these are as i have only two cats and personaly would never put a collar on my cats (ie climbing in trees and getting collar stuck therefore hanging themselves, i don't know if the mint collar is elasticated so would come off if ever they did get stuck)

I doubt this has helped you haha as the question was of cheap bulk buying of products!! But you never know any bit of useless info could help another haha!

And yes frontline is expensive, i buy 'advantrix' or somethink like that it is the same as frontline but cheaper! Works just as well (if not better in my opinion). For exemple for my <4 kilo cat i buy a pack of 5 'pipette' for 19 euros where as a pack of 4 from frontline is nearly 25 euros! i think it also depends on where you buy them! as vets also put there own prices on depending on how big the clinic is!

Good luck

Hope x

Hi there,

I tried these last time to buy Advantage for my three cats. It worked out much cheaper.

Good luck.

http://www.parapharmacie-discount.net

Claudia