Flea/tick prevention

[BlackHatGuy]

What flea/tick prevention do you use for your hiking buddies (and I am talking about dogs…)? Have you noticed any side effects from any that you’ve used/tried?

[Ryan Jordan]

Small dogs are very sensitive to dose, all of the non-permethrin options can have some notable neurological side effects if you dose too high, lots of documentation about this with both Advantage and Frontline. Mostly in cats and small dogs though.

We’ve always had 80-100 lb labs, all of them wilderness dogs who live and hike at altitude so ticks and mosquitoes are more of an issue than fleas. We’ve never had to deal with fleas.

We use Advantix and have never had any issues, so far…

[Kattt]

We are now using NexGard. We didn’t want to use a systemic treatment but after the paralysis tick ordeal and given how many ticks we are around, we put him on the pill. I don’t feel good about it; no side effects that I have seen but I sure wonder about what this does to Baldy long term and I worry.

[H W]

I’ve an 85 lb lab that takes the Nexguard chewable. No side effects. I’m in the midwest and it’s especially important here to re-start early April when ticks start coming out. I only give it to him thru late Sept and save some $$$.

[Bonzo]

We’re using pills as well; I’ll have to check on the brand.  I have two acquaintances in the veterinary field, and both of them have told me that the pills are not only safe, but the best option overall.  I’m inclined to believe them until I see reason to have doubts.

[Stumphges]

My 60# border collie mix gets Lyme vaccine boosters and Nexgard. The latter, as a glutamate agonist, could make a dog hyper, anxious, in theory, but we’ve observed no side effects. He has got anaplasmosis twice despite Nexgard, but this is probably due to being on the edge of the 20-60 pound dose range. We’ve since started giving every third week instead of fourth.

[Steven Paris]

Our dog is about 15 lbs; she gets a monthly Trifexis pill. I haven’t noticed any side-effects.

[BlackHatGuy]

Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated.

At my vet’s recommendation (I finally got a vet, woohoo!), I ended up with Simparica TRIO Chewables. If any nasty side effects occur, I’ll come back to this thread and let y’all know.

[SIMULACRA]

Nutritional yeast as a daily supplement is proven to work with animals, as well as humans. Is natural, organic and safe 100%. When taken daily or in the least regularly, the blood will develop a bitter taste. When the flea bites, it will not like it and jump off. With nothing around to eat, it will die. My outside cat had developed a very bad flea infestation many years back. Which meant my home became infested. None of the chemical flea meds worked. I tried everything. No amount of washing helped. It just got worse and worse. I was being bit badly. Pure misery. Fumigating the house just made them angrier. Finally came across nutritional yeast. Started using it myself first to test. After a week they were no longer biting me. Stopped using chemicals on my cat and used 1/4 teaspoon mixed into her wet cat food at every meal. Within 3 weeks the whole infestation was gone. Have continued giving her supplements of this at most every meal and she has never had a flea or tick since.

[Bonzo]

Interesting; I haven’t heard of using any sort of yeast for skin parasites.  Are there any published studies on that specific treatment?

[SIMULACRA]

Feel free to scour the internet Bonzo. I tried it first hand, based off articles I came across and it worked when nothing else did. I call that proof. I don’t need any .edu to tell me otherwise. Even though in this day and time it’s necessary to conjure credibility to the masses.

[SIMULACRA]

I will however re-iterate, it’s nutritional yeast, which is a deactivated yeast. Not to be confused with bakers yeast

[Ray J]

Our 100 pound dog is also on the Simpreica chew once a month.  He’s been on it a year and a half with no issues.  He doesn’t like them much, so he gets it swathed in butter, THEN he loves it.  He and I go hiking out at LBJ National Grasslands about weekly.  Hiking for him includes rolling in the FS roads, rolling in the grass, jumping in the old stock ponds.  The few ticks I find crawling on him, I yank off.  The few that bite him, die.  Seems to be a good product.

[Bonzo]

Feel free to scour the internet Bonzo. I tried it first hand, based off articles I came across and it worked when nothing else did.

I’ve looked and I didn’t find much, thus my question.  I found a highly-summarized conclusion from one published study in 1983 that saw no incidence of prevention between test and control groups, but that was it.  I did, as you mentioned, find a bunch of articles on the subject…but they had very few citations to back them up, and after $2900 of vet bills this summer that came about because my bunny got sick from nibbling on something that wasn’t good for her, I’m very careful about what my fuzzballs eat.

I call that proof. I don’t need any .edu to tell me otherwise. Even though in this day and time it’s necessary to conjure credibility to the masses.

If the yeast worked for you, that’s great; I’m glad it solved the problem, but a singular, personal experience isn’t proof…it’s just a personal experience.  I’m not sure what your problem with any given .edu would be, but in an age where misinformation flows much faster than truth I certainly won’t hold it against our doctors and scientists for doing whatever is necessary to demonstrate their credibility and expertise to the general public.

Again, I’m glad your problem was resolved, and I’ll continue to look into the yeast suggestion; thanks for posting it.

[Chris R]

Systemic tick treatment has completely changed our lives. Despite of using topical treatments the first couple of years hiking with our shaggy Bearded Collie cross were a nightmare. Day hikes would mean 100+ wood ticks on her face, in between her toes. It would often result in sore patches with no fur where she she would worry at the spot trying to get to a tick. It can still be short term bad; no one told her that if she leaves them be they will die and fall off so she will still worry at them. Compared however to the old days we can just leave her to it with the occasional intervention to remove any that are particularly annoying to her. We also treat for heart worm that is passed on by mosquitoes.

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