07/01 - Stats Saturday!

Frontline was pretty good for ticks in the Northeastern part of the country. Just not as good for the fleas...

Edit: I knew it was one word shutup

 

Now of course, YMMV but when we had a tick infestation last year I deticked the animals every day while we were attempting to get it under control. I would pull anywhere from 10-20 off the dogs daily and the cat never had a single one on her. I have no idea why. The ticks were literally climbing the walls in my house it was so bad.

 

We have to switch the brands up every few months with the dogs or they don't work as well. I actually tried some weird brand that had basically the same exact ingreients on Skeeter and it's working better for him then the Frontline is on Frank. We are having just a nightmare of a time with fleas this summer and I have to spray the house every friggen week and vacuum every spot. I actually got a flea catcher lamp doohick and it works pretty well! It has a little lightbulb and a sticky pad so anything that wanders into it gets stuck- it's consequently caught flies too.

I have a couple of these and they def help, living on a farm with a butt ton of cows and creeks is just...flea central.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000668Z96/?tag=thtv0f-20

 

Yeah they are feisty little fuckers this year. I have just come to terms and live in harmony with them

 

I actually just got a flea comb for the kitty and use that on them every day. Seems to be the most effective thing I have done to stop them so far.

 

Man, idk if it's just my dogs' coats or what but they NEVER get fleas. We go on walks in the woods, through creeks, mud, bushes, all of it...

 

The sick dog thing is what I'm worried about, because I used one tick shampoo on him that made him sick, but another one was fine. So, he's clearly sensitive to some of it, it's just a matter of which/how much/method etc. I'm trying to remember what I used on him before - I think it was Frontline, but I'm not 100% sure.

I haven't had any issues with fleas, surprisingly, thankfully. Two of my fuzzies are long-haired ridiculous puffballs, so you'd think it would be a struggle, but they're good. Even the stray I took in last November somehow didn't drag anything in. It's just the damn ticks.

 

What's funny is they don't ever bother me, but Matt gets eaten up! The dogs are fine, the cats are fine, but Bearnie is tearing out his own butt fur and scratching himself till he gets scabs everywhere. We give him the capstar pill once a week, which has been uuber helping and for whatever reason it's basically the only thing he can tolerate. I flea comb him with some of the advantage spray on the comb, and he's fine with that. You can even give him a very light spray of it, but any more and he gets sickly. Poor little guy. We were looking at trying the shot but the vet isn't sure he could even handle that without getting sick. He's been sick enough this year, I would about die if he ended up in the hospital again. Even thinking about him sick again make's me hella stressed out. I pushed back his neuter again to July like a little Grinch because I'm batcrap terrified of anything ever happening to him again. At this point, I think Matt is going to have to take him while I hyperventilate at home the whole time.

 

have you guys tried comfortis for him yet?

 

hamster sphere w/ Bearnie

 

That sounds like my personal hell. Very, very, very few things skeeve me out - centipedes/millipedes/anythingwithamillionlegsipedes, maggots, and ticks.

 

I think you should be fine with Frontline then. Be careful of tea tree oils. They make dogs sick. That may be what was in the shampoo. I had a dog shampoo for dry skin that had tea tree oil in it and it made him very sick. I couldn't figure it out until someone told me about it. I looked it up and they did a study where 80% of the dogs were poisoned by the tea tree oil.

 

I left the Northeast because of ticks. And it's hella expensive and cold. But mostly ticks.

 

We ended up getting an exterminator and then moving houses like 6 months later sooooooooo.
(we disclosed it and I hope the new owners have had no trouble)

Oh lord it was terrible. The first time we realized what was going on it was when we pulled a towel off from the top of my germie's kennel where she sleeps, and it was INFESTED. God I am getting shivers just thinking about it. They never attached to us or got into the bedrooms thank god.

 

Trying to get motivated to clean my house but it's just not happening...was hoping that some batches or good surveys would end up in my que so I could use that as an excuse but that's not happening either lol

 

My little dog has some random obsession with dead dandelions. She will run full speed if she sees one and lick it until all the seeds are off of it. She doesn't even eat it, just licks it to death and spits out the floaty things. I have absolutely no idea where she got the idea from but she's like 10 years old and it hasn't stopped being funny.

 

I did just clip some fresh chocolate mint leaves from my plant and make myself some home made mint tea...that has to count for something and I brushed my cat and have been playing with my daughter