Marion I'm the tick queen of the Western world. Sadly. Because of where we live - Moorland, bracken, sheep - my dogs are veritable tick magnets. Plus, this part of England never really gets cold enough to kill off ticks, thus I begrudgingly pull off ticks all year round. I tried a variety of natural things, neither of them were effective.
I found Frontline useless, never mind how carefully and diligently I applied it. My dogs still got ticks and far from killing them off, they appeared to be thriving on them. Whilst I second Deb Tripp's recommendation in regards to the Whole Dog Journal - it truly IS a great publication - I found their article about natural tick management less than useful. If I remember correctly, the chief advice was to keep your dog away from tick prone areas and to check the coat thoroughly for ticks after each walk. One CAN see the crawling ticks before they attach but they are really tiny and with a long haired dog they are b*****s to find. Summa summaris, the article didn't really offer an effective alternative for tick control, either. On our last vacation to Switzerland the Swiss vet highly recommended a product called " Ex-Spot" for ticks. He said he hardly uses Frontline anymore since it really doesn't work. "Ex-Spot" is one of those chemical concoctions, too, but you have to weigh up the lesser of two evils. From what I gather, most European vets use this product and have given up on Frontline. I brought some "Ex-Spot" home with me so if you want any further info, please let me know. Also, one of the European members might know this product better than me ( Bernd? Tim? ) and perhaps could comment on it. Either way, it certainly works. Regards Michaela, Harvey & Rupert Devon/UK
