Parasite Control

[motherofmolly]

op, as far as your question. if your vet is "pushing" a certain medication, i would be leary of that. I have gone thru a couple vets as i see them like i would a doctor for myself. my current vet is fantastic. i needed flea med's once and i was given an option from 3 that they carried. i dont think flea/tick are something you need to use unless you have a consistent issue or your animals regularly roam. i have had two outside dogs for the last 15 years and only had fleas once. and those fleas were from me as i got them from a friends house while house sitting. her cat had them and i didnt know.

but, if you have a dog in an area with ticks, you really should give them flea/tick meds during the season. we are moving and i already told dh that starting in spring, the dog will get this meds and the lyme shot. it is the least i can do to make sure he doesnt get sick.

hearthworm should be a must. the treatment for this is painful for the dog. had a friend who has had two dogs go thru it. needless to say she still hasnt chosen to give them a monthly pill.

cedar chips is good to repell bugs. a teaspoon of oil (this would be for a larger dog) in the dogs dry food can help keep his coat healthy and his skin from getting dry. baking soda on their coat will keep the funky dog smell down too if needed.

[abond0017]

I agree with the others that a heartworm preventative is a must. I lost a dog to heartworms as a teen and it was horrible. We didn't know she was sick until it was too late. She acted fine until one day she just started vomiting and wouldn't eat much. This went on for about a week before my mom took her to the vet (she apparently had also lost weight but as a fluffy coated dog we didnt' really notice.) She was scheduled to be put down a couple days later and unfortunately the night before she ended up having seizures at the foo of my bed. Horrible thing to wake up to. Horrible thing for them to go through. My mom still blames herself for not being a more informed pet owner...she didn't really know anything about how bad heartworms were. A preventative is even more necessary if you live in an area that has a big mosquito problem or if your pet will be near a pond or any kind of standing water.

Then, if you also ever see ticks...you will need to do something about them cause not only can the dog become very ill from lyme disease, but the dog can bring the ticks into your house/bedroom/bed and you can be bitten and get it as well. Symptoms in people sometimes don't show up or aren't recognized until it becomes difficult to treat.
If you do use a flea/tick preventative...I would suggest Frontline Plus. It is expensive, but I believe I read somewhere that it was the best performing preventative in studies.

[lakies]

this is great that you do this...but unfortunately vaccines can be required by law in certain areas. i know in our county it is required by law at least the rabies.

which, i had a rabid racoon in my bad yard two days ago. you could tell he was sick and it was daylight. he was 2 feet from my dog. without that vaccine, i would of had to put him either down or tried the expensive treatments to try and save him.

Rabies is required by my county. I called the county agent responsible for overseeing rabies and told them about how ill my dog had been and that rabies shots say they are for healthy dogs and I thought the rabies shot could make her even sicker.

They told me that it would be my liability if my dog bit another dog or person and the person developed rabies. I assessed that risk as being close to zero because we have a fenced in back yard and the dog is either in the house or in the yard. It is only away from those two places on a leash controlled by me.

As for the ill raccoon, that is scary. I live by a nature park and I hear the raccoons fighting at night, so that risk is around me as well. I keep an eye out when I walk the dogs and I don't leave any food or food compost in my back yard that would attract the wildlife. I compost only yard and tree materials.

I see many posts saying heartworm medicine is a must.

Try googling up dog heartworm natural treatment and you will find herbal items that help prevent heartworm and ones that eliminate heartworm if the dog gets it. My dogs are 15 1/2 and 16 and I credit taking them off of the flea meds and heartworm meds as one of the things helping them live longer.

[3teenboys]

I'm Northern Ohio and our fleas hit late summer early fall, like someone else said. I have a Beagle that is allergic to the fleas, and 2 cats that do go outside. They get treated with Advantix, and my vet just started them on a new medicine. It works great. I missed this summer and am paying for it now, but Dawn and flea meds have worked great. Kudo's for all the people that take great care for your pets. I am on neither side, for I love my animals, but if quality of life is not in it for them, I would put them down, just so they wouldn't suffer anymore.

[wendylv5]

I don't use heartworm meds anymore myself. I friend told me her Vet told her it is not necessary, it doesn't guarantee your dogs won't get heartworm. She also told me that getting the vaccines every year is not necessary either. So we are gonna stop that as well. Although if you have a puppy you need to get those first year shots. In the summer however we do have to put some kind of flea/tick meds on. It breaks my heart to see those damn ticks on my pets. The only thing we give our dogs is the rabies shot cause the town requires it.

[StacyNVA]

I don't use heartworm meds anymore myself. I friend told me her Vet told her it is not necessary, it doesn't guarantee your dogs won't get heartworm. She also told me that getting the vaccines every year is not necessary either. So we are gonna stop that as well. Although if you have a puppy you need to get those first year shots. In the summer however we do have to put some kind of flea/tick meds on. It breaks my heart to see those damn ticks on my pets. The only thing we give our dogs is the rabies shot cause the town requires it.

I've never understood vaccinating dogs every year. We don't vaccinate our kids over and over again. I also do not give my dogs heart worm pills. That is poisoning the dogs. I do give my dogs good quality dog food and they are mostly indoors.

[Bunnielight]

We're having a similar problem. My bf and I just got a cat from our neighbors and they didn't take care of him very well. After we got back from vacation we discovered that he had, not only an extremely bad flea infestation, but something was horribly wrong because he wouldn't come out of hiding and just was NOT himself at all. After a vet visit, they discovered that he had a HUGE abcess under his tail from where a previous wound opened back up. If you don't know what that is, basically it's a huge gaping hole with a bacterial infection that just gets bigger and bigger the longer it's there. Unfortunately, it took a huge chunk out of our wallet, but it was worth it.

Personally, the way I see animal care is while they are family, they're also animals. Which doesn't mean we should be less attentive. It means there's no explaining to them what's going on with their bodies. They remain loyal more than any other human being knows how and they would never do anything to intentionally harm me. They deserve the best care we can give.

However, when it comes to these things, I am not opposed to finding the cheapest way. We just put the flea medication on our little buddy yesterday. We'll see how that works and I'll report back, for sure!

[motherofmolly]

I agree with the others that a heartworm preventative is a must. I lost a dog to heartworms as a teen and it was horrible. We didn't know she was sick until it was too late. She acted fine until one day she just started vomiting and wouldn't eat much. This went on for about a week before my mom took her to the vet (she apparently had also lost weight but as a fluffy coated dog we didnt' really notice.) She was scheduled to be put down a couple days later and unfortunately the night before she ended up having seizures at the foo of my bed. Horrible thing to wake up to. Horrible thing for them to go through. My mom still blames herself for not being a more informed pet owner...she didn't really know anything about how bad heartworms were. A preventative is even more necessary if you live in an area that has a big mosquito problem or if your pet will be near a pond or any kind of standing water.

Then, if you also ever see ticks...you will need to do something about them cause not only can the dog become very ill from lyme disease, but the dog can bring the ticks into your house/bedroom/bed and you can be bitten and get it as well. Symptoms in people sometimes don't show up or aren't recognized until it becomes difficult to treat.
If you do use a flea/tick preventative...I would suggest Frontline Plus. It is expensive, but I believe I read somewhere that it was the best performing preventative in studies.

we moved to the country. in spring, i plan on getting chickens and free ranging them as much as possible in our back and front yard. one for the eggs and two because they like bugs. they like ticks too. hoping for a natural way to keep them away from both my dog and my kids.