Please help this city guy - Found ticks all over dog

[Eurodriver]

This evening I went to brush my dog out and noticed huge engorged ticks all over her. (Okay, well 3 were large and engorged)

I immediately went into freak the hell out mode. She's been on K9 Advantix II since I got her about 18 months ago and I've never seen a tick on her - ever. (About a week ago I noticed a tick crawling on the floor by her bed. I thought she had brought it from outside because obviously it wasn't attached to her body and fell off. Didn't think anything of it)

I started pulling the ticks carefully and properly with tweezers and rubbing alcohol. I must have gotten about 15 of them. In between her toes, in her ears, all along her neck. At least 10 were still very small and not engorged. I threw all of her bedding away including an old Lazy Boy chair that sat next to her bed and I was planning on getting rid of anyway. The floors are tile.

I bathed her in flea bath which seems to have worked because I noticed a few ticks on my gloves as I was scrubbing her and they were all dead. I sprayed my yard with tick spray that attaches to the nozzle of the hose and sprayed a home-spray all over the couch and floors.

Questions:

How long has she had ticks? I pet her every day and I'm very close to her. I've never seen a tick on her before today.

Is my house infested? Is there anything more I can do to get rid of these things in my house? Where would they "hide" if they were here? Eggs?

She's going to the vet tomorrow and we're switching her tick meds. K9 Advantix II obviously doesn't work.

I can handle a lot of things, but blood sucking parasites that carry lyme disease are not it.

P.S. The ticks appear to be black heads with red bodies. Deer ticks?

[montanadave]

Totally different neck of the woods, so I can't offer much advice but it sounds like you've covered the bases for now. The vet ought to be able to answer all your questions in the AM. Take a few of the dead bastards along with you.

[brushy bill]

Let us know what vet says.

[Crow Hunter]

Don't panic dude. You have been shot at before, this is just a little tick.

They have probably been on her for a day or so. Last time she went outside and got under a tree or tall grass they jumped on her.

They don't lay eggs in your house.

My dogs get them all the time. When we notice them scratching we make them hold still and we check all the "normal" places. Ears, arm pits, top of the back where they can't scratch.

Just check yourself out (particularly under your sack and the nape of your neck) when you take a shower just in case one fell off and manages to find you later. You will feel them. You will probably feel them crawling on you before they ever attach. Unless you have a girls body hair.

We use the Harts guard stuff you get a Wal-mart that you smear down the ridge of their back. Seems to work better than anything else we have gotten.

Dogs just get ticks if they are outside in the summer.

Now I am not sure about Florida but up here in TN, what we refer to as deer ticks are really tiny and hard to find unless they are engorged. Dog ticks are bigger and pretty easy to find.

They aren't like bed bugs. You won't get an infestation.

ETA:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Hartz-Ultr...-Dogs/13043587

This is what we use. We get the size larger for our dogs and just use 1/2 on each. They don't normally get any ticks and they live outside in a kennel and we go for a walk every day which normally involves chasing something into a tick infested area. We just keep an eye on them and when they get ticks again, we pull them off and apply more stuff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ixodes_scapularis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_tick This is the one our dogs get all the time.

I just pull them off with my fingers and squish their little heads with a pebble off the road. You just need to pinch with your nails. You get the hang of it after a while.

[Big A]

I recommend you have a pest control company come out and treat your yard.

[Eurodriver]

I'm good with treating the dog, I'll get her taken care of and I'll have a company come spray the yard.

I just have to sleep here tonight and I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to be having lyme disease in the AM. I didn't know if she had these ticks for months and months and I was just noticing them after they've laid eggs in every single nook and cranny of my home.

I can deal with so many things. Rats? Suppressed .22, no big deal. Robbers? AR15.

Scorpions, frogs, and ticks? Best to just nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure. I called this girl I know who was born country and she came over to give me a hand with the dog bath. Ticks don't freak her out like they do me, but when she leaves and I have time I'll have to share a very funny story...

[montanadave]

I take it you've figured out it's a black legged or deer tick.

[Crow Hunter]

I'm good with treating the dog, I'll get her taken care of and I'll have a company come spray the yard.

I just have to sleep here tonight and I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to be having lyme disease in the AM. I didn't know if she had these ticks for months and months and I was just noticing them after they've laid eggs in every single nook and cranny of my home.

I can deal with so many things. Rats? Suppressed .22, no big deal. Robbers? AR15.

Scorpions, frogs, and ticks? Best to just nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure. I called this girl I know who was born country and she came over to give me a hand with the dog bath. Ticks don't freak her out like they do me, but when she leaves and I have time I'll have to share a very funny story...

You are fine. Even if you were to get bitten, not all of them carry Lyme. Not everyone who gets bitten by a Lyme carrying tick will even get it. Just check yourself for the next couple of days for your sanity and just to make sure.

They aren't like fleas.

Make sure that she actually got them from your yard before you pay someone to come and treat it. If she ran off and went into tall grass or under trees she might have gotten them from there.

Ticks hide and wait until they sense movement and fall or grab onto things as they walk by. They don't normally like short trimmed grass, they prefer to be up in the air a ways.

Now fleas on the other hand....

ETA:

Frogs. Come on. Frogs and toads are cool.

What did you play with growing up?

Good thing you don't live next to me. You just about can't step outside at my house in the late afternoon without almost stepping on a tiny baby toad. Our house is their first stop after leaving the lake on their way to suicide by car tires.

My wife and an catch them all the time to keep them from "toad mummies" by staying too long in the garage.

[RIDE]

Finding ticks on a dog for the first time is a bit unnerving, but it's really no biggie, though your pooch seems to have gotten quite a few at once.
We used to deal with this KS.
The best thing to do is have the yard & exterior of the homes foundation sprayed via pest control..
Nasty little things. Get 'em!

[bulbvivid]

Lyme disease is a concern, so you definitely want to get your pup to the vet, or at least give a call and see what they recommend.