Please help this city guy - Found ticks all over dog

[SteyrAUG]

We have five dogs now (English Mastiff, American Pit, American English Coonhound, Danish Chicken Dog, and a Mini-Schnauzer) and we live in the country so ticks are common. We used to use flee and tick drops, but the ticks would still bite and hang on till they died from the poison. When I asked my grandma why her dogs never got ticks she said "garlic". So I started giving a teaspoon of the minced garlic per 50 pounds or so to each dog. Now the ticks that do jump on them (1 to 2 a week, our dogs have the run of about 5 acres so I consider that pretty damn good considering it used to be that many every day) about 95% don't bite them. The old "bloodsuckers don't like garlic thing" must be true I guess.

I recently switched to the crushed squeeze bottle garlic because our juvenile American English Coonhound wouldn't eat the minced stuff. He was a rescue with road rash on his ears of all places, someone had thrown him from a moving vehicle at 4 months old after starving him for a few days. He just wouldn't eat the minced stuff and he's a poor puppy (an 82 pound 7 month old puppy) that's been mistreated so I gave in and got the more expensive crushed stuff. It's been a decade since I've had a male and he puts up with a lot from the 4 bitches so he gets special treatment sometimes. How to get them to eat it? I save bacon of beef grease and cook the garlic in it and give it to them once a week. The Mastiff, Chicken Dog, and Pit will eat it raw mixed in their food but the others won't. All of them eat peanut butter and garlic sandwiches also.

I hope this helped, I've given this advice to co-workers and friends and all have said that they've seen a huge decrease in ticks and flees. It's not the end of the world. As for you, you might want to increase your garlic intake also. I eat garlic on the regular so I've only been bit around 4 times in the last 8 years.

Please DO NOT give your dogs any more garlic.

http://www.petinsurance.com/healthzo...-and-Pets.aspx

http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtua...hazardous-dogs

I once had a dog that LOVED grapes and my wife loved to throw him grapes whenever she was cleaning them. Then he went into renal failure and we quickly learned that we dramatically shortened his life span and it still hurts us.

[Eurodriver]

The pros came today. I went to a highly recommended local company.

They said I have a moderate problem and there are probably zero in the yard. All of them are coming from inside and the ticks I've shown him are brown dog ticks and there are several different stages. Adult males and females, nymphs and larvae.

Because the dog has been treated they shouldn't be reproducing anymore since blood is needed for eggs. But they probably already laid eggs and it would be at MINIMUM 5000 eggs. This makes sense as I've easily counted over 150 that I've picked off the dog and floor.

The dog is staying at the borders for one night and she will be given a tick bath the morning I pick her up. I'm staying away just until late at night when it is safe and he said expect creepy crawlies everywhere

[mastiffhound]

Please DO NOT give your dogs any more garlic.

http://www.petinsurance.com/healthzo...-and-Pets.aspx

http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtua...hazardous-dogs

I once had a dog that LOVED grapes and my wife loved to throw him grapes whenever she was cleaning them. Then he went into renal failure and we quickly learned that we dramatically shortened his life span and it still hurts us.

That's strange? My Mastiff is 12 years old and has been getting garlic once a week for 8 years. My vet says she's the healthiest "old"( 12 is ancient for XL breeds) big dog she has ever seen? Her eyes are clear her coat is shiny. She even plays with the pup? Her teeth are worn down to nubs though from chewing. The vet thinks she's going to outlast her teeth. I find it hard to believe that garlic (when given in moderation) is worse for your dog than flee drops. 2 dogs I had before got flee drops, a Great Dane and a Basset Hound. They both died of cancer. The Dane got bone and liver cancer and died at 6 years old. The Basset got skin and bladder cancer and died at 8 years old. Our dogs range from 7 months to 12 years old, all are still going strong.

Flee drops are poison right? It kills bugs when they bite. Since they aren't bathing in it I have to guess that the drops are getting into their bloodstream. Yeah, a little poison might not kill them. A little mercury might not kill me either though but I sure as hell wouldn't let someone administer it to me. Every package I've seen has warnings about washing your hands or wearing gloves so as not to come into contact with the flee drops. One I remember mentioning children should not touch the dog for 24 or 48 hours. If that's the case then why would you put something like that on your best friend?

I trust insurance companies about as much as I trust rapists and child molesters. Yes, they are that bad. I also find it very hard to trust a "non-profit" organization that sells diamond jewelry (like this:http://www.aspcaonlinestore.com/product/41066) with no mention of what the proceeds go to. They always remind me of the OFWG or Sally Struthers walking through a village of starving children, those two sure as hell haven't missed a meal.

My last vet said not to give my dogs garlic, another OFWG. Right after he said that he handed me a $120 flee drop treatment, go figure? This is the same guy that screwed my Danes eye surgery up and botched his neutering with the worst stitch job I've ever seen. The stitches were falling out before my Dane was even back in my care. OFWG said it was fine and that the bleeding wasn't that bad. My new vet graduated from Ohio State 8 years ago with Honors. She was horrified when she saw the stitch job and fixed it for free, she's been my vet ever since.

She actually has a computer and keeps up on studies, OFWG didn't. Tons of sites exist that give evidence to the contrary that garlic is bad. It amounts to the main problem most humans have: More is better. Mine get a couple teaspoons at most once a week. You get these idiots giving dogs 6 cloves a day and that's when you have problems. The study from 2000 that is often cited used a fairly large dose of garlic extract. It worked out to around 5 grams of garlic per kilogram of mass for the dog. A clove weighs a little more than 5 grams. My Mastiff weighs 170 pounds, about 77 kilograms. That's 385 grams of garlic for her, a clove weighs 5.5 to 6 grams on my home scale. 64 to 70 cloves is, well, a shitload. My Mastiff gets about 2 cloves in a whole week.

The dogs that my Grandmother had lived well past their prime, her Dalmation was 16 years old and toothless when it was finally put to sleep to end it's suffering. My Mastiff was a rescue, she weighed 80 pounds at 4 years old. The vet worried she was going to die from dehydration and malnutrition. That was 8 years ago. She's the best dog I've ever had. It must have been one evil bastard to treat her that way. She's had garlic once a week for all these years so garlic doesn't scare me. The baby bunnies the Chicken Dog catches, runs back and forth through her teeth like Daffy Duck eating a corn cob, then swallows whole worries me more. My vet has done blood tests on all my dogs and they've all come back very good, garlic hasn't been an issue with any from the smallest (18 lb Mini-Schnauzer) to the largest (my Mastiff).

[SteyrAUG]

That's strange? My Mastiff is 12 years old and has been getting garlic once a week for 8 years. My vet says she's the healthiest "old"( 12 is ancient for XL breeds) big dog she has ever seen?

I'm just sharing information. My dog lived for years getting grapes, but somehow I think he had a few more years in him if he didn't get grapes. The links noted that some dogs seem to have "no ill effects" but others have lots of problems. I have no agenda here beyond preventing anyone from having to go through what I went through.

[montanadave]

I just asked my dog if she wants to skip the garlic-jalepeno brauts the next time we head out to the ranch.

She looked like she wanted to bite me.

[mastiffhound]

I'm just sharing information. My dog lived for years getting grapes, but somehow I think he had a few more years in him if he didn't get grapes. The links noted that some dogs seem to have "no ill effects" but others have lots of problems. I have no agenda here beyond preventing anyone from having to go through what I went through.

Yep, I understood that. I did a lot of reading when my first vet told me garlic was bad. I wouldn't say we have every possible dog but we have two small breed, a medium size breed, a large breed, and a extra large breed. For one owner it's a large sample group. Mine have never got sick in any way like some describe and it could be just the individual breeds themselves or too much garlic. Never gave them grapes though but the Chicken Dog eats anything she can find. She raided our garden a few years ago eating melons, green beans, lettuce, spinach, and anything else she could find. Her gut was bulged so much that I was worried. The vet said give her a day and if she still looks bad bring her in, she was fine the next day so no vet visit.

We actually had to watch out when friends and family would bring their dogs to our house because most were carrying flees. They all use garlic now and none have reported any sickness or blood test problems. I always figured people would do their own research when it comes to their animals but that doesn't seem to be the case sometimes. I say try it (remember moderation) and if your dogs not getting sick get your dog a blood test to see if your dog is having any problems that might not be apparent.

[SteyrAUG]

We actually had to watch out when friends and family would bring their dogs to our house because most were carrying flees. They all use garlic now and none have reported any sickness or blood test problems. I always figured people would do their own research when it comes to their animals but that doesn't seem to be the case sometimes. I say try it (remember moderation) and if your dogs not getting sick get your dog a blood test to see if your dog is having any problems that might not be apparent.

Only reason I brought it up is most people wouldn't even think that things like garlic or grapes could be bad for a dog. I know a bunch of people who were giving their dogs chocolate because they saw what looked like "chocolate treats" for sale at the pet store. When I told them chocolate could actually kill their dog they didn't believe me until they looked it up.

Most people assume dogs can eat anything humans can eat.

[Eurodriver]

Pros came today. I made it easy for them. Everything was moved toward the center of the rooms and placed on tables or desks.

It was like handing over a Mk19 equipped MRAP to a LCPl.

I showed him the problem area and asked a few warranty questions. I handed him the keys and said spray every single thing in sight. He casually said "Oh I'm gonna soak it" and I left.

When I returned I found the place eerily similar to how I left it. Almost no smell despite the windows being closed. No bugs everywhere as I had imagined. As I was putting furniture back I found one dead roach and two dead beetles but that was it.

Strangely, no ticks. I wonder if that is a good or bad thing....

I hope and pray this episode is over, but only time will tell. all I can say is that Steyr was not joking about how terrible these things are and if any of you live south of Tennessee. I would * highly* recommend making sure that you do not allow your dogs inside without checking for ticks after going in a highly wooded area as well as ensuring your tick preventative actually works beforehand.

[Eurodriver]

Had a follow up treatment today. This time they went all out and I stayed and watched

Nuclear grade insecticide along every floorboard and underneath every piece of furniture including up curtains and window sills.

Nuclear grade insecticide outside on all of the bushes top and bottom as well as granules that act now and delay activation until rain.

Insecticide dust spread over, on, and in virtually every crevice is my home. Then a crazy industrial fogging to get them to come out and enjoy the dust.

If any of you are looking for a reasonably priced exterminator in the Tampa area, let me know. This guy did it by the book and has a stellar guarantee for very little cost.

I he's finding five a day and I have found tonly three since Friday. Let's hope he got the rest of these bastards. Any of you guys in the south need to be DAMN SURE your dogs flea and tick medication actually works or you are in for a serious nightmare. I can't imagine how terrible this would be if I had carpet!!

[SteyrAUG]

Had a follow up treatment today. This time they went all out and I stayed and watched

Nuclear grade insecticide along every floorboard and underneath every piece of furniture including up curtains and window sills.

Nuclear grade insecticide outside on all of the bushes top and bottom as well as granules that act now and delay activation until rain.

Insecticide dust spread over, on, and in virtually every crevice is my home. Then a crazy industrial fogging to get them to come out and enjoy the dust.

If any of you are looking for a reasonably priced exterminator in the Tampa area, let me know. This guy did it by the book and has a stellar guarantee for very little cost.

I he's finding five a day and I have found tonly three since Friday. Let's hope he got the rest of these bastards. Any of you guys in the south need to be DAMN SURE your dogs flea and tick medication actually works or you are in for a serious nightmare. I can't imagine how terrible this would be if I had carpet!!

If you had carpets you'd be in a lot of trouble. Glad to hear things are coming under control. And yeah the "one a month" treatments really don't cut it in FL. All it takes is one really good rain and for your dog to get about a dozen ticks that you don't notice. They may not feed on your dog because of Advantex or whatever, but that won't stop them from hitching a ride inside your house on your dog.

This is why you need a repellent like Adams that is used regularly, that way they don't see your dog as a taxi.