Tick control for dog

Hello again everyone,
It's tick season again but this year is different for me. I loved in the court before and really didn't have much problem with ticks but having moved out to the country is become a constant battle. I'm pulling around 10 ticks a day off my Great Pyrenees.

I have a Sorento flea and tick collar on her but it doesn't do anything to the ticks. I even called the company and they said it was only 90% effective and that I probably didn't have it on right.....mmmk.

Anyway ,from those of you who have a thick problem and large dogs what do you use to control the rocks?

The product that I have used without issue for the last 4 years without issue is Simperica. A tablet that you give to your pup once a month that works for both fleas and ticks. I had been living in San Diego for 3 years, just moved back to Nevada. They have a horible flea problem down there, due to the weather everyone enjoys so much granted. I have seen ticks that have bitten my boy Sage and fallen off within seconds of the bite. Up here in Northern Nevada we have more of an issue with ticks then we do with fleas. If my boss carried it here I would be getting a new box to last through the summer. The only other thing I would use is probably Nexgard. Something systemic, ie: they ingest it and it is carried through their blood, is what works best for the larger breeds with all that fur!

Thanks! Is Simperica available at Walmart or is that something you get from the vet like comfortis?

I would use a topical, just make sure you part the fur and get it down to the skin. The problem with the chewable tablets is, the fleas and ticks have to bite the animal before they die. So in animals with flea allergies it doesn't help them, and also any tick born disease can be passed on ( at least this is what my vet has told me)

At Walmart you can get the generic of advantage II and I believe advantix now.

When I called the company about the soresto collars they said the way they worked was tropical. As long as the collar was touching the skin (within 2 fingers of) then it would release its chemicals onto the skin and kill the fleas and ticks. This hasn't happened, at least for the ticks, so I'm weiry about using topical solutions. Have you had good success with the generic solutions?

With both topical and chewable forms of control, the flea/tick MUST bite the host in order to get the medication. The chewable is far more effective than the topical. BUT topical must be used when the mother is pregnant or nursing. <br /><br /> __________ Wed Apr 12, 2017 6:15 am __________ <br /><br /> Here we might just have to agree to disagree. I am in the veterinary field, I have used both topical and chewable forms of flea and tick control. I see a lot more effectiveness from the chewable then the topicals. Also what you can get over the counter, in some areas, has been over used and they have become resistant to it. Your milage may vary but you have my opinion and experience on it.

mystang89":utyund3h said:

When I called the company about the soresto collars they said the way they worked was tropical. As long as the collar was touching the skin (within 2 fingers of) then it would release its chemicals onto the skin and kill the fleas and ticks. This hasn't happened, at least for the ticks, so I'm weiry about using topical solutions. Have you had good success with the generic solutions?

Click to expand...

using generic/cheap branded topicals can cause serious chemical burns at worse and be totally ineffective at best. you really have to spring for the decent brands. the best one may very from area to area, too, so maybe ask friends with dogs that live near you what they use and if it works. here in houston it seems like advantage/advantix is pretty much the only thing worth buying. and i can't even use it because in my specific town the fleas are 'nuclear' as my vet described them, and i have to buy the prescription pill type in order to keep my dog from scratching himself bloody. fortunately we don't really have ticks here, but the fleas are horrible.

Sagebrush":12mbiq0y said:

With both topical and chewable forms of control, the flea/tick MUST bite the host in order to get the medication. The chewable is far more effective than the topical. BUT topical must be used when the mother is pregnant or nursing.

__________ Wed Apr 12, 2017 6:15 am __________

Here we might just have to agree to disagree. I am in the veterinary field, I have used both topical and chewable forms of flea and tick control. I see a lot more effectiveness from the chewable then the topicals. Also what you can get over the counter, in some areas, has been over used and they have become resistant to it. Your milage may vary but you have my opinion and experience on it.

Click to expand...

So you're saying that chewable is what you would recommend for more effective control?

In my experience the chewable is the best form of control.

shazza":1drs8l69 said:

mystang89":1drs8l69 said:

When I called the company about the soresto collars they said the way they worked was tropical. As long as the collar was touching the skin (within 2 fingers of) then it would release its chemicals onto the skin and kill the fleas and ticks. This hasn't happened, at least for the ticks, so I'm weiry about using topical solutions. Have you had good success with the generic solutions?

Click to expand...

using generic/cheap branded topicals can cause serious chemical burns at worse and be totally ineffective at best. you really have to spring for the decent brands. the best one may very from area to area, too, so maybe ask friends with dogs that live near you what they use and if it works. here in houston it seems like advantage/advantix is pretty much the only thing worth buying. and i can't even use it because in my specific town the fleas are 'nuclear' as my vet described them, and i have to buy the prescription pill type in order to keep my dog from scratching himself bloody. fortunately we don't really have ticks here, but the fleas are horrible.

Click to expand...

FDA requires that the generic drug be manufactured under the same strict manufacturing standards as the brand name drug. The manufacturing processes for the generic copy must consistently produce a product that is equivalent to the brand name animal drug in identity, strength, purity, and quality.

Click to expand...

https://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/Gu ... 249392.htm

Now, that being said, allergic reactions can happen to any drug and are sometimes confused for chemical burns if they are severe. It's also possible for generic drugs to be adulterated, but the chances of that happening are not greater than those that are non-generic. <br /><br /> __________ Thu Apr 13, 2017 9:37 am __________ <br /><br />

shazza":1drs8l69 said:

mystang89":1drs8l69 said:

When I called the company about the soresto collars they said the way they worked was tropical. As long as the collar was touching the skin (within 2 fingers of) then it would release its chemicals onto the skin and kill the fleas and ticks. This hasn't happened, at least for the ticks, so I'm weiry about using topical solutions. Have you had good success with the generic solutions?

Click to expand...

using generic/cheap branded topicals can cause serious chemical burns at worse and be totally ineffective at best. you really have to spring for the decent brands. the best one may very from area to area, too, so maybe ask friends with dogs that live near you what they use and if it works. here in houston it seems like advantage/advantix is pretty much the only thing worth buying. and i can't even use it because in my specific town the fleas are 'nuclear' as my vet described them, and i have to buy the prescription pill type in order to keep my dog from scratching himself bloody. fortunately we don't really have ticks here, but the fleas are horrible.

Click to expand...

FDA requires that the generic drug be manufactured under the same strict manufacturing standards as the brand name drug. The manufacturing processes for the generic copy must consistently produce a product that is equivalent to the brand name animal drug in identity, strength, purity, and quality.

Click to expand...

https://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/Gu ... 249392.htm

Generic drugs are cheaper because the manufacturer does not have to go through the long testing process that name brand manufactures do (drug testing not manufacturing those are still monitored). They just have to ensure that the Active ingredient, Strength, Dosage form, and Dosage regimen, including route of administration are exactly the same as the name brand. That is also why the name brand drugs appear several years before the generics. The med developers have a patent time when only they are allowed to manufacturer that drug. That in theory, allows them to recoop the extra expense they have with safety testing.

Now, that being said, allergic reactions can happen to any drug and are sometimes confused for chemical burns if they are severe. It's also possible for generic drugs to be adulterated, but the chances of that happening are not greater than those that are non-generic. It's also possible that an inactive ingredient could also cause a reaction and those can be different from the name brand, but generally inactive ingredients are rather bland and extremely common.

The only way I'd use advantix is if the only other option was a flea collar : There is a big difference between just a generic and using entirely different chemicals that are often found cheaper and over the counter but with a higher side effect rate or risk of reaching a toxic dose either through frequent lower tolerance in individuals or the dosing method. Even ignoring the chemical used the dosing method of collars is often questioned. Although generics are most definitely not all created equal. Many humans can go on about that first hand. Sometimes the generic doesn't even work or has a major side effect the brand name didn't and some learn to hunt down pharmacies that use specific companies because the generics from another are not tolerated even when a filler or secondary ingredient causing it can't be found despite medical testing for intolerances but these things are so infrequently compared the rate of occurance is not known. Most try one source of one medication and switch medications if they have a problem. Usually it's seen when a patent runs out and suddenly people find the med they took for a long time perfectly no longer works well enough or is not tolerable. Since it's sometimes happened in large numbers in cases where many people were oblivious their med had changed at all until they rechecked the prescription it's not all placebo. I have a med I can only take one brand of or I get horrible headaches. Currently it's an issue because that brand comes in one dose of a capsule and I want off it. Fillers could be some cases but not all and especially questionable when stable treatment just stops happening. There are a few doctors that will try switching to the brand name specifically before giving up if it's possible and I had a doctor who just always demanded the brand name if it was covered. Insurance has become increasingly uncooperative for those things relying on the FDA considering their regulations sufficient for everything to be equivalent. Sometimes it's not and a long awaited generic ends up becoming an obscure drug because unlike the brand name it no longer works better than another drug it was preferred over previously but cost prohibitive. That's even human quality tested and regulated meds so it should be the same chemical compound in the same narrow measurements but there are reasons it could not be equal that aren't understood well enough yet. I find a lot of medical stuff that if someone knowledgeable just talked to someone in another specialty/field we could probably solve some major medical problems or at least annoying mysteries but ugh the times I had to try to make specialists work together.... It's easier to collect each one's data and take it elsewhere.

More on topic: it's still not the cheapest but I (and many others) get revolution from petshed.com since it covers most everything I need in a relatively proven safe way and my dogs will not take chewable anything no matter what you try to flavor it as, even the vanilla ice cream that I have no idea why it works in the first place eventually fails after I first feel like I've fed enough hamburger to fill the chest freezer, so I have to shove it down all their throats manually with increasing difficulty. It does have that disadvantage of not killing things until a bite. This is usually effective for my purposes. Mite infestation fueled by pest rodents as the exception since the population could not be ended and 100s would hatch at once so the bite numbers were enough to cause allergic reactions on me, some cats and dogs, and kill small rodents before that group of mites died. I had various animals on all sorts of meds and getting skin infections I knew had to be connected. One female mite falls in a tank and I lose a breeding group of rodents. That's not usually the case with fleas and ticks but some get really unlucky along with near constant outdoor exposure. The house I started growing up in had an infested yard that never died even when we could start treating pets with things like advantage. We have used herbal topicals on hikes just to reduce exposure but more when mosquitos reach the point they can swell the dogs' ears and eyes and not when it was absolutely necessary to repel every last thing. Also used mechanical means like DE and some rodent or insect specific solutions that don't impact other animals. What didn't I try for mites and rodents.... The answer turned out to be bringing yard dirt inside. It's full of mites here and therefore at least one mite that eats mites. Wiped the house clean in a month. New knowledge. Instead of DE for mites, especially stubborn poultry mites or sensitive species, reptile sources sell predatory mites you just set the dishes of dirt around the enclosure or building because snakes are too sensitive to chemicals. Harmless to everything but a small bug and when they run out of food they eat each other instead of biting random things. If they do find an ongoing food source they are not invasive and normally remain balanced in a full ecosystem.

Yep Revolution is the stuff to get. Not cheap. But very good.