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Hi, this is my first time posting. I adopted a 6 year old border collie from a border collie rescue place about 2 months ago. We named her Zoe and she's perfect! However, we live in Northern Florida on an Island with a small backyard that's not fenced in. We take Zoe for a mile walk every morning and evening; she loves the beach. I have tried Interceptor and Comfortis recommended by my vet, but she failed to tell me the Comfortis didn't protect from ticks. I began seeing ticks on her because she loves to jump in the tall grass and do her business. So, the vet put her on Frontline, but said I couldn't bath her. I've been reading about Revolution and wondered if any one has any advice about it's use. When we come back from the beach she is wet and sandy and I need to rinse her to get the salt water and sand off. I would appreciate any help because I want the best for her.

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Welcome! And kudos for rescuing Zoe!

 

One issue that is being seen more and more is resistance to certain flea controls. We used to find it easy to control both with Advantix or Frontline Plus, but no more.

 

On our recent trip down to the beach, where ticks were still active, we used the Preventix collars but I have to say that I'm not sure that even they were effective for us - we found live, engorged ticks (as well as dead ones) on two dogs four days after we left the areas where they might have picked up ticks. I think that ticks may be developing resistance to these collars as they seem to have been very effective in the past, and I wouldn't call our experience this year as very effective. We do use Comfortis very successfully for flea control which, where we live, is our only issue.

 

As for bathing and Frontline Plus (or other drop-on preparations), a dog should not be bathed within a day or two of application but after that, swimming and such should not have an appreciable effect on the effectiveness of the preparations as they have dispersed within the skin layers. We rinse our dogs after sea water swimming, and don't feel it affects the flea preparations.

 

You might try keeping her on lead until after she's done her business (not in the long grass) and then letting her run, if that would prevent picking up ticks as readily since she'd be less likely to go into the tall grass.

 

There are a number of active members here from Florida, and I am sure some will chime in with better information.

 

Best wishes!

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We use Frontline Plus because it works on Deer Ticks, which we have many here. It works well and we have had no ill effects using it. On the flip side, I tell anyone who will listen or asks, I would NEVER use

Vectra 3d ever again. Don't let your Vet talk you into trying it. We did when it first came out, because

it is supposed to control mosquitoes too. Our youngest dog had such a bad reaction to it that we had to bath him 3 times in the middle of night to get most of it off of him. He's fine now, but I would never

want to see another dog go through that.

Mike

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Although the makers of products like Advantix and Frontline claim that water won't affect effectiveness after a certain number of hours, I'm convinced that one of the reasons (aside from the obvious resistance one) these products don't work real well for me is because of the amount of time my dogs spend in water.

 

Preventic collars are supposed to be removed before swimming. It may be that your best choice is a topical like Advantix or Frontline, combined with diligent daily search and removal of ticks. Not the best answer, but pretty much how I have to manage it now. You could also try spraying her with Frontline or even a natural repellent spray on belly and legs before taking her out. It might help keep ticks away while she's in the grass, but of course it will likely be washed off as soon as she goes swimming, but it still might help some.

 

Thanks for rescuing a border collie in need. And please post pictures of Zoe.

 

J.

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Thank you for your help. We are meeting with a trainer next week. She behaves perfectly but she has no interests in playing except when I take her on her walks. Then she tries to chase squirrels, birds, cats, etc. She even caught a large possum one evening and laid it at my feet! That's why I love taking her to the beach, she will try forever to herd the sand pipers and just has a great time. So far, she has not tried to swim and the vet said to make sure I have fresh water for her to drink. The trainer she will be working with has 3 border collies and thinks she may have been left alone by her previous owners and does not know how to play.

This is Zoe...

P1040650.jpg

 

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Liz - I put them on prior to leaving, and should have done so sooner. However, I think that the ticks we found had gotten on the dogs after the collars had been on a week or so, just because we were carefully checking them daily. But, next time, I will certainly make sure to put them on in advance. Thanks!

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I use Revolution for my three and in the summer they are constantly in fresh water... We had a problem one month last season when our area was experiencing a particularly heavy outbreak of ticks, but other than that, they're fine. Nary a flea, ever.

 

Love the photos of Zoe at the beach! Living the good life!

 

Liz

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Welcome and Thanks for rescuing Zoe! :)

 

I only use Revolution now adays. I used to use Frontline Plus, but then I noticed my pup was getting fleas instead of repelling them. :blink:

Since the switch to Revolution, no more fleas. It's supposed to be good for ticks too, but I've never had a tick on her, so I can't attest to it. My foster dog Jagger had ticks on him when I got him. I used Revolution and he didn't get anymore. Just my experience. Also, Jagger didn't know how to play when I got him. He learned what toys were at my house and when he figured out how to play with them (watching my pup Seek) he absolutely loved to play! Now just a year later he is a competing Disc Dog for the Puget Hounds!

 

Your pup is beautiful! Love the blue eyes :wub:

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We live in tick central in southern New England, for years I used frontline but found it was not working for fleas as last fall I had the nasty critters for the first time in 14 years of having dogs. We are using K9 Advantix now and although we have had no fleas I am not sure what it is doing for ticks as one of my dogs has had lyme this year, but we do only see the big ticks ocasionally . We do try to wait for at least 48 hours before we let them swim, which can be challenging.

 

Zoe is lovely, regarding playing: our first Border Collie never really bought into the whole play thing, loved to run and go to the beach but playing with other dogs and toys was just never his thing.

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Thanks everyone for your advice. I'm going to ask the vet today about Revolution. She has not mentioned it to me but I was doing some research and came across it and went to their site where it states it's effective even if you bathe them 2 hours after applying. My husband and I are retired and I wanted to try buying her meds online but my vet charges $15.00 per prescription. Is this common?

I feel better after finding out that Shoshone and Jagger didn't know how to play but learned. I have read with Border Collies you can teach them new things regardless of their age. We've only had her two months but she quickly became family. I don't know much about her history except in her file she had a certificate from the AKC for completing their Canine Good Citizen program. The rescue center said her owner was deployed and had no one to take her. My son will be deployed to Afghanistan soon so I guess that might have had a little to do with why I chose her. When he came home for Christmas he said he was taking the dog....lol. Thanks again; this is a great site!

 

Deborah

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Zoe is absolutely lovely.....(I adore the blue eyes!!)....good for you, adopting her. And welcome to the BC Boards. I have fought ticks mightily and finally won the war but I live in the desert, so the environment probably couldn't be more different from yours.

 

One thing that I will say, though, is make sure that you do not get an infestation inside your house. If they fall off your dog inside the house and lay their eggs under your bed, say, or in a little crack in the baseboards, on the wall or wherever, you can have thousands of them in the house in a matter of only a few weeks. And you won't know it until the numbers swell enough that you start seeing the babies in the open. If this happens, you have a big problem, trust the voice of experience here. :rolleyes:

 

Sounds as though you may need to do a very thorough tick patrol on the dog every time you come home, before you get into the house. By the way, it is faster to drop the ticks into a little jar of rubbing alcohol than to squash each one as you pull it off.

 

Best of luck to you!!

D'Elle

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Thanks everyone for your advice. I'm going to ask the vet today about Revolution. She has not mentioned it to me but I was doing some research and came across it and went to their site where it states it's effective even if you bathe them 2 hours after applying. My husband and I are retired and I wanted to try buying her meds online but my vet charges $15.00 per prescription. Is this common?

I feel better after finding out that Shoshone and Jagger didn't know how to play but learned. I have read with Border Collies you can teach them new things regardless of their age. We've only had her two months but she quickly became family. I don't know much about her history except in her file she had a certificate from the AKC for completing their Canine Good Citizen program. The rescue center said her owner was deployed and had no one to take her. My son will be deployed to Afghanistan soon so I guess that might have had a little to do with why I chose her. When he came home for Christmas he said he was taking the dog....lol. Thanks again; this is a great site!

 

Deborah

If you order online, the company will call your vet's office for the initial prescription, then you won't need another one. (Also, you can dicker with them a little bit and they will match the price of the "other" online company.) My vet never charged for the prescription.

 

Best wishes to your son and to your family during his deployment. Zoe has found a good home!

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Okay, apparently Revolution is advertised as killing American dog ticks (as someone else here said). Lyme disease is usually carried by deer ticks (also known as black-legged ticks), so be aware that your dog will not be protected from all tick-borne diseases while using Revolution.

 

RMSF can be carried by the American dog tick and the Rocky Mountain wood tick.

 

Ehrlichiosis (Neorickettsia) can be transmitted by the brown dog tick, the American dog tick, the Lone Star tick, and the black-legged tick.

 

Babesiosis can be transmitted by the brown dog tick.

 

Bartonellosis is possibly transmitted by the deer tick (black-legged tick).

 

The take-away here is that one can't assume that a product that controls ticks will necessarily protect your dog from disease, but certainly products that can kill multiple species of ticks might be more effective in protecting your dog against disease.

 

J.

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Revolution is known for not being as effective (against fleas, ticks, heartworms, intestinal parasites) in Dogs as it is in cats. It does seem to do okay on scabies & ear mites.

 

Revolution worked well last year, but you really can't see deer ticks and deer ticks and heartworms are the main thing I need for protection for, especially when I take the dogs to the farm and we go down into the orchard....now wondering if I should switch to Frontline and a separate heartworm medicine but I've always one of those anti-Ivermectin people (Scotty seemed sensitive).....(not to raise that debate again...).sigh.......what to do...what to do.... I hate bugs!

 

Liz

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I've had good luck with the combination of Interceptor and Frontline (not Frontline Plus; I see no need for the "Plus" part if you're just trying to kill off the occasional adventitious flea as opposed to combat an infestation. My major concern is ticks, not fleas, and the "Plus" part doesn't affect ticks one iota). We haven't spotted any fleas on Duncan, and the only ticks we've found have not been engorged. He swims (spring, summer, fall) frequently; I try to keep him out of the water for two days after administration, is all.

 

I did try Vectra3D initially on him, at the recommendation of his then vet. Like Hoosier Mike, I wouldn't recommend it. It REALLY seemed to bother him.

 

We also try to use an Advantix tick collar for extra protection during tick season, as Duncan spends a lot of time out in the woods (and we get deer in our back yard). We have to make sure to take it off before he goes swimming, and not put it back on until he's completely dry.

 

He's also been vaccinated for Lyme disease as we live in a real hotbed for it.

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Our dogs have close encounters with ticks around here (Central NC) all the time. We use a combination of K9 Advantix and Sentinel. Sentinel covers heartworms and fleas; Advantix takes care of the ticks. Once we started using Advantix, the only ticks we were pulling off the dogs were dead ones. I highly recommend it, though our BC hates the application process...he's always trying to squirm away.

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From the American Working Collie Association page on drug sensitivity in collies:

 

Anti-helminthic pharameuticals that are P-glycoprotein substrates include the family of compounds known as macrocyclic lactones. These compounds exert their anti-helminthic properties by causing neurotoxicosis in a number of invertebrates (including helminths and arthropods) by potentiating ligand-gated chloride ion channels in the peripheral nervous system. Generations of macrocyclic lactones known as avermectins have been developed for veterinary use, decreasing their toxic side effects to normal animals (without the mdr1-1Δ mutation).

These compounds include: ivermectin, milbemycin oxime, moxidectin, selamectin, and doramectin.

 

Selamectin (the ingredient in Revolution) is an avermectin and so theoretically could induce problems in dogs with the mdr1-1delta mutation, just as ivermectin could. Ask your vet if s/he can point to differences in the ability of the drugs to cross the blood/brain barrier.

 

The reason I say this is because my dog who had seizures, which I think I could connect to my use of ivermectin (all based on a seizure diary where I also kept track of flea, tick, and HW preventive applications), has not had any seizures that I know of since last May. I took her off ivermectin the preceding October, once the correlation suggested itself. When my vet suggested using Interceptor for Phoebe, I questioned the fact that it is also in the same chemical class as the drugs that cause problems in sensitive dogs, and whether it made sense to try it if ivermectin could be triggering her seizures. He said that milbemycin oxime does not cross the blood/brain barrier as efficiently as ivermectin does. She's been on Interceptor for a year now and has had no seizures that I have witnessed. So if the trigger for her seizures was indeed ivermectin, then it seems that another drug from the same class of chemicals is *not* a trigger.

 

So it may be that you could switch to Interceptor for HW prevention and then use one of the other flea/tick products.

 

J.

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All this information has been helpful. I guess a lot depends on the region and habits of the dogs. I stayed with Interceptor and Frontline. After talking with a couple of the vet techs it seems to be OK to let them get wet and then rinse her off as long as I don't use soap. According to the vet our tick season is at it's worse Nov. through Feb. Then she suggests going back to Comfortis and Interceptor. She was telling me of a new dog collar coming out for ticks and fleas that last 6 months and you don't remove it when they get wet so they have continuous protection. She had not gotten them in yet and thought they were made by Interceptor, but not sure. Also, the Revolution that I was inquiring about she use to carry but after a year 6 of the dogs on it got heartworms and she quit selling it.

 

This is unrelated but according the file I was given when I adopted Zoe she weighed 40 lbs coming into the shelter, but after being in the shelter she weighed 36 lbs and looked a little scrappy. I didn't have a clue as to what kind of food to give her as I have not owned a dog in years. My daughter suggested Pedigree and I soon learned that was a mistake. She started pulling her fur out and had awful stools and scooted which led to a vet visit to express her anal glands (something I knew nothing about...lol). I did some research and decided to feed her Wellness Core which is grain free and changed her treats to Natural Balance LIT, also grain free. The vet had put her on Benedryl twice a day but now she doesn't need it, no more scooting, pulling her fur out, and she gained 3 lbs. She's really starting to look beautiful and healthy.

 

Thanks to everyone who gave me advice. I know I'll be needing it again. I have so much to learn!

 

Deborah

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