It's no surprise to anyone living in this area that ticks are plentiful. Or at least, it SHOULD be no surprise...if that last sentence does surprise you, I'm concerned. Carroll County is covered in the little bastards.
I really hate ticks.
But not this tick! Actually, watching The Tick is almost guaranteed to make me fall asleep. I don't know why, but it does. Thanks to the husband's iron fisted control over our Netflix queue, I've been able to test this theory. And I've been sleeping quite well this week!
Anyway. Yesterday Haiku, my friend Andie of Andies Doggy Do's, her Aussie, Steed and I went for a nice long walk in the woods. What a beautiful, perfect afternoon for it! We went walking back on the Union Mills Equestrian Trails. The dogs had soooo much fun! Since us humans were wearing white shirts, it was easy to see that we were picking up some ticks.
*worried*
Uh oh.
Well, when we got back to the truck, we checked over the dogs.
ZOMG!
They were infested! We started picking them off...then I decided I was just gonna bathe Haiku before I went home. Andie wasn't, she was just gonna pick them off. A few minutes and a million ticks later, she decided she was going to bathe him too! So we went back to her shop and spent an hour bathing, flea combing and picking ticks off our dogs.
Can't we just stay home and watch The Tick? And chew stuff?
Ticks are usually really bad around here. Especially this time of year, which is also when some people start thinking it's time to lay off the Frontline. BAD CHOICE. Haiku has picked up ticks at Morgan Run in January. Generally speaking, it's not cold enough, long enough here to stop using preventatives. And fleas? Never. But that's for another day. Definitely ask your vet for questions about avoiding fleas and ticks, what to use, how to use it and when to use it. Trying to rid your home or yard from them? Call a licensed exterminator. I'd don't have any recommendations (sorry!) I just ask my dad, since he's an IPM specialist.
Keep in mind that spot ons like Frontline are not a repellent. They won't protect your dog from getting fleas or ticks ON him, but it will kill them once they bite the dog.
Next time we got woods walking I'm using a repellent! If I find a good one I'll let you know.
SPOOOOOOOOOON!!!!!!!!!!!