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Tick removal
Parasite control choices
  

Tick control

Ticks are tough, highly specialized parasites, difficult to remove and hard to kill. Many products for tick control are available. None of them are completely satisfactory. All of them are potentially toxic to humans and the environment.

Whatever we do for tick control is only going to be part of the picture. Most dogs requiring tick control also need something to kill fleas and prevent heartworms. Intestinal parasites are a concern and more often than not, cost is an important consideration. Some products are easier to use than others. Some wash off easily, making them unsuitable for dogs that swim. There is no single “best product” for tick control.

Preventic tick collar

Advantages:
     Preventic collars are easy to use and highly effective. Ticks attach, become paralyzed in an hour or two, then fall off and die. In order to transmit Lyme disease, ticks must remain attached for a day or more. Because Preventic collars kill ticks quickly, they offer a degree of protection from Lyme disease.

Disadvantages:
     Preventic collars must be replaced every two or three months. Amitraz, the active ingredient, spreads slowly backwards from the neck to the hindquarters, so Preventic collars work less well on the back half of large dogs and are not a good choice for dogs that swim or are bathed frequently.

Revolution

Advantages:
     Revolution is a liquid applied to your pet’s skin once a month. Revolution is an excellent product, and considering all that it does (heartworm, fleas, and ticks), economical to use. During the summer, when pets need both flea and heartworm control, we recommend Revolution for most dogs and nearly all cats.
Disadvantages.:
     Revolution is not a great tick product. Revolution will kill ticks, but it takes four or five days to do it. When your dog is out there getting several ticks at a time, four or five days is not fast enough. In the summertime, use Revolution for heartworm and flea control and the Preventic collar for ticks.
     Because Revolution is available only by prescription, you need to get it from your veterinarian. You can ask your veterinarian for a prescription and buy it on the internet, but that’s probably not a good idea.

Frontline

Advantages:
     Frontline is a liquid applied to the back of your pet’s neck once a month. It does an excellent job of flea control and a reasonably good job of tick control. Frontline doesn’t wash off easily, so occasional swimming and light bathing are ok. It is well tolerated and safe for both cats and dogs.
Disadvantages:
     With Frontline, ticks have time to attach and begin feeding. A day or two later when the ticks are dead, many of them stay attached and must be removed by hand. Frontline Plus is relatively expensive, about ten dollars per pet per month. However, if you have cats or a small dog and are willing to go to a little extra effort, you can save a lot of money using Frontline Spray.

Biospot

Advantages:
     Like Frontline, Biospot, Exspot and Hartz OneSpot are applied to the skin once a month. They are inexpensive and work reasonably well. These products are widely available wherever pet supplies are sold.
Disadvantages:
     These products all contain permethrin. Because of concerns over possible toxicity, we haven’t used them very much. These products on only for dogs. Permethrin is toxic and potentially fatal to cats.

Advantix

Advantages:
     Advantix is a combination of the flea control product Advantage and permethrin. The two chemicals work well enough together that tick control can be achieved using significantly lower amounts of permethrin than in Biospot. Advantix is water-resistant and quite effective. Because it both repels and kills ticks, you probably won’t have as many dead ticks to remove as you would using Frontline.
Disadvantages:
     Advantix contains permethrin and must not be used on cats. Like Frontline Plus, it’s expensive.

Flea and Tick shampoo

Advantages:
The nice thing about using a shampoo to kill ticks is that after you’ve rinsed it off, the chemicals are gone. You can let Fido sleep in bed with the kids and not worry about it. This is a huge advantage over any of these other products.
Most city dogs get ticks only on weekend outings. Give Fido a bath when you get home - you’ll have a clean dog and the cost is minimal. When asked about tick control, an environmentally-conscientious veterinarian I know responded this way, recommending Ecto Soothe Flea and Tick Shampoo:
 

    I guess I could be considered a tick expert, hiking with six dogs in the brush all the time! My favorite tick shampoo is Ecto Soothe. It kills ticks, has colloidal oatmeal in it to take out the itch, and smells sooooo nice. (3 plusses!) Mostly I see the dead ticks floating away in the rinse water (- very gratifying!) In an emergency, such as coming home from a hike and finding my dogs crawling with ticks, I run up to Safeway and buy anything that says it kills ticks (Usually Hartz, with pyrethrin as the active ingredient.) I have treated a few dogs that have come in to the shelter covered with 100s of engorged ticks by spraying them with Ovitrol Plus (bathing was not a practical option). The next day the run is littered with dead ticks (don't walk on them- ick) and nobody has to pull them off. The hard part is communicating to the staff to have the patience to wait 24 hours and not to start pulling them all off right away. So with shampoos and sprays you don't usually have to pull off the ticks, although you might have to pull off some that are deeply attached. Of course I use Preventic collars most of the time too.

Disadvantages:
It’s a lot of effort, and it won’t work if your dog is out there getting ticks every day.