Flea-control product glues dog to inside of crate

By Gina SpadaforiOctober 8, 2009

From Edie Lau and the VIN News Service, this odd report:


A veterinarian presented with a peculiar case of a poodle stuck in its crate last week traced the problem to the pet’s spot-on flea treatment.

Residue from the product Advantage, which was applied between the poodle’s shoulders, somehow came in contact with the plastic base of the animal’s crate, dissolving the plastic and causing it to adhere to the dog’s belly.

When the dog wouldn’t come out of its crate the next morning, its concerned owner brought the dog, crate and all, to Dr. Tej Dhaliwal of North Town Veterinary Hospital in Ontario, Canada. Following two hours of sleuthing, Dhaliwal concluded that benzyl alcohol, an inactive ingredient in Advantage, was to blame.

Bayer Animal Health, maker of Advantage, acknowledged that the flea treatment was the likely culprit and offered to pay the owner’s veterinary bill, compensate him for loss of salary and replace the crate, Dhaliwal said.

Bob Walker, a spokesman for Bayer in the United States, confirmed that Advantage contains benzyl alcohol, which reacts with certain plastics. He said he consulted with colleagues in veterinary services and was told, “We know it can happen, but we’ve never seen it.”

Walker said a lead veterinarian in the department thought that most of the veterinary community was aware of the potential for the product to react with plastic. Walker said that he personally had not heard of such a thing before. He added, “My counsel would be, if you’re not aware, you need to be aware.”

Do NOT Buy Over The Counter Fleas Or Ticks Products

Hi,

Please watch this video and for more info, you can go to the site and read the comments too at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_uqBjvy7YI



So use products like Frontine or Advantage, or those recommended by your vet.

Take care!

David

What is the Best Way to Remove a Tick From my Pet?

Hi,

Dr. Eric Barchas, DVM, wrote the following on What is the Best Way to Remove a Tick From my Pet?

I found it interesting information so I extracted part of it as follows :

"One day in class Dr. Patricia Conrad, parasitologist and expert in the field, described the best way to remove a tick. I wish I had known it sooner. I find that it removes entire ticks about 90% of the time.

Here, according to Dr. Conrad, is the best way to remove a tick from your pet:

Grasp the tick firmly with hemostats (aka tweezers) as close to the skin as possible. Pull gently but firmly straight away from the skin until the tick comes out. Do not twist. Avoid grasping the tick’s abdomen. This can cause regurgitation of stomach contents into your pet, increasing the likelihood of Lyme disease, Ehrlichiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and other scary tick-borne diseases.

Some other points: tick prevention is better than tick removal. In my experience, Frontline is the tick preventative with the best safety and efficacy profile. No tick preventative is 100% effective."

Hopefully, you do not have to experience removing any tick yourself and prevention should be the choice of the day instead.

Frontline is definitely a proven product so do give it a try.

David

Tick Twister

Hi,

I came across this gadget called Tick Twister and it seems quite a cool tool to remove the tick.

Have a look at the video below and the reviews at Amazon too.



If you can view the video, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnD6x0svOJE

Customers feedback can be seen at http://tinyurl.com/djun3r

I would like to get one too if easily available here.

However, I would rather use Frontline regularly to prevent any fleas or ticks invasion on my dogs.

Read my earlier posting on how to get rid and prevent flea or ticks infestation using Frontline at http://removetickfromdogandtreatment.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-to-treat-tick-problem.html

Prevention is better than cure!

David

FREE eBooks on Dogs

Hi,

You can download 2 eBooks for FREE at my other site at

FREE Dog eBooks

Hope you will find the information useful as I found them on the Internet.

Have a good day with your dogs...!

David

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Please visit my other website for photos and videos of my dogs.

Thank you.

How To Apply Frontline On Your Dog

Hi,

How are you and your dogs getting on?

I just bought another box of Frontline for Jack n Ruby and I did a short video clip to share with you on how to apply Frontline on them.

Jack n Ruby do not have any fleas and ticks for months but I still apply Frontline as a preventive measure.

They can still get fleas or ticks when I walk them as they can get it from the bushes or contact with other dogs as fleas and ticks can jump from one dog to another.

I may not follow the cycle of application so closely; ie I apply every 4-5 months instead of 3 months.

So have a look at this short video and I hope it helps.....



You may want to read my earlier posting on the use of Frontline on my dogs at
http://removetickfromdogandtreatment.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-to-treat-tick-problem.html

Regards

David

Some Final Words On Ticks

I have indicated that I removed the ticks by hand but you may read that a tweezer is used to remove the tick and that to ensure the head of the tick is removed and if bleeding occur, apply some antiseptic cream. So far, I do not have any problems removing the ticks by hand.

If you are not comfortable to do it by hand or tweezer, then I suggest that you just apply the Frontline or equivalent and let it kill the ticks and that they would dropped off the body when dead.

I just read a dog book and it mentioned that there is only one tick found here in Singapore, called the Brown Dog Tick, as shown in my photos. The ticks are from my 2 dogs.

There is an American tick that cause the ROcky Mountain Spotted Fever and it is potentially fatal to humans.

There is also an Australian tick that could cause paralysis in dogs and humans.

It was also mentioned that the tick may occassionaly bite human but it is not able to suck our blood...?

So there you are.......

I hope you have found my experience relevant and of help to you.

Take care,

David

On-going Maintenance or Treatment of Ticks

You still need to continue to do body searches on your dog to look for any ticks during and after the application of Frontline or equivalent.

Typically, if your dog is an indoor dog, it is unlikely to get tick or flea infestation. However, when you take your dog out for walks in the woods or meet other dogs during the walks, there is a possiblity a tick or two may jump over to your dog.

I have heard from friends that their dogs after spending a night or two at the vet clinic, their dogs caught some ticks. Similar, when they sent them to pet hotel when they need to travel overseas and they do not want to leave their dogs alone in the house or apartement.

I believe my dogs have been free of tick or fleas for the past few years until I took my dogs to unfamiliar areas in my housing estate recently. Since then, I have avoided that part of my estate and stick to my regular route.



The pet shop that sold me Forntline, also recommended a flea and tick spray to apply aorund the areas that my dogs are kept. In this case, the car porch and the garden so I sprayed a bit of the liquid in the event the ticks and fleas dropped off my dogs and went into hiding.....ha...ha...ha...


So as part of your on-going grooming regime, you should watch our for recurrence of any ticks invasion or uninvited ticks or fleas after a walk or encounters with other dogs during your walks.

You need not be paranoid but I am sure you play with your dog daily so just run your hand over their body or fur and do what I have explained earlier on as body search.

The idea is to detect their presence and take action immediately to prevent a huge tick infestation by breaking up its breeding cycle.

Good luck and take good care of your dog....

David

How To Treat The Tick Problem

A few years ago, I was recommended to use Frontline by a friend and I found that it worked well for my dogs. I have not been using it until I discovered a few ticks on my 2 dogs a few weeks ago.

There are other equivalent to Frontline but based on the discussions in the forums, Frontline seems to be one of the proven option.

You need to know the weight of your dog as you should be buying the right strength of Frontline for your dog; eg 0-10 kg, 10-20 kg,... Read and follow the instructions closely for it to be effective.

In short, you apply the liquid in the capsule or container on the back of the neck of the dog where it cannot lick it. The liquid will be absorded and spread through the skin around the body. So the fleas and ticks will be killed or posioned and dropped off. This will kill the breeding cycle of the fleas and ticks. It should last for a month and you may wish to apply another capsule again or later.



I have some photos taken recently when I applied Frontline to my 2 dogs. We found a tick in the crate the following day, as shown in the photo. This definitely proved that the Frontline is working effectively.






I remove it and placed it on the paper towel to take a photo before I killed it, just to be sure.














If you are staying in a country with 4 seasons, there is a chart where advises you on the treatment you may want to consider for spring, summer,autumn and winter; as indicated below.

How To Remove Ticks On Your Dog

Hi,

I am assuming that you just found one or two ticks on your dog and not a big infestation on its body.

Well, you can pull the ticks off by using your hand but I prefer to use a tissue and my live-in housekeeper prefers to put a small plastic bag over her hand, using it like a glove, and then pull the tick off the dog. If you do it right, you should be able to put the tick in a container or kitchen paper towel, as shown in the photo.

I kill it by folding it up and then hit it with my slipper and you will see the blood splatter on the paper towel. I have heard of people pouring alcohol over the ticks in the container.

BTW, if you are not sure if it is a flea or tick, please do not do anything but consult a friend or your vet.


Here is a true story that I extracted from a dog book.....

An Englishwoman visited a vet's clininc with her German Shepherd dog bleeding heavily from its underbelly. Terribly upset, she told the vet that she pulled a tick off the dog and it just could not stop bleeding after that, and that it hurt the dog badly when she pulled it off. The vet took a look and found it hard to believe what he saw. He told the horrified owner that she has just pulled one of her dog's nipples right off... !!! Ouch... ouch... ouch....!!!

Yes, the dog book claim that it is a true incident so no kidding... The poor dog got stitched up and recovered but can you imagine your nipple being pulled off....???

Regards

David