Friends Upset Over Tick Situation – Are we really in the wrong?

[Dogowne91]

Hi everyone,
Would really appreciate some honest opinions on something that’s left us a bit stunned.
We just got back from a 2-week holiday and had left our dog with close friends who kindly offered to look after him. They also have two dogs, and they spent loads of time together — running around the house and their big garden, playing, sleeping near each other, out on plenty of walks, the usual.
When we picked up our dog, they told us they’d found 8 ticks in a matter of days — some on our dog and some around the house (sofa, bed, floor) which explained why they had asked if our dog was on tick prevention whilst we were away. We were honest from the beginning: he wasn’t and hasn't been for at least a couple of years. Totally our fault, just hadn’t gotten around to it. We also discovered they have treated him straight away once they discovered he wasn't up to date with it (they spoke with a vet first).
They’re clearly really upset and, honestly, we’re a bit taken aback. We obviously didn’t mean to put anyone at risk and feel bad — but also, we live in the Devon countryside where dogs are running through fields and long grass all the time and if we find ticks, we normally simply remove them from him. Ticks are kind of unavoidable here and the likelihood of Lyme disease is not that bad.
We’re now wondering… did we seriously mess up? Should we have flagged this before leaving him with them? We never thought it would cause this kind of fallout.
Would really appreciate some honest thoughts. Is this as big a deal as they are making it seem?

jesus

they went quite extra on it

how rude!!

you are rude, selfish & negligent.

your poor EX friends & your poor dog 😢

Do get your dog put on the flea/tick/worm stuff asap. It’s worth it and I’m not particularly precious about my dogs.

I will apologise profusely and feel a bit silly for thinking this situation shouldn't have been a big issue. I've read a lot of things about ticks and parasites today and didn't think things could be that bad so I understand their POV much better now

Those flea tick worms tablets also (at least mine does) prevent/treat ear mites. We had a friend dog at ours for a week, and she really smelled, they said it was her age, our dog is also old so we were understanding. We washed his dog, still rank. She was also “deaf”…

I realised it was her ears, I cleaned with cotton wool and ear cleaner and there was blood, bugs,bug debris - really irritated ear canals. Poor thing, we texted him on his holiday and asked about what we should do - he also didn’t bother with ticks/worms tablets & he wasn’t keen on her getting a veterinary bill for her ears. My vet said couldn’t treat her without written permission. However, I cleaned them daily & she seemed so relieved and hoped it improved her hearing.
I thought everyone who cared for a dog did the worm/glea&tick… esp living in countryside as there are many opportunities for parasites, worms & ticks.

Ear mites can pass to other pets. So I was also treating my dog.

Perhaps off topic but having Lyme and Anaplasmosis myself (see my PP) I'm very, very pleasantly surprised about how aware so many of you are about Lyme/tick borne disease.

Maybe because it's on the Pets board so the statistics are off kilter as everybody posting here is obviously very interested in animals/pet owners but I certainly haven't found this to be the case IRL.

Really cheered me up.

Lastly, I have no idea exactly when or where I was bitten, if I had a bullseye rash I didn't recognise it as such at the time as I have very pale, freckly skin that's always got some kind of red patch/dry bit/common or garden mossie bite somewhere and until I was diagnosed I had no real idea of Lyme, so I wouldn't be too hard on OP.

It seems to be everywhere in the media lately but again, that could just be the algorithm on my phone because obviously I search for Lyme quite often.

^that we know of*

there fixed that for you.

Whilst I'm not a fan of chemicals etc, and previous dogs have only been treated if there appears to be a problem, my current dog is kept up to date with both flea and wormer from the vets. I'm doing this as there appears to be so many more horrible things that they can catch because of animals that have been brought over with them - things like heart worm etc etc. This and living in an area where ticks are common is also part of the deciding factor.

Everywhere there is grass, bushes, etc … there are ticks - there are no “infested” areas.

Google the lifecycle of ticks, they are very very small before attaching to your pet. They are everywhere is the countryside. And any urban dog, who has been on a country walk can bring them into urban parks and now there are city ticks.

Thank God for small mercies!

please spread the word to others too

We have dogs and don’t routinely administer flea and tick treatment all year around so I can see how if it’s not something you use that it may not have been on your radar.
I personally wouldn’t be that upset had I looked after your dog and encountered the same problem, because when you have animals these things happen.
They’ve walked the dogs in an area where there are lots of ticks by the sound of it, some of the ticks may have hitched a ride on their dogs because the treatment has meant they haven’t latched on and they’ve fallen off in the home so I’m not sure they should attribute all the ticks to your dog.
This summer is awful for ticks and despite using preventatives since spring we’ve had many on one of our dogs in particular when walking in a similar location.
Our dogs usually always come with us but if they are going elsewhere 48 hours before I always worm and apply flea treatment just to be sure they haven’t got anything or likely to pick up visitors, which is a good habit to get into.
I would just apologise and explain that where you usually walk you haven’t encountered a problem with them so it’s not on your radar.

On a first vet visit, they'll tell you about flea/tick/worm prevention, so it should be on everyone's radar.

Some precious responses on this thread.

Ticks are not a big deal unless you are unlucky enough to be bitten by one infected with Lymes. Chances of that are slim. Just remove from you or the dog and pop it down the sink waste.

I had African Tick Fever a long time ago. Wasn't that pleasant, but a course of doxycycline soon fixed it.

We've never used tick prevention as they can cause nasty reactions, so instead we check our dog and remove them immediately. Never had any transfer onto the rest of the home or us as humans. I think they're being a tad dramatic. If they're in a high tick area, just check the dog after each walk and remove, takes minutes.

Pop it down the sink? That goes into our water supply. I wouldn't do that, I drown the fuckers in vodka, then bin them.

But they often fail to advise that the treatments can cause harm to your pets. I used to keep rabbits and the treatment is known to kill them sometimes.

Really? Start now, this isn't good enough even without your dog being minded by a third party, think of your dogs discomfort.. also i couldn't cope with ticks, fleas, mites etc in my home, when I've had a dog they've been in the living area & rightly so.. it's not expensive, it takes two minutes

Blimey. My mum became seriously ill from Lyme’s disease a few years ago. You shouldn’t downplay it.

Ah cool, now you know & fair play for accepting what to do going forward

They probably assumed you were reasonable, decent and caring dog owners and for a minute didn't think anyone would be so daft and irresponsible to not treat their animals. It's a very reasonable assumption to make..... Why on earth would they even think to ask, you're in a very very small minority. I don't have dogs and never had, but even I know that flea/worm/tick treatment is Day 1 of Dog Ownership School.

@FarmGirl78 well, you have just shown you don’t know. Maybe read some of the balanced posts in here.

Ticks will still get on the dogs regardless of whether the been treated or not. We choose to use Brave to tablets on our dogs as we do get a lot of ticks but we still find the little blighters on them. - but they die before much happens. IMHO it's out of order to give your dog medication without your permission, and did they check with your own vet first in case the was a medical reason why he couldn't have it? It's potent stuff that some people choose not to use.

I voted not a big deal coz they're not an issue like fleas. You don't have to de-bug the whole house. Just kill the ones you find

You do know worms can cause blindness, dont you? You sound really irresponsible.

I got bitten by a tick walking my own dog - I got lymes disease and was very unwell for a while.
Id be very angry at you and I can't believe you don't give a shit.

I would be really angry you were negligent to bring ticks into my house and infect my home and pets. Lyme disease is very real and life changing

I'd be really upset with you - I have two friends who were extremely unwell with Lyme Disease and one has been left with paralysed facial muscles.