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?

In 20 years my dogs (short haired GSPs) have never had ticks apart from when we went to Scotland. If you live and walk your dogs in an area where ticks aren’t prevalent I can see how that passed you by.

..

I do the same. He's 12 years old and never had worms or fleas

This! So irresponsible not to treat your animals with the most basic of preventative measures!!

You should be thoroughly ashamed.

Treat your dog ffs!! 🤦‍♀️ 🤬

I find it more worrying how many owners don't understand how worm and tick treatments work.

The majority are not preventative, giving a wormer doesn't stop them getting worms, it just treats them if they have them. Most tick treatment doesn't stop ticks crawling on and attaching, it will just kill them before they have a chance to pass on any infection after they've attached. Many vets flea and worm plans actually don't treat for ticks at all.

We don't treat for fleas or worms unless there is evidence of either (we worm count including for lungworm every 3 months). Never had fleas or worms. We brush down after walks to limit tick exposure and generally have to pick off a few each year during the summer months.

When you send your dog or your child to mix with other dogs or children, you do what needs doing to minimise the risk of anything spreading to those dogs or children. Our kid didn't get headlice often compared to some, but if you get the note home from school to say it's going round, you still obsessively check their head, because you don't want the small chance of it being them who infects the class, half of whom have just finished doing the lice treatment and don't want to do it again.

If it's recommended that you do a tick/flee treatment to prevent it occurring, then you do that treatment if you want your dog to go to places where there are other dogs. period.

Sorry, don’t want to add to the pile on but agree with most here. It was unacceptable and you should treat pets for ticks as well as other parasites. For their health and yours.

The key part of what you said is “I have always wormed my dogs”. OP is not doing that either.

EXACTLY

Did you even read the OP? 😵‍💫😵‍💫

The people who have posted on here that they do not regularly treat for some or any of the dog parasites have ?all ?mostly posted that they have looked into the matter and taken decisions on what they believe is best for them and their pets. I did the same. I get concerns about excess use of treatments unnecessarily, only doing what is needful, not wanting to risk adverse reactions to treatments. All understandable concerns. I could not find one apart from the OP who said "oh we just didn't get around to it" or "we never thought to mention it to the folk who were looking after them" or "Lyme Disease is no big deal" Its different!

What fleas, OP's dog did not have fleas.

The dog minders have their own dogs and no amount of flea treatment on the dog is going stop the odd flea from coming in on either dog or human or general stuff. The house should be flea treated too - most of a fleas life cycle is on the floor/soft furnishings of a property, not on the dog!

All of this could have been avoided if both parties had communicated and also understood the life-cycle etc of parasites they will commonly be dealing with when they own dogs.

Has OP actually checked for fleas?

How would you or the OP know if their dog had fleas? OP doesn’t think it important enough to vaccinate, worm, flea or tick treat her dog so I suspect doesn’t know.
We had friends whose cats definitely had fleas but they denied it and were never bitten, unlike us when we visited!

How on gods holy earth do you know??

Op doesn’t treat her pets for fleas, it’s likely given where they live that it is infested with fleas. Have you any idea how hard they are to get rid of once they are in your house?

it’s beyond disgusting and disrespectful to create these kinds of problems for friends that were so kind to look after your mutt in the first place. Given how much cleaning and probably fumigating they have had to do ever since it’s no wonder they are upset.

Fkeas can cause awful sores on dogs and many complications.

Your lecturing of life cycles of fleas and parasites is probably of no consequence or consolation!

Unless I missed it the OP hasn’t disclosed the vaccination status of her dog or if she treats for fleas/worms (not all treatments work against all critters) so posts stating what an uncaring owner she is seem a little unfair.
We titre test our dogs instead of full vaccinations, we don’t have a cat so don’t routinely treat for fleas (but dogs are groomed/checked regularly).
We are now using a flea/tick treatment because we are walking in a new area that seems to be a haven for ticks. Prior to this we hadn’t used a tick preventative because our dogs have never picked them up, as soon as we saw ticks we picked an appropriate deterrent and have started using it. We will stop using it when we are no longer walking in that area because there will be no need to use it.
I have seen many adverse reactions to routine flea and worm treatments (background in animal care) which is why we treat on an as needed basis, focused on each dogs requirements rather then put on potions or give oral medications on a schedule for all of them.

She did in her second post - No we haven't given any meds. This was in response to, how could you forget for 2 years, do you not treat them for fleas, worms, ticks 🤷‍♀️

OP was asked if she had treated for ticks fleas and worms and replied that she "hadn't given any meds".

Don't know about vaccinations but it was pretty clear she hasn't treated for any of the parasitic beasties.

If you were asking friends to have your dog for a week as a favour to you, would you treat/offer to/ask whether it is necessary for their area?

If yes, it is a different situation from doing nothing and saying nothing.

I assumed the ‘we haven’t given any meds’ was that she hadn’t given any meds that specifically treat ticks. She could vaccinate as that wouldn’t really be classed as her giving meds.
The point is that unless her dog has previously picked up ticks she wouldn’t necessarily use a product for them.
When I worked at a vet’s the vet didn’t just flog you any treatment on the basis of just incase. He would advise dog owners that had cats to use a flea treatment, dog owners whose dogs crunched snails to make sure they were using a product for lung worm, for dogs that ate faeces to worm more regularly then every 3 months etc
The ticks would probably have hitched a ride on all the dogs returning back from the walk regardless of if they had been treated or not (unless using something similar to a scalibor or seresto collar, but even then I’ve known ticks to still be in the fur).

If my dogs had never picked up a tick and we lived in a similar area then I wouldn’t necessarily think to put a tick treatment on them if they were staying with friends.
If my dogs were elsewhere and had picked up ticks my friends would have removed them, sent me a msg to ask if I wanted some treatment put on them and then whizzed a hoover around, washed the dogs beds and that would have been the end of it, they wouldn’t have been super upset about it and certainly would know that their dogs may have brought some of the ticks back that were found in the home environment.

Pretty sure it'd have been mentioned if the dog had fleas...

You can see fleas, you can see the dog scratching, it takes a few minutes to confirm fleas.

I don't treat my dogs for fleas they do not have - as I said, I treat the HOUSE to prevent any incoming fleas from surviving.

Then if we see signs of fleas, I treat for them - usually Capstar straight away and then whatever longer term treatment the vet recommends.

My vet fully approves of my 'apply chemicals to the house routinely as a preventative, apply to the dog as a treatment for an existing problem' protocol - its the one he recommends himself.

I have already said, OP should have checked with the dog sitters re flea/tick etc, and she should absolutely pay for treatment her dog has had.

I don't think it warrants this massive over-reaction though - normal household cleaning and their own parasite protocol (assuming they are not idiots who are treating the dogs monthly but not treating the house annually!) means they don't need to do anything out of the ordinary. They have chosen to over-react because they don't understand what they're dealing with - hardly the OP's fault!

The OP's dog has also not put the sitters or their dogs at any increased risk - again if they believe otherwise, this is ignorance of how parasites 'work', and is their issue, not the OP's.

You don’t think their children getting Lyme disease or themselves being exposed to such thing is a problem? Do you know how serious it actually is??

The question she responded to specifically mentioned fleas and worms as well.

Mine haven't either. Live semi rural, lots of contact with other animals, horses, cats etc. Checked regularly, never had one in 9 years.

Coconut oil is a really good deterrent for fleas. It's exuded through the pores like garlic. You know how some people stink of it for days after eating it.

Fleas hate coconut. I thought it was bullshit till I tried it. Spoonful in her breakfast every day. Never had a flea or tick since. She's just not as appetising to them. Much better track record than frontline, I might as well have not bothered with that!

I do worm them and vaccinate though. They like to drink any disgusting water they can find.