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?

fipronil (active ingredient in Frontline) has stopped working in many parts of the country but I never used to flea treat mine because they didn't get fleas. As I said before, making thoughtful decisions based on proper facts and your individual animals' needs is one thing, "not getting around to it" and "not understanding" is totally something else.

I really feel I'd make more sense if I just bashed my head off the table here but I'll try again, one more time.

The OP's dog not being covered by tick meds does not put the dog sitter or their kids at a higher risk of Lyme disease.

The meds do not stop a tick jumping on a dog, falling off that dog later - ticks hitch a ride, if they don't bite and get the meds, they may fall off and they may bite someone else.

This could just as easily be ticks that fell off the dog sitters OWN dogs, as the OPs. I've even seen dogs wearing Seresto collars have ticks drop off them that had clearly not fed and were still alive and active.

Ticks falling off in your house does not mean your house will be infested with ticks - it can't be, ticks need several hosts through their life cycle, and eggs need to be laid in moist outdoor places to hatch then catch a ride on that appropriate host species.

If a tick laid eggs in your house... they would fail to hatch. No ongoing infestation possible.

I am not saying and have not said that Lyme disease is not an issue -it is. But the risk has not been increased by the OP not giving her dog tick meds. That risk was always present and remained the same, regardless of the OP's dog.

If you really want to avoid ticks and thus Lyme disease, you would need to take personal measures:

Don't walk in long grass in ticky areas.
Wear long trousers, long socks, tuck trousers into socks.
Wear a chemical repellant.
Don't have dogs.

👏Couldn’t have said it better myself

Thank you

Every word of this.
Bravo!

Exactly. My dogs have loads of ticks and none of us has ever had one. We pick them up off their fur even.

Ticks are one thing, but YABVU to send your dog to someone else's house without preventative flea and worm treatment. "A few years" isn't forgetting, it's just not bothering. I'll freely admit that I can be a bit lax with my dog, he's 15 and more of a pavement plodder these days. A 6 month pack of flea/worm/tick tablets will last us more like 12 months but I always treat him the night before I send him to our dog sitters home with her dogs and children.

Agree with what @Schweden said and also want to add that the insecticides used on pets are catastrophic for the insects in the environment. I only treat my dogs if they actually have a problem, don't bother with prophylaxis any more

www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/01/vets-pesticide-flea-treatments-river-pollution-pet-owners-toxic-insecticides-hands

I generally agree

However in this case it doesn't really matter what the op did prior to the dog stay. What happened was, tics were found, the dog in question wasnt protected , and the dog sitters had to go to a lot of hassle . and seriously as a dog owner living in the country who can lapse on most things, I dont want fleas/tics/mites in my home ( see previous post ) so I treat when he needs kennelling

The Op should in future check and follow what the T's & C's are. I dont do inoculations for my dogs but because sometimes I need to use a kennel - he ( the dog ) gets his kennel cough

Like the OP I have a friend who will look after my lad, she has three dogs herself and also doest do the yearly innoculations for hers, but does worm and tic them because of their lifestyle , and like me only defleas the cats as matter of course, dog as and when

@Dogowne91 I think you've been chastised enough on this thread and for what it's worth, as somebody with late stage Lyme and Anaplasmosis - both from a tick bite, several tick bites, who knows?

I managed to contract it in an area not known for either disease, without ever owning a dog apart from an extremely short haired tiny chihuahua who died about two years before I had any symptoms and although quite intrepid for a chihuahua, she prefered to go to the beach for exercise and very rarely went anywhere near long grass (especially after the time we saw some kind of bird of prey circling her above the back fields/common land on the edge of town)

Sometimes life is just like that. Bad luck. I think you've been very brave to not run from this thread or ask for it to be deleted. Logically, you know that all this is just words on a screen from people you will never meet but online criticism can hurt.

One useful thing that has come out of this discussion for me is that by sheer coincidence, I bought a bottle of local wine called - (hang on, I've got here) "Le bois de cerf" (The deer woods) a day before you started this topic and I put two and two together.

"Hang on, I didn't know we had deer on the island?"

I googled a bit and found local newspaper articles that told me that our native deer had gone extinct in the 1970's. This was thought to be very sad so some bright spark decided to introduce a slightly different, bigger, more aggressive, hungrier type of deer from Sardinia in a breeding programme in about the late nineties.

Of course, this Invasive species has since gone beserk, bred profusely, ate everything in sight and could they possibly brought their diseases with them?

I'm not a zoologist, but is this a workable hypothesis?

I hope you and your friends can work things out. All the best x.

I had a very very faint reddening of the skin, which had a sort of tide mark edge to it (think drop of ink dispersing in water). It continued spreading further and further up my leg. Took multiple GP visits, including being dismissively told I probably had Chlamydia, before I got someone to take me seriously and test for lymes. I was very lucky I didn't have any significant symptoms before being treated, and therefore apparently have a lower risk profile of further complications in the future. I don't think I have any lingering effects from it, but then a decade + on, I'm not sure what is the normal wear and tear of life and if anything has been made worse by having had lymes.

Thanks so much for all the replies.
Unfortunately, we've discovered that he had fleas too. The vet said the infestation was likely moderate to high, so now we also need to treat our home too as likelihood he was already infested is high according to her. Any suggestions on how to do that would be really appreciated — or let me know if I should create a separate post. We also told our friends of course

Oh god op. It gets worse. I doubt very much they are your friends any more.

@Dogowne91 you need to get indorex spray for the house and lots of it then follow the instructions to the letter , wash anything that can be on as as high as temp as it can be and vacuum , vacuum and vacuum again and then repeat all that until the there are no more fleas appearing . I assume the vet has given you something for the dog already if not get something from the vet as the things you can purchase off prescription don’t work well .

Thank you. Just ordered three cans on Indorex. Yes our dog has been treated by friends already so no need to give more meds for now. Stressed about carpets and sofas that can't be washed in high temperature

This is always going to be the case when not treated. Infestations are horrific you’re going to have to be extremely thorough. I hope your friends are also aware. As I’ve said previously, even a small
infestation multiplies so quickly without drastic intervention. One female can lay 50 eggs a day and for every. 95% of the infestation is in the home, not on the animal. You need to treat every corner and crevice. Indorex or similar sprayed on every surface, including inside the hoover after use. You need to wash all fabrics. Co ordinate and potentially repeat these efforts to avoid reinfestation.

Hoover, spray with indorex and remember to spray the hoover too. Any living fleas sucked up can simply drop back out again if not also killed. Breaking the cycle is the most important thing here

Yes told my friends they were not happy. Will start the cleaning today. I can't believe we didn't notice anything

Have you apologised? Offered to pay for their cleaning (even if they did the cleaning themselves), brought them a nice hamper with goodies you know they’ll enjoy etc?

whether the ticks came from all 3 dogs or not is absolutely irrelevant when it comes to the flees, btw.

this really is unacceptable!

This is really awful neglect of your dog tbh, and I would be furious if I were your friend. Your poor dog must have been so uncomfortable riddled with fleas and getting ticks when all you had to do was spend a few minutes treating him.

Amazing how you've dropped everything to sort the flea infestation now it directly affects you, fretting about the carpet and sofas, yet in two years just 'never got around' to sorting your dog's basic care needs.

posting from a US website because they are more alert to it there. You don't always get a rash and the rash can vary in appearance. Like any other rash, it can be hidden on black skin. Diagnosis is by blood test but even this may not be reliable in early stages. www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/lyme/basics.html

I think OP has behaved appallingly, but dogs can’t transfer Lymes disease to humans.

@WiddlinDiddlin The meds do not stop a tick jumping on a dog, falling off that dog later - ticks hitch a ride, if they don't bite and get the meds, they may fall off and they may bite someone else. … your lovely long post, only to be factually incorrect at the beginning .. you know ticks don’t jump, right?? 🤨😂

@Dogowne91 OP - definitely a wind up thread, of course your dog is also infected with fleas 🤨🤦‍♀️🙄🙄

I suggest getting flea bombs too, Op. you and animals will need to go out for several hours whilst they work, but they really do the trick. Despite regular treatments, my then outdoor cat brought fleas in and it was a nightmare trying to get rid of them from soft furnishings.

The indorax will sort the sofas and carpets out. Assume you’re buying indorax for your friends too?