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?

I see someone has already said indorex spray, you also need to hoover as much as you can as the heat and vibrations of the hoover can make eggs hatch quicker so you can get through the life cycle quicker.
You will also need to treat the rooms where there are hard floors around skirting boards and your car because eggs can be transferred via shoes and you don’t want them to keep being transported back and forth.
Wash everything you can, and you’ll need to apply treatment regularly going forward on your dog. He will also need to be wormed more often as fleas are usually how dogs contract tapeworms when they groom themselves because they can carry the egg.
Whilst I don’t doubt your friends are pretty cross, as they should be these things do happen. I met so many embarrassed people that had an infestation coming into the vets to get treatment, usually from cats where they had forgotten to treat or the frontline hadn’t worked.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, if I was you I would offer to pay for a flea bomb to be administered to your friends house.

its not just the indorex applicaction, its all the hoovering and furniture moving and general pissing about ......been there 3 times when I brought fleas home from work.

Yes I know it’s a complete faff, and I have mentioned she needs to hoover as much as possible.
we worked with a client who was at the end of her tether because of it, loaned her flea traps etc to narrow down where in the house the problem was. Turned out it was the tiled kitchen, she had thought she didn’t need to treat it as had mopped/hoovererd, we explained every room had to be done including the bathroom and her car.
3 tins will be enough to do an average size home just the once, so you’ll need more OP if you are supplying your friends but honestly to save them all the hassle I would as I said in my previous post pay for theirs to be done for them.

@godmum56 Thank you. I have tried the seresto collar without success. I haven’t tried the scalibor collar. I will give it a go but I think maybe the combination of where I live (lots of deer) and having a golden retriever is making the situation worse.

Wow, glutton for punishment, coming back to say that, aren't you? 😂🙄

I think you should pay for your friends to have rentokill or someone round.

I don't think a few cans of indorex and "have fun spraying and respraying your house" is good enough.

Karma 😁😁😁

My Schadenfreude meter just exploded. 🪳🪳🪳

Head/desk

Yeah, so much for taking the dog everywhere and never causing any problem by that.

So basically your dog was infested with two types of parasite and you've only just noticed?

How could a flea infestation on a golden retriever have reached the 'moderate to high' stage before you bloody noticed? Fleas are easy to spot in light coloured fur.

I'm itching just thinking about this.

You're beyond irresponsible in not using prevention treatments. Your poor dog.

What you sad about, widdlindiddlin?

I salute your bravery and honesty coming back on here.

I think this goes a bit beyond a bunch of flowers and a few cans of flea spray 😂

You need to call in the professionals in both houses. You miss just one bugger and you end up on the dreaded infestation loop.

Three cans will not be enough. That might do one treatment of whole house if your squirting bet ten skirting and underbite and under pillows on settee, curtains etc. you’ll be doing it again next month. The month after. If indorex works. Fipronil treatment stopped working on my dog and I was. Checking her weekly but fleas took hold and two months before they were gone. Seresto collar helped the dog and lots of baths with special shampoo, and more treatments, I also treated garden with nematodes…. All in all in cost hundreds of pounds and I threw away lots of furnishings and the dog beds too, it was just easier. Daily hoovering - you need to get this sorted out, it will be hurting your pet. If you don’t feel massively guilty and get this fixed then you shouldn’t have any pet.

where the hell is the laughing emoji

I think we can all very easily believe you don’t notice anything

@Dogowne91 I've done a quick google of how much professional flea fumigation/treatment would cost in the UK (I don't live in England any more and haven't done for 25 years so completely out of the loop but it came back with between £80 and £350. Would it be worth it, more cost/time effective in the long run?

Might you have to move out/sleep somewhere else for a night or so, presumably taking your dog with you? I don't know. I hope you get through this OP, I don't think you acted with any malice and you're trying to put things right now.

Here's a link to Rentokill's flea service. I don't think they would ever be judgemental or nasty. Even if you decide not to use them or a similar service you could maybe just sound them out for advice on options:

www.rentokil.co.uk/fleas/

Quelle surprise 🙄🤷🏼‍♀️

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

Of course the dog has fleas as you have not been using anything. Very disturbing that you have not noticed this in a pet you claim to live and care for, you haven’t even done the bare basics. Worms. Given your utter lack of care, your dog likely also has worms.

So, a nice friend kindly minded your dog while you went on holiday, assuming you were a good pet owner who had covered the utter basic necessities and you have infested their house with both ticks and fleas. Well done! I’d end the friendship if I was that person, as it could only be either utter lack of care for a pet, or utter stupidity not having any clue in life, either not being high on the ‘tick’ list for friendships.

I think you jumped the shark with the flea infestation 😂

Errrrrmmmmexcept the dog did have fleas…..lots and lots of fleas…..

Yeah. Hence my 'head/desk' comment after the fleas were revealed.

I am many things, but a mind reader I am not.

To be fair on the fleas thing, my mum has a visiting cat and a couple of years ago I was covered in flea bites after visiting her. She didn't get bitten and neither did any of her friends, my husband, or my son!

So she (and his actual owner who does look after him very well and does treat him for everything necessary) wouldn't have known about the fleas if it wasn't for the fact that they took a particular interest in me!

They would if they were regularly checking them properly. Fleas will hide when parting the hair, but they're not that clever about it 😀 and they do leave dirt on the skin.