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?

Wait till they find the fleas...

Your dog should have been on tick prevention and be dewormed before going to stay at someone else's house.

A sincere apology is needed. Then you need to pay for the tick treatment because they took your dog to get treated and also give them more than the tick treatment actually cost to compensate them for having to drive him to the vet and the time taken to do so.

I'd also be offering to pay for professional cleaning of the rooms the dog was in during his stay (even if they have already cleaned and washed all the soft furnishings).

I doubt they will have your dog back.

That’s awful. I’d be furious. It’s basic pet ownership to sort them out for fleas, worms, and ticks. To send your dog to a friend’s house without sorting something so basic is terrible. You owe them such a huge apology and money for the treatment they provided. 8 ticks in 2 weeks is insane! We maybe find around 3 ticks in a whole year and we are also Cornwall countryside and check regularly. I doubt they’ll ever be doing you a favour again.

No it is not.

ive got a very long haired dog, we treat him.

he still picks up ticks. We have to remove them and check him multiple times after every time he goes out into the garden. We’re on constant tick watch.

i assume that the tick treatment means that if the ticks bite, they drop off, but that doesn’t stop them landing on him as a passenger, coming into the house and potentially coming onto us.

i can only imagine the majority of replies aren’t from people who live in ticksville/the countryside

Having had Lymes disease, I can confirm it is shit. And I was relatively lucky.

Please treat your dog - for your own and your families sake if not the dogs.

And a large apology gift to your friends - I am sure when they signed up look after your dog they assumed you had this basic stuff under control! Especially if you live in a high risk area. Having to take your dog to the vets as well as sort their house I expect was not in their plan.

Family walks are always accompanied by a quick check over for ticks here - Adults, kids and Dog alike!

If you knew you were in the wrong you wouldn’t have written “are we really wrong in the title”

you can only apologise profusely and do better next time by being a good dog owner and treating your dog going forward.

I no longer have a dog. She was regularly treated when I did. We still got ticks in the house. My cat is regularly treated. He still brings some home too.

Only about 4% of ticks carry Borrelia burgdorferi. Some areas will have more, some less, but the likelihood of Lyme is still low.

I’m sorry but YABU here.
Bad friends and bad dog owners. I’d be buying them something nice to apologise and start making time for treating your poor dog too.

You can't possibly know if he's spreading worms, ticks and fleas wherever he goes. Do you think you'd be in a cafe and someone would jump up and scream "argh now I'm infested with worms from that exact dog" and you'd immediately know? Of course not. You're coming across as thick as mince. Is he an XL bully who's "really good with kids" too?

Have a look at Itch online. You can get a subscription for a monthly wormer and flea/tick control sent to your door. It doesn't cost much, and your dog will be thankful for it.

100%

we’ve had to take ticks off my son, his mate and my oh… BEFORE we had a dog.

im in rural north Hampshire, it’s tick central

@Dogowne91 you see that you do need to be more responsible with this side of dog ownership now, good news, but don’t beat yourself up, they are being a bit dramatic

the fact that their dogs aren’t very energetic and don’t wander off the path while yours does, investigates and heads off on sniffaris, even if treated, ticks come as passengers and into homes.

You are so in the wrong! You need to apologise profusely to your friends…

I have lots of pets all of mine are wormed, flea & tick treated and have their vaccines up to date.

We’ve had an abundance of ticks this year despite them being treated I’ve pulled 5 off one dog in a matter of days. I’ve spoken to my vets and changed the treatment.

There has been a couple of times where I thought DH had done the treatments and he thought I had done them so they missed by a couple of weeks but if a friend ever offered to have my dog I’d have made sure it was done not that anyone would offer to have my loons

I doubt these guys will ever do you a favour again. I’d seriously distance myself if I were them. It’s quite neglectful to not bother with any preventative treatments no matter how much you claim to
love and care for your animals.

Frankly they should have asked you to treat the dog before hand if they knew you don't treat - so I would say you are both at fault

You look after dogs as a favour or for price it doesn't matter you take on all the issues that come with - its not a massive deal in my book animals come with these issues. Yes you could have treated but they knew you didn't, they could have asked you to do it - you should make sure treatments are up to date etc

THey took the dogs where there were ticks as well - as opposed to general leashed walks or park so that is also their look out

This response makes me think that you still think that this isn't really that big of a deal. I would be upset with you as well.

We had a GR and we checked him each time he went for a walk but we also made sure he was up to date with his flea and tick vaccinations to be safe. With a GR can you be sure that you hadn't missed one/two before he went to friends?

Imperial college London are urgently questioning the use of flea & tick prevention chemicals : ‘Imidacloprid and fipronil are powerful killers of invertebrates such as insects. One monthly flea treatment for a large dog contains enough imidacloprid to kill 25 million bees. In aquatic ecosystems, insect larvae are particularly at risk, such as those of mayfly and dragonfly. These species, among others, are important food for fish, birds, and bats, potentially causing knock-on effects on the wider ecosystem.
By weight, imidacloprid is one of the best-selling veterinary parasiticides in the UK. Immediately before the ban on crop use, a combined total of over 4000 kg was used for agriculture and sold for veterinary use in a single year in the UK. After the chemical was fully banned for all outdoor use in 2018 this dropped markedly, but over 2500 kg was still being sold in the following year, all of which was destined for the domestic pet market as a parasiticide.’

This. The stuff only works on ingestion of the hosts blood so any of those ticks could have been brought in by any of those dogs or even the humans.

It doesn't super stun the tick as soon as it gets near the dogs coat.

Ticks leap towards vibration and exhaled CO2. It's not just your dogs that cause vibration and exhaled CO2. They are being precious.

Absolutely has to be a wind up thread as no way would anyone be this batshit crazy to put theirs and other animals lives at risk like this 🤷‍♀️

Sometimes no good deed goes unpunished. We looked after our inlaws' dog and they must have been a bit late with the flea treatment that year as our carpets were riddled with them after she left. The cats didn't get them as they had been treated already but it took months of the flea bomb sprays to get them out of the carpets.

If there are lots of ticks near you, you not only need to treat your dog but also spray your clothes to prevent them getting on you. Lyme disease is dreadful.

I would buy a lovely gift for your friends like a hamper of lots of things they'd like by way of thanks and apology. But I'd also expect them to not volunteer to look after your dog again.

They didn't know we didn't treat him. They didn't ask because they assumed we did

Your use of language is minimising what they feel: you are ‘stunned’, all the cleaning they did was ‘a bit extra’, ‘drama’. You can live how you wish as can they. But you imposed your way on them and caused them inconvenience and hassle they try to avoid. It’s not that deep. So pay the vet fee, offer to pay for cleaning (it doesn’t matter if they’ve done it already, it’s about showing you are bothered they had to do any cleaning due to your dog having ticks) and take them a bottle/flowers. Don’t waste time trying to find a way to minimise what happened because to you it’s not a big deal. It is to them. They did a favour that cost them and you need to recognise that.

They sound a bit overdramatic to me, I wouldn't be deep cleaning my house just because of a few ticks. As you say, Lyme disease is unpleasant but also uncommon but I think people often have a disproportionate view about the risk of stuff like this

Pet insecticide is realised to be behind the deaths of songbirds and inanition of their eggs as they collect hair and fur from pets to make their nests and poison themselves, their eggs and their young in the enclosed environment of the nest.

Same here.

A fair assumption sorry I think I misread an earlier post as thought it said they knew. SoI wld say apologise etc and of course meet costs of anything as you would have had that anyway.

Just say you will know to make sure next time etc