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?

and there, right there is an uninformed, frankly aggressive comment.

You can get lymes disease from tick bites. I would be furious with you.

Apparently flea/worm/tick treatment don't do very much. They have become resistant to the medication. We still deworm and give flea tick treatment though. I haven't done enough research on it. Apparently rabbit ears are natural de wormers.

No I don't think they do work differently. From my research it seems to be the serresto collar which is the only thing which claims to repel ticks.

Wow, I'd be super-pissed.

If you have someone else dog-sit for you in their home, you make sure the dog is flea, tick and worm-free. It's just bloody rude and inconsiderate not to.

And it's bad dog ownership not to be on top of any problems with parasites. Your poor dog.

@Rockhopper1

my health is more important to me than the environment and I don’t want lime disease so therefore I will continue to use insect repellant, if I had a dog I would treat it, etc. anyone who has an issue with that- tough shit.

How nice for them that they had to deal with all that….

The older ones don't. There are newer ones which are effective, take a look at scalibor and seresto collars. Its fipronil which is becoming useless and even then only in certain areas of the UK.

If you order from the vets they will provide the options that are not resistant.

I can’t believe how slovenly and indifferent op is. I would never speak to her again. Awful behaviour.

also scalibor collars. I'd prob use seresto now as it seems to be marginally better

Oh yes you messed up here!

Judging from your comments and the excuses you are making, you sound really irresponsible.

Just because you don't care about ticks in your house or potentially catching Lymes disease you can't expect everyone else to be that blasé about it.

Look at it from your friends' perspective: They have done you a huge favour looking after your dog and in return have had their house invaded by parasites that can spread a deadly disease and had the bother of needing a deep clean as a result. All because you couldn't be bothered to get your animal treated. It's not on.

Do you have your dog flea treated at least?

Your friends are upset and you have inconvenienced them when they were doing you a favour. Doing a full clean and organising tick treatments is above and beyond what they were expecting.

I would focus on making it up to them rather than how upset they should be. Show them you understand the inconvenience and stress causes with a genuine apology, also acknowledge it was irresponsible not to have treated the dog already. Buy them some sort of gift, flowers or a takeaway or whatever they will appreciate.

My dogs aren't on flea prevention. I check them regularly and if I saw one, I'd dose them but coconut oil does a pretty good job of deterring them. They can't stand the taste of it.

I am currently being treated for Lyme disease though, after a bite during holiday in Cornwall so it's not as rare as you think.

YABU for your "the risk of Lyme disease is not that bad" comment. Firstly, I imagine it's as much about ticks in theirs home as it is about Lyme. Secondly, a quick Google suggests studies put the risk of contracting Lyme from between ) to 50%; I think it's a bit shitty of you to dismiss any risk out of hand when it's someone else's risk.

They volunteered to look after your dog and ended up with 8 unwanted parasites which could have spread disease to other pets and humans in the house. You need to get your dog flea, worm and tick prevention. It's the bare minimum.

Also, you need to rapidly and thoroughly check your dog for fleas right now ... and potentially pay for the poor bastards to have their house fumigated.

Ticks are right up there among the most stomach-turningly disgusting creatures in creation; and what's more if you didn't get round to applying treatment, in spite of the fact that where you live ticks are common, I really doubt you spend much time on grooming either.

So, yeah, if I offered to dog sit and found out too late that something as basic as that wasn't up to date I would be seriously hacked off, especially if I had dogs of my own. It would be like sending a child to a sleepover riddled with nits.

Take the lesson to heart and tender a grovelling apology, plus costs.

This level of hysteria is crazy! Is this just mumsnet? I’ve worked with animals for decades and I don’t know anyone who would be so outraged by a couple of ticks! We way over treat our animals with chemicals, it’s horrible for the environment. Stick a flea/tick treatment on him a couple of times a year. It’s fine. Even my vet told me the other day she doesn’t do monthly flea treatments! Bad luck your friends were so hysterical too. Weird. These must be the same people who change their sheets daily and think shoes in the house is OUTRAGEOUS!

WTF

@Whatoflife i care more about preventing lymes disease than I care about the environment

I would be annoyed tbh - I would expect any dog I looked after in my home to be up to date with flea, tick and worm treatments

8 ticks is loads though. Poor dog.

A couple, I'd agree with you. Anyone might miss one.

But OPs been a big neglectful here.

Treating your dog for ticks does not stop humans being bitten by a tick. I was horrified to find one on my leg last week.
Treating your dog for ticks does not stop them being brought into your home. My lab has a thick coat that hides them and we often pick crawlers off her when we get home. She is tick treated with the horrible chemicals. All that the treatment does is stop them embedding.
Whilst I think you are being very foolish and unfair sending your untreated dog to a friend when ticks are a nightmare this season, any crawling ticks found in her house after a walk could easily have come off her own dog.
Tick treatment does not mean you have to be less vigilant. It is not a magic cure.

You sound like a pretty careless dog owner. Your dog should be treated very regularly for fleas, ticks etc. To send your dog to another person’s house without doing this is a shitty thing to do. And to say Lyme disease isn’t too bad is spectacularly ignorant. It can be life changing. You need to educate yourself.