Ticks!!

[Crossy]

We don't normally have an issue with ticks, the guinea fowl and chooks keep them along with other creepy-crawlies to reasonable levels.

 

Unfortunately the recent weather means that we have more than our creatures can comfortably turn into eggs and my two best friends are attracting them.

 

We're off to the vet later to get the relevant jabs but what's the "forum recommendation" for an effective and long lasting treatment? 

 

Dogs are small, 5 and 6kg.

 

 

[JWRC]

Bravecto, costly but works perfectly. You can get it from the vet, there is just one tablet every 3 months. I literally spent a few years here battling to find a suitable treatment and I think I tried most of them. The only other product that 90% worked and is cheaper is Endex however I stopped using this when my vet told me that it affects the animals liver and was not recommended, that was why it was sold under the counter so to speak.

[Crossy]

On 11/7/2020 at 6:58 AM, JWRC said:

Bravecto, costly but works perfectly. 

 

Yeah, Bravecto was what the vet recommended. 

 

The dogs don't like the "delicious chewy tablets" so they get them like regular pills, luckily they are both pretty good taking their medicine, they know there's a treat coming.

 

Creatures started dropping off within hours and both my friends appear to be clear this morning.

 

I see that Bravecto is somewhat cheaper from Lazada, any risk it's fake??

 

[G Rex]

Unlikely to be fake. Just reduced mark up by Lazada sellers.

Bravecto is good product - but I recommend Nexgard .  This must be given monthly rather than quarterly to your dog, but it simply means you are putting less active ingredient into your mate every time you treat him/her. Nexgard spectra (if available in Thailand) has the added benefit of treating for intestinal parasites (& heartworm) as well. 

[Daffy D]

I've been giving my dogs these lately:-

Give them once a month and only cost 100Bhat a pack.

 

Seems to work alright especially on one of the dogs with an incurable skin problem that nothing so far had cleared up, this seems to be working.  

[Lacessit]

We have a liquid that is syringed into the top neck fur of our dog once a month, can't remember the name. Obtainable at dog shops. Have to chain him up for a day, or he'll wash it off by swimming in the irrigation canal.

[G Rex]

Advocate?  - works well        Frontline ? - not so good these days

[Crossy]

1 hour ago, G Rex said:

Nexgard spectra (if available in Thailand)

 

It is indeed available here https://www.lazada.co.th/products/i261799259-s402991716.html

 

[fangless]

Any recommendations for treatment for cats?

[G Rex]

Advocate is the best & easiest treatment for cats - a liquid you apply on skin at back of neck once a month.

Works well - but some cats do not like the ‘feel’ of the product.  One of my cats always moved out of home for a day or 2 after I treated him!  Eventually hunger would get the better of him! 

[overherebc]

We had a huge infestation from two dogs next door ( expat owner who stayed a couple of months only ).

Ended up while using the one that you put on the skin at the back of the dogs neck keeping them in the front garden for two days getting the back garden sprayed and then two days later put dogs in the back garden and getting the front garden sprayed.

Fingers crossed still clear after 2 years.

[internationalism]

ivermectin injection under skin.

lasts over 3 months, for all insects, as well as all parasites. Has antiviral properties, is also an imunomodulator.

vial 10mg on lazada 50b.

to be given 0.2mg per kg.

 

Daffe mentioned Armecide, which contain ivermectin 8mg and which helped with skin condition. This medicine works on mites and scabies, one of which his dog has. Mites is incurable, but ivermectin will keep this parasite under control. Can be applied on the skin, cream can be made, so medicine will last longer.

To really help with demodex, it has to be taken orally every 2 weeks at standard dose 0.2mg per kg. Or even better 0.1mg every week, as half-life for this compound is only 18h.

 

There are dog races which have gen mutation MDR1 and this medicine will kill them. 

"This gene mutation is known to occur most commonly in breeds such as collies, Australian shepherds, shelties, long-haired whippets, English sheepdogs, German shepherds, Silken Windhounds, Skye terriers, and other breeds with white feet." 

https://www.thesprucepets.com/is-ivermectin-safe-dogs-and-cats-3384698

 

[BoneyV]

We've used Nexgard for about 5 months since we landed in Bankok with my 2 dog s.

 

One of my dogs just got diagnosed with a blood parasite infection from a tick bite.

 

Now the same vet that recccomended it as the ultimate solution 5 months ago says that Nexgard cannot be used in isolation and must be complemented with Frontline the following month.

 

[Polar Bear]

Frontline is pretty much useless these days. There is too much resistance around. I was using Spectra Nexguard here and my dog still got ehrlichiosis from a tick bite. I switched back to Bravecto because it's slightly faster acting than Nexguard, but the problem with both of them is that the tick has to bite before it is killed, and the parasite can already have been passed on by then. 

 

Now I am giving him Bravecto (tablet, systemic), and I am using Vectra 3D as well (spot on, surface).  K9 Advantix II and Seresto collars can also be used at the same time as Bravecto or Nexguard, but be careful if you have cats as well because some of them are dangerous to cats. Vectra 3D, K9 Advantix II and Seresto all repel ticks and kill them (slowly) but without them having to bite. They aren't as effective though, maybe 80%-ish and slower acting, so they aren't as good on their own, but combined with Bravecto or Nexguard, you cover all bases.

 

I cleared it with my vet, and with a vet in the UK, and they confirmed they can be used together. But I had to get the Vectra 3D shipped from the UK. The only one I could find here was Seresto, and the larger collar size was out of stock in the reputable pet shops, and the ones on Lazada were obvious fakes. (Seresto fakes are a problem everywhere.) 

Doubling up treatment might seem excessive, but he was so sick with ehrlichiosis, I thought I was going to lose him, and I can't risk it happening again. The vet here told me that blood parasites are so endemic here, the local dogs have some resistance to them and don't get nearly as sick. I brought my dog from an area that has virtually no tick borne diseases because of the cold weather, so I guess dogs there haven't developed any kind of resistance. 

[BoneyV]

Thank Polar Bear that's really helpful. I don't get the options that require a pet to be bitten for the tick to be killed as by then the damage is most likely done like in he case of our dog. I really don't mind going overboard with the protection levels and I'd recommend it to everyone especially after my recent experience.

So Morgan, our dog also got Ehrilichiosis and started showing all the signs (that we didn't know at the time) like lethargy , lack of appetite. He started going downhill fast and our vet at Sukhumvit Veterinarians suggested we immediately take him to the Thonglor international Pet hospital. He been there for the last 4 days in the ICU with a really low platelet count. He has been given his second blood transfusion yesterday. Really hoping he pulls through. 

 

The costs at the hospital are astronomical. its running us 20K THB per day with the ICU charges and all the medications. Don't know if these are their regular charges  or I'm being overcharged at expat prices but at this point we have no other choice.

 

We moved here recently from a place that have no ticks borne diseases so the dogs have no resistance to them and sadly for Morgan we had no knowledge of it either. 

I managed to find Vectra 3D here - https://th.miscota.com/search/s?q=vectra 

[Polar Bear]

Miscota is a Spanish company that ships internationally. I did contact them, but they said I would be responsible for any customs or import fees and I couldn't get a straight answer about how much help I would get if it got held up in customs. I was less worried about the cost than how long it would take to get them through customs. In the end, I got a friend to post them from the UK in a regular envelope. They took nearly 8 weeks to arrive, but there were no hitches. Oh, I also had them sent in separate packages, with 1 box of Vectra in each, in case one got through and others got held up, and also to keep the declared value down, but they all turned up at the same time. 

My dog is 2. In less than a week, he went from being a typical happy, lively dog, to having to be carried outside to go to the bathroom. His red blood count, white blood count and platelet counts were so low the clinic's in house machine (I use Gamma Exotics) registered them as zero, we had to send a sample out to a big lab just to get an accurate reading. His liver and kidneys were bad as well. I really thought it was going to kill him.

He had high doses of doxycycline, and a cocktail of other meds. I'm lucky because he's very compliant about taking pills, so even at his worst, he would still take the antibiotics. I'm also comfortable with some medical procedures, so I did the subcutaneous saline drip myself. Because of that, I was able to bring him home. He was on the drip for a week and the meds for a month, initially, and then another 10 days. If he had needed the antibiotics in an IV he would have had to stay at the vets or gone to the hospital. 

He improved slightly after a few days. He could walk a little and would eat a little chicken with his meds. About a week after that he looked a lot better. He was still very tired, picking at his food and being sick (probably from the meds), but he was drinking water and moving around more. It was at about 2 weeks I started to think he would actually pull through. He was still very sick for another 2 weeks, but obviously improving. It was all pretty much in accordance with the timeline the vet gave me, so I think it must be fairly standard. 

His blood work after a month had his RBC, WBC and platelets up to about 50% of what they should be, and his liver and kidneys still impaired but better. He had another 10 days of meds, and by then he was wanting to go for walks again and was pretty much back to his old self. But it took about 6 weeks in total. His blood work then showed more improvement, but still not quite right. But by then he was eating and drinking normally, so the vet said to just give him time to recover and bring him back if I had any concerns. I might take him to get his blood tested again next month, but I'll see how he goes. It stresses him out going to the clinic.

Resistance to ehrilichiosis doesn't last long, and the vet warned me that if he gets reinfected again soon it will be very serious, so I doubled up his tick meds, and I check him for ticks after every walk. I know the meds have risks of their own, but he seems to tolerate them well, and I'd rather take my chances with them than with the ticks.

[kickstart]

On 1/18/2021 at 9:29 AM, internationalism said:

ivermectin injection under skin.

lasts over 3 months, for all insects, as well as all parasites. Has antiviral properties, is also an imunomodulator.

vial 10mg on lazada 50b.

to be given 0.2mg per kg.

 

Daffe mentioned Armecide, which contain ivermectin 8mg and which helped with skin condition. This medicine works on mites and scabies, one of which his dog has. Mites is incurable, but ivermectin will keep this parasite under control. Can be applied on the skin, cream can be made, so medicine will last longer.

To really help with demodex, it has to be taken orally every 2 weeks at standard dose 0.2mg per kg. Or even better 0.1mg every week, as half-life for this compound is only 18h.

 

There are dog races which have gen mutation MDR1 and this medicine will kill them. 

"This gene mutation is known to occur most commonly in breeds such as collies, Australian shepherds, shelties, long-haired whippets, English sheepdogs, German shepherds, Silken Windhounds, Skye terriers, and other breeds with white feet." 

https://www.thesprucepets.com/is-ivermectin-safe-dogs-and-cats-3384698

 

 We use Ivermectin,and have done for some years now ,we now have a 5-month-old puppy he has had tics  and fleas, I have given him 2 jabs now 3 weeks apart ,now clearing up ,as the op said with this wet weather they seem  more about. 

[cooked]

Disregarding advice to repeat dose after three months, I gave two doses of Endex about 10 days apart, following 'local customs' (old lady next door). This was 6 months ago, and from literally taking 40 - 100 ticks a day off one dog, I can honestly say that I haven't found any for months now. 

Liver problems? That's two doses that they haven't received.

We have SEVEN dogs, so any single infection of just one of the dogs would have been transmitted quickly enough to the others, but not a sausage.