Lyme's Disease

We have always taken our dogs out on trails and into the woods. It's what they love and we enjoy watching them have such a wonderful time. One of the worries that come with that is ticks. We live in northern Illinois and ticks are very prevalent in our area. Our first dog, Lakota,was diagnosed with Lyme's Disease shortly before he passed away. When he was diagnosed, we were shocked. We had been treating him with a popular chemical treatment for ticks. We thought we were doing the right thing to fight against ticks and keeping our dogs from getting Lyme's Disease. Well, come to find out, the treatment we were using killed ticks AFTER they have become embedded. When I learned that, I couldn't believe it. I thought "what good does that do?". Why would anyone want to use that for treatment? As a consumer, I felt misled.

Needless to say, we changed our treatment right away to another chemical that is suppose to be a repellent. However, just this past summer we have found 2 embedded ticks on one of our dogs. We treat them according to the directions on the label. So, I am really questioning what IS the best treatment for dogs to protect against ticks. I have done some research on the Lyme's Disease Vaccination. I was seriously considering doing the vaccination but I have found some research that says the vaccine doesn't do a whole lot for your dog against the Lyme's Disease.

While doing my research I came upon a website that had a really informative chart to show you what each tick preventative product does for your pet. You can find the chart at the following website: http://www.tickencounter.org/prevention/tick_control#top 

I would love to hear what method of treatment works best for your dog and if anyone has had similar experiences.

	Whole body protection	Kills Ticks	Kills ticks on contact	Kills Fleas	Rapid tick detachment	Water Resistant	Safe for cats	Safe for dog/cat households
Certifect : Tick Note Fipronil* / Methoprene* /Amatraz* Certifect website
K9 Advantix II  Permethrin* /Imidacloprid* K9 Advantix II website
Frontline Plus Fipronil* / Methoprene* Frontline.com website
Advantage II Imidacloprid* Advantage II website: dogs | cats
Seresto Collar Flumethrin*/ Imidacloprid Seresto website
Preventic Collar Amatraz* Virbacvet.com website