Tick-borne illnesses

[ursula wilby]

In Scandinavia tick-borne illnesses are increasing rapidly. Or should I say that the number of infected ticks are growing rapidly and moving further north.
That would be nearer to the point.
At this moment in time we mainly have Borrelia and Erlichia. Erlichia being the more dangerous one of the two. The syptoms are quite varied and can be anything from the dog being tired on and off to lameness etc. The difficulty is that the dog can show signs of infection long after having been infected.

I did a test of the three most frequently used anti-tick medicines (once again = in Sweden) for the Swedish Kennel Club magazine.

The tested types were Ex-Spot, Frontline and the anti-tick collar Scalibor.
Scalibor was by far the most efficiant tick-repellant, but (not surprisingly) also the type that would give most side-effects.
A good second was Ex-Spot and the last (and least efficiant) was Frontline.
I was later informed by the representing vet of Frontline that Frontline can be overdosed a lot without any side-effects.

This on the other hand is difficult to do for the ordinairy pet-owner.
We read how to use the repellents and stick to what we are told...but this may explain why people are still having ticks whilst using Frontline. I was informed that using Frontline as a spot-on lotion between the shoulderblades PLUS using the spray on the dogs undercarrige, would give an almost 100% protection.

This discussion is a spin off from the health-discussion started by Ginger. It did not quite fit in under the heading and now has its own.
It may be a useful thread for everyone with any experiance of tick-borne illnesses.
Ursula

[Laura Kolbach]

and should we re-post our replies here too? :)

[ursula wilby]

I think it may be good to transfer...copy and stick in here. Dont you think? Then its in both places and i feel this is such an important subject it does not matter if the same text appears twice.

[Laura Kolbach]

copy-pasted from the health discussion...

i've never heard of a case of erlichiosis here in hungary. but we have boreliosis, lyme and babesiosis. 2 years ago was a very bad year, so many dogs with babesia were reported. odin got it from an infected tick in the fields, lost many many kilos during those days fighting against it, turned yellow all over, the whole skin, eye whites, even the teeth. as pauliina said, never seen a dog before sick like this. she received the antiserum the same day she wouldn't eat (which means something VERY BAD with odin) and acted strangely, then to the vet every day for infusion, etc and see that it does not get better. she was one of those 10000 dogs that did not react to the serum. the worst thing was to hold her in my arms and she was looking at me, asking me for help but i couldn't do more for her. i cried a lot, always in another room, so she wouldn't see it. then her eyes darkened and this was the day when i decided that if she wouldn't get better until monday, i would put her to sleep, why torture her... monday early morning she wagged the end of her tail and her eyes cleared up. she ate a little bit of liver paste. she wanted to live and managed it somehow. might sound stupid, but i am sure that it also was her love to me. the vets couldn't give me an explanation, they had told me before that there is not much of hope that she survives, they'd never seen a dog with babesia in such a condition, all died before looking like that :-(. her kidneys and liver had very upsetting values. but odin did it. and i still can't forgive myself and feel ashamed for what i wanted to do with her.
what has changed? her muscles disappeared very fast, her breath is very bad and she got old in a very short time. but you know, i don't care. she is still here and enjoying life to the fullest. i think she knows that she received a second chance from life. (and i cry while writing this...)

comment: most ticks got immune against frontline here! so be careful what you use!!!

[ursula wilby]

Laura, if you read the intoduction-text, you will be able to read about Frontline.

It may be worth noting that Scalibor and Ex-spot have the same active substances. Meaning that if a dog is allergic to one of these, (Neurological problems, hyper-active, scratching, loss of hair, sores etc) Frontline is normally OK on that dog.
I have no idea if the products are sold under the same name in differant countrys, but as Frontline is, I take a chance on the other two. Threre is at least one new variety on the market this year, but I have not tested it yet. I have had a very healthy 3-year old bitch dying from Erlichia. And that after the vets had declared her healthy! She had several blood-transfusions, and every medicine available and had during her lifetime had no more than 5 ticks all in all.
She had BOTH Erlichia and Borrelia at the same time.
Its also interesting to note that the same tick can be the carrier of several illnesses simultaniously.
Unfortunatly, one single tick is quite suficciant.
If you are unlucky.

[ursula wilby]

I will try to find out about the Doxycycline.
I realy have no idea about the name of the medications.
But I shall check the site out.

Yes we do test for tick-borne diseases here.

The collar works through heat + friction, and small admounts of poison being released constantly that spread through the fatty tissues under the dogs skin. If you put on a collar it will take quite a few days (at least a week) before reaching maximum effect. So moving in to tick-infested areas, you must be prepared at least a week BEFORE you go. And whilst there do not remove the collar!

Ill be back on this subject!

[ursula wilby]

I have been away all day, so the medication question is not sorted out yet. But I have checked the active ingredience in the Anti Tick collar (best in test that I did). It is Deltamin. So perhaps Amitraz is more effective or works in a differant way. It may not even be allowed here. There are quite a number of substances that are not approved here but are OK to use quite freely in the States.

As for ticks spreading, yes, all animals will spread ticks. In Sweden we have the main problem (or so it is said) with deer.
But I have a vet-friend that means that we are helping to spread ticks by moving animals all over the world. They may not actually have a tick on them but will themselves carry the desease. A healtly tick will then bite the imported animal and away you go...
I have also been told that we can all expect a far greater variety of differant tick-borne deseases. They thrive in damp humid weather from 6-8 degrees (centigrade) and upwards. But are not active (or die) if the temperature goes below freezing for any length of time or if the air is too dry.

[ursula wilby]

I made a misstake in the comment that is before Gingers, this is what I have written about Scalibor: through the fatty tissues under the dogs skin.
The poison works by beeing IN the fat on the OUTSIDE of the dogs skin.
SORRY!
Not that it makes all that much differance I suppose.

[Laura Kolbach]

it is not frontline i blame, it worked for years in hungary (though i haven't used it, only once). it is the ticks that became immune to it. you know how big the adaptability of animals can be, they mutate (others learn) to be able to survive.

hungary uses mainly advantix, preventic and ex-spot - mostly the spot-on version. many people are against the collars as they smell (and are not nice to look at) - which is true. despite this i find them the most useful and protecting, i use KILTIX. it lasts for 6 months (for ticks) and is also waterresistent (though frequent wetting will remove insecticide from the coat). mine have it all the time, except when i know that they are going to swim for sure. you can see it on several of my photos also. kiltix contains the active ingredient flumethrin, a member of the synthetic pyrethroid class of compounds. synthetic pyrethroids work by overstimulating the nerve membrane of the tick. this causes loss of co-ordination, paralysis and death of the tick. flumethrin has a long and successful history in livestock tick treatments. it does not only kills ticks, it repels them also. the collar is 100% active after 24 hours of wearing.

i also learned that the spot-ons do not (always) function as repellents! so you still might find ticks in the dogs. but as soon as they get in touch with the stuff (let's call it poison), they die and even if they manage to bite themselves into the skin, they are not able to draw blood and shrink within some hours.
also: various countries have various tick-population, what works here might not work there :( middle-east-europe is a heavily infected area, regarding the number of infected ticks, and also the number of ticks.

oh, i could write novels about this tick issue :( you get kind of very educated if your dog had it once...

[Alenka Pokorn]

I think in Slovenia the ticks are also immune to Frontline. And so are quite a few flees. Anyway we use something called Advantix and it really helps. What I don't like is that it leaves a big greasy stain on the coat and also dries the skin. I've heard some dogs had problems with it at the start, mine were OK. I try not to use it too often. In the winter when the ticks are not active I don't use anything.

We don't have problems in Slovenia with babesiosis, but a lot with Erlichia which came here about 6 years ago. At the start quite a lot of dogs (mainly older) died from it as it was difficult to diagnose. I have not had to deal with TBD yet (knock on wood). We are very careful about checking the dogs over after the walk etc. What may happen is that while f.e. on a dog show or competition a tick falls off one of the other dogs and climbs on yours. Maybe with a disease that is not usually found in your surroundings. So check the dogs after the show/comptetion as well. And be careful if you let them run in a country you don't know while on holiday or show!!!!

Alenka