Tick Update

Hailey took the brunt of the tick nightmare.

She must have walked right through a nest of them while we were on one of our morning walks. 

Our little Hailey is one tough pup.

Thankfully, all the pups came out of this ordeal without any health issues and we are tick free!

Just in case you are wondering what works when you are faced with a ton of ticks. I have some tips.

1. Remove the tick(s) immediately and crush it. We removed ours by hand. I used to be afraid of touching them, not any more. Paying close attention to their face, ears, bum and paws. They like to get right up in between their toes. Remember that ticks will fall off to molt so be sure to check the floor where your dog has been sitting or walking.
2. Vacuum and clean like there is no tomorrow. Remove the vacuum bag immediately after finishing and put the trash outside. I vacuumed a minimum of once a day. Sometimes more. Remember, ticks like baseboards and tiny places to hide. I changed out/washed all bedding on sanitary with clorox daily. You can't be too clean when ticks are in the picture.
3. Check yourself for those nasty buggers. 
4. Crate your dogs at night until you are sure they are all gone.
5. Treat your yard. We used Orkin for a special outside treatment (which we were told they didn't find one tick in our yard). 
6. Treat your house. For inside the house we used Virbac Knockout E.S. purchased from our vet. This stuff works. We sprayed one room at a time. You will need to leave the house or stay in a closed room so that they fumes don't get you. Took a good 8-12 hours to get the smell out of the house. The best thing about this is that it is not harmful to pets which is why we went this route instead of having Orkin spray.
7. Treat your dogs. Day one we started with Activyl Tick Plus. Did not work fast enough. Day two we gave all the girls Nexgard recommended by our vet. Yes, our tick issue was that bad. Nexgard saved us and brought our nightmare to a close.