This year I think there has been an explosion in the tick population. A vet nurse told me she saw them on a cat in February. I'm using Advantix on my dogs but trying to persuade other owners (got 9 off a small dog yesterday) is a struggle. They don't want to put chemicals on their dogs but seem unaware about Lymes disease and anaemia from these horrible blood suckers!

It certainly is an exceptionally bad year for ticks!
I was talking to a man on the bus the other day who had been camping near Lyme Regis and couldn't believe how many there were there (aiming themselves at him!). My cat had a tick on her ear about six weeks ago, but I would think that's a hedgehog tick (we've had one in the garden) which seem to like cats but not dogs.

My lad had several ticks a few weeks ago after a trip to a nearby woodland & hill fort - unfortunately three of them were in a most indelicate place and very difficult to remove. I was snapped at merely for looking!

Are you sure your dog got the ticks from another dog? Usually ticks hang about in grass and foliage and jump on anything warm for a meal, then once fed and bloated, drop off and think about breeding. So it is most often the place you've been, not the other animals you've met, that spread them.

If they are really that bad where you are, I'd look into some kind of deterrent (neem oil is said to work, also pyrethrins which are an ingredient of cheap flea spray such as Bob Martins). Failing that, try a Scalibor collar which is effective against all kinds of biting bugs, can now be bought online without prescription. I've invested in Scalibors just in case; if the warm dry weather continues I would think the ticks will just increase this summer.

I feel it's far better to repel the ticks in the first place if you can, before they bite your dog.

My boy had a tick on him a couple of weeks ago. This is the first tick I have ever seen so maybe it is going to be a bad year.

Bad round here - I have taken more off already this year than I usually do for the whole summer. :-(

M.

Advantix works brilliantly on my lot, was picking up about 20 per walk everyday before i started usig it, virtually none now. Poor Murphy has jsut been treated for lymes disease, probably from the earlier part ofthe year, so definately wouldn't hesitate to use Advantix again.

in Scotland we have had them since February!

Down in the New Forest we had an explosion in early spring too!

Strange :) Up here in Norfolk, mine haven't had any yet this year :) Could be because we have a drought here ?? Last year they had a lot of ticks. I don't treat for them. Not keen on continual use of chemicals :( I think that the ticks here are mostly hedgehog and rabbits. Oldest dog is 13ish anyway, so I'm prepared to take the risk.

Scalibor collars are used all the time here in Spain mainly because of the sand fly which causes Leishmaniasis but they are very effective against ticks and fleas, my dogs have never had fleas or ticks since wearing them.

I used to use flea collars before I had multiple dogs, it always worried me that they might poison themselves by licking ro grabbing another dogs collar, so you not find this an issue?

I exported a puppy to a UK ex-pat living in Spain so did advise the owners to use one of these.

Ive never liked the idea of the continuous use of chemicals but the effects of Leishmaniasis is far worse than a very slight possibility of a dog having a reaction to a collar.  Mine are always playing together, so they must touch them, we touch them if we get hold of their normal collars and because my boys love water so much the collars continuously get wet but we have never had a problem in that way or know of anybody that has.

In cumbria last year when we was on holiday with 7 dogs me and my sister removed 14 imbeded ones that had evaded our inspections and over 100 that didnt get chance to nibble, never seen anything like it in my life.

we've been using Advantix earlier than normal because of the blessed things here in the New Forest. One of my boys seems to be a real magnet for them

Taken two off Jake and Whistler had one on his eyelid that the vet removed - small reddish ones, both been advantix'd but still picking up the damn things (Winchester, Hampshire)

> try a Scalibor collar which is effective against all kinds of biting bugs, can now be bought online without prescription.

Thanks for the tip MsTemeraire - we've used the Scalibor collar in the past, but I didn't know you could now get it without prescription.  I can see it's available online now.

For anyone who does find a tick on their dog, this works a treat, the whole tick shoots off, just do as it says on this link and rub in one direction and just check every now and then to see if it comes loose but yesterday when we did it it literally shot off, gave me a fright! Legs wriggling, head completely attached...nothing left behind in less than 2 minutes. One very happy dog and not a chemical in sight on a skin that tends to be sensitive to the usuals. 

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-remove-a-tick/