Tick Treatment

My GSPs have been using Frontline for tick prevention for several years now, and Billy and I are thinking of switching to the Bravecto chewable 12-week pill. We’ve had success with Frontline, but the topical application isn’t the most convenient and you need to apply it monthly. We don’t want to deal with the collar so Soresto is out. I’m nervous about switching, especially when I’m not unsatisfied with Frontline’s performance. Has anyone heard of adverse reactions to Bravecto? We traditionally apply tick treatment from March-Nov every year, leaving Dec-Feb the only months we don’t provide tick treatment.

Ryan (@ralphwiggum) I believe you switched from Frontline to Bravecto, right, for Ripley? How’s that been going?

Thanks for the tips guys!

I made the switch from Frontline to bravecto last year with my 3yr old springer. He ended up getting anaplasmosis from a deer tick the year before while using Frontline. Bravecto has been much more effective. Every tick that we found on him last year was dead. We have not had any side effects at all.

We gave our 3 yo Lab and 8 yo boxer Bravecto two years ago, and the Boxer had seizures and throwing up blood issues after, so we stopped using it. Sounds like this are fairly common side affects, but not something our lab experienced. Just my .02

We use Nexgard chewables and are very happy with it. It acts as a repellent too. She still gets a few but way less than Frontline. The ones that do bite are dead in no time. We had issues with Frontline- she would get lethargic for 2 or 3 days after applying it.

Nexgard chewables for our GSP the past 2 years and will be going with the same this year. We haven’t noticed any side effects. We also got tired of the greasy topical solution even though it had been working well.

I’ve been very happy with Bravecto. You hear of some adverse events with it, but I’ve heard of reactions to the topicals, too.

My dad does his by hand. Just takes a lot of practice and patience. Im more of a screw and glue kinda guy if i cant weld it.

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We have a 10-year old lab. We used Frontline for 8 years. Seemed to work but thought it was causing a skin condition. Used a collar and it worked well. I did notice some ticks stuck on him, but dead. Last year we did the pills from the vet. Never found any ticks stuck to him, but did find ticks in our house and crawling on him at times. I am not sure what we are going to do this year. Pills are convenient and we didn’t see any side effects with our lab.

Rarely but possible for dogs to have neurological side effects such as seizures to any of the oral flea and tick medications. Nexgard is now labeled for helping prevent lyme disease.
I generally look at it as though if my dog is going to have a reaction to something I would rather have it out of his system in 1 month rather then 3 months. Both nexgard and bravecto have been effective.

We use Bravecto on our little mutt and he does just fine.

I am intrigued though, about Catnip’s idea of using dovetail joints, screws or welding to combat ticks. Seems labor intensive.

Thanks, guys for the input! I suppose there’s risks associated with any medication. Catnip, I think your post was meant for another thread, but the drawers look nice anyway!

For my goldens first two years, I used frontline and was very unimpressed with it. Frequently found attached ticks throughout tick season. Then the next 2 years, I switched to the seresto collar. Way better in terms of tick prevention but I hated that the dog had to physically be wearing the collar for it to be effective. Last year I made the switch to bravecto and have nothing but good things to say. I will be doing it again this year. I’ll never touch a frontline or similar topical application again.

It’s that time of year again, ticks are abundant. I’ve been using Bravecto for three years on my Springer, very good results. In prior years the topicals just didn’t do it, I would pull two dozen ticks off during the week following a hunting weekend. With Bravecto I brush him out when we get home, find a few dead ticks and a couple of live but uninflated ticks. After the brushing, nothing.

The daughter of one of my hunting buddies is a vet, she recommended Bravecto to him. The rest of the crew followed after he had success.

I believe that the use of the pills such as Brevecto, the tick actually has to bite the dog for it to be effective whereas the topical is effective at preventing bites before the tick attempts to. I use the topical (frontline or K9 advantix) monthly and do not have issues with ticks on my dog.

used to use advantix a few years ago as it has some repelling properties, but not enough to repel all of the ticks; switched to Nexgard and have been very happy with it, kills ticks faster than topical i’ve found. although, our vet has stopped selling nexgard in lieu of brevecto but I dont want to swithc with our 9 year old lab now in fears of a reaction…

Bumping this to the top as I’ve heard reports of a few ticks this past week. Get your dog on whatever preventative you choose!

Ripley got his Lyme’s vaccine and a dose of Bravecto yesterday.

I just got my Soresto collar in the mail on Monday, going to put it on tonight. Thanks for the heads up!!

What ever you decide to use, please USE it. My favorite GSP, also named Ripley died from Lyme’s several years ago.