What can I use to get ticks off my puppy?

Frontline or K9 Advantix will keep ticks away, and probably get rid of existing ticks, but it might take a week for the product to start working. Once the stuff gets into your dog’s bloodstream it works really well.

There are dog shampoos specifically designed for tick control. Take a trip to Petco and see what they have.

@petethepothead My puppy is only six weeks old and can’t use frontline or advantix yet, flea/tick shampoo either.

With that many ticks, your poor puppy is in terrible danger for her life. She can’t afford that much blood loss, and could get tick-borne disease, Please get her to a vet immediately.

You need to make sure when you remove the ticks, that you get the embedded mouth parts. I read that they can be smothered with dish soap, but I could not get that method to work.

Good luck.

Can the puppy wear a flea/tick collar? I think they have some specifically for puppies. Until then just be diligent with keeping them off the puppy as best you can, and treat your yard for fleas/ticks and keep the grass cut very short.

Try , take it to the vet if you can they should wash it or remove them . Am sure you mean fleas and not ticks

Ask your vet about Revolution as this (in the proper dosage level) has been used in puppies. I’m surprised the vet didn’t mention it.

I’m also assuming that you are speaking about fleas as hundreds of ticks and no fleas is highly unlikely.

The reason you keep seeing more of them is because new ones are constantly hatching as there are several stages to their life cycle.

If you can treat your yard where the pup goes that will help long term. I know that there is some type of product to treat the yard with that is not dangerous to the pup. It contains nematodes which feed on flea larvae.

For the immediately, this is what worked for me. Get a roll of masking tape and an extra fine flea comb in a color other than black or brown. Petco has some really cheap plastic ones that have small teeth on one side and REALLY small narrow spaced teeth on the other side

Assuming you’re right handed, tear off several pieces of masking tape about 2–3 inches long. Hold one piece in your left hand and get ready to immediately slap it onto the comb’s teeth after you run the comb thru the pups coat.

This sticks to the fleas before they have a chance to hop away. Fold in on itself trapping them.

Take another piece of masking tape and keep going. You get into kind of a rhythm after awhile. It worked for me and afterwards I had the satisfaction of squishing and popping them to death in their sticky tape graves. There was just something viscerally satisfying about that.

It’s more involved to try to explain it to someone over the internet than it is to just do it. :)

I did this with two wiggling cats for several months and it saved me the trouble and mess of trying to deal with both the animals and a bowl full of dish detergent toppling over.

Hopefully your vet has also checked the pup for other parasites and the possibility of anemia? If not consider looking for another vet

Also ask him about Revolution. And just remember that this is the height of flea and tick season. It can only get better from here.

Also vaccuum daily and put mothballs in the bag to kill the critters otherwise you are just giving them a cozy breeding and hatching place. Change bags more frequently even if not full. Good luck.

Definitely take her to a vet, that’s too much for someone with no experience to take care of I’m not judging you, I personally couldn’t do that all myself either
Also, you need to report the people you got that puppy from, leaving them out to get ticks that badly is abuse.

You need to treat your home for fleas , they can stay alive off a host for MONTHS

get control over your home first as they can multiply in it and surrounding it.
I might be wrong but I heard that vinegar kills them good.

How long ago did you get the puppy?

Please let us know what happens with your puppy.

@Buttonstc i got her on friday afternoon. i’m going to ask the vet about revolution. she didn’t mention it. she did give us a vitamin supplement for the anemia.

@seVen can i put vinegar on my puppy to get the fleas/ticks off?

The reason I asked about how long you’ve had her is because you want to keep the flea invasion of your house to a minimum. It would not be advisable to give her the run of the entire house/apt.

I don’t mean to scare you but the fact is that for every adult flea you see there are 99 more

Everywhere shecgoes she is shedding flea eggs, larvae etc. Hopefully keep her on tile or linoleum rather than carpet as they just love nesting in carpets.

I’m not too sure about vinegar but one thing that does kill them and is not a toxic chemical is DE. That stands for diatomaceous earth. It’s a very finevpowder and is safe to use on her as well as rugs and floors.

Strange as it sounds, it kills the fleas by dehydrating them but won’t hurt the puppy. Your vet should know more about where you can obtain the right type. I know that it is carried by home and garden centers for use in pool filters but I don’t think that is the right type.

As others have pointed out you really need to deal with your home indoors and out as well as just the puppy or you will have a problem of immense proportions this time next year.

Do a little Internet research on the various stages in the lifecycle of fleas and you will more fully understand why we are all saying the things we are. Sandy and others are not exaggerating in the least how persistent fleas can be unless you take a three pronged approach. Dog. Yard. Inside Home.

Is the puppy long or short hair?

@Buttonstc thanks for your answer :) Sydney (my puppy) will be seven weeks old tomorrow and the advantix can be used at 7 weeks. Am I able to use it tomorrow or should I wait a couple of days. Also, Sydney has short hair. I have carpet throughout my house, and most of it is dark, so that’s a little discerning.

OK, let’s get clear here. Were you actually meaning fleas rather than ticks?

That is a very different scenario.

The advice above is good for fleas. If it says seven weeks, you can use it at seven weeks but I would try flea soap once a week for a puppy that small as long you don’t have an infestation in your home.

If the puppy had over 100 ticks i doubt you would of got him/her out the vets .

@Marina i definitely meant ticks.

@sandystrachan the vet combed off about 20 ticks (most of them small, with no blood in them) when we were there and just said to do the same at home as well as wash with dish detergent.

I just don’t think the dish detergent helps at all.

I use tweezers to remove ticks. I have a bowl or jar with rubbing alcohol to drop them it afterward. That kills them.

Also, this is still puzzling a little. You usually comb off fleas not ticks. Check out these pictures and tell us which it was:

Tick

Flea (note: they are way smaller than this)

@lunabean Thats pretty bad on your vet if they didn’t give more advice along with a Johsons dog flea collar or similar , a vet would tweezer ticks with something like i first linked to .
And would also start proceedings of animal neglect on the previous owner / breeder , wouldnt they well you see that allthe time on the animal shows on tv .
If i was a vet and your puppy of 7 weeks had 100’s of Ticks I wouldn’t let you home , that puppy would be straight to the nurse to get every tick removed .Then treateed for the shock of the blood loss and stress of the removal .
If your puppy is nearly 7 weeks and that stuff says 7 weeks+ , it is safe to use a few days before the 7 week mark of the puppy .

I had to de flea a kitten before it was underage for every product , so i bought one that it was too young by a few weeks and used it did no harm only good .
I still think its fleas not ticks unless you look at them fotos and say for sure, regardless your vet needs looking into

@Marina ticks for sure, been using tweezers to get them off.

@sandystrachan thanks for the info, i’ll go ahead and use the advantix now. it would seem that the vet could have done more, and there were no other dogs waiting. i guess they wanted to give me the hard and depressing work :(

@lunabean I would think about moving vets if possible . And good luck with the removing of ticks , and on being the owner of a puppy :)

Let me just ask a couple more questions here. Are you certain that the puppy has ONLY ticks but no fleas at all?

Are they hopping energetically or crawling?

I assume that you realized in looking at the two pics that they are NOT at all proportional in relation to each other. Fleas would be about at least a tenth the size.of the smallest tick on the upper left of that pic.

I’m just finding it difficult to imagine a dog that severely neglected without any fleas on it. I mean it’s common to have fleas without any ticks but I’ve never seen the reverse. But then I’m not a vet so…

I don’t know what would explain the absence of fleas. It’s pretty obvious that whomever you got the dog from certainly didn’t do much to care for it.

Am I the only one who finds this strange?

That’s not directed at you btw. This little pup is fortunate to be out of that horrid situation and having you to care for her. You probably saved her life.

@Buttonstc they are only crawling and I haven’t seen anything jumping. The house where I got her from had some very tall grass where the cage was, I could tell they meant well, but just didn’t know how to go about breeding. Also, she appears to have some mucous coming out of her nose. It was a lot at first and bloody, but now it’s only minimal. Is this something normal for puppies? Maybe I should switch vets, she didn’t seem to be much help.

She may have some type of respiratory infection. That’s def no normal. Also if the puppy is either vomiting or has diaherhea you can’t delay in getting it treated. Ticks can transmit some nasty parasites and this little pups immune system is prob in rough shape.

If it were me I would be looking for another vet.

Are you familiar with Craigslist? Is there one covering the area where you live. They usually have a pretty group of animal lovers who participate in the pet section.

I had a really terrific vet when I lived in Philly so when I moved here to Mich. I put upca post asking for recommendations for one who was very competent, compassionate and reasonably priced. Hopefully you can do the same. Or else call up a few Animal Rescue Groups and ask whom they use. If a vet works with rescue groups and gives them a bit of a break it indicates to me that theyvhave a good heart

You want to stay away from excessively corporate places like Banfield or VCA. I’m not saying that they may not have competent vets but they are corporate owned and all about the money.

I don’t necessarily look for the absolutely cheapest vet but I want one whose first priority is the animals not just the bucks

Let me add my vote for changing vets!

for those still following, sydney is doing much better with the advantix. no more bugs and her anemia is going away too!

@lunabean Thats great news :) now you can enjoy your puppy and all puppy related things .

Hooray! Thanks for the update, @lunabean. I hope Sydney’s (neat name) siblings get a good life too.

Give her a kiss for us…

thank you all for your support :D hugs for you all!

Hey I just got a puppy from the vet and she has ticks too but not that many but after reading all the comments now I’m scared she will get more or they might get in my hair!:0 vets closed tomorrow have to wait till Monday :(