When people think of ticks, they think of wooded areas and tall grasses. While ticks prefer these types of environments, they are starting to migrate into more suburban areas, like your fenced-in backyard!
Keeping your pets on tick prevention not only protects your pets from contracting a tick-borne disease, but it helps protect your family as well. Pets can bring ticks into your home, which puts everyone at risk for tick exposure.
A tick needs to be attached for a minimum of 24 hours to transmit a tick-borne disease, and most tick medications will start killing them off long before that. Tick medications don't prevent ticks from attaching to your pet. Once the tick attaches and starts taking a blood meal, they ingest the tick medication that kills them off. So if you find a tick on your pet and they are on prevention, do not worry - that disgusting tick will be falling off soon!
So what options are available? Oral tick preventatives are easier to give rather than applying a topical. There are a few different oral tick medications to choose from, either given on a monthly basis or every 3 months. And be careful when ordering products online - make sure they come from a reputable veterinary pharmacy. Talk with your veterinarian about the different options that are available for your pet!