Did you know today is Poultry Day? Choppy and Schooner know, and got dressed up to celebrate!
It’s also Friday, which means it’s “Where’s Choppy?” Day – click here for today’s challenge!
[Note: I had this ready to go yesterday, and must have hit the wrong button on posting it. So you’re getting it today – with Day 40 coming up later. Unless, of course, I mess that up as well.]
Yesterday was another chilly (for this time of year) day in Wisconsin. We’re enjoying it now, because this weekend promises to be hot, hot, hot! (OK, it promises to be hot, hot, hot for Wisconsin – I’m guessing people in other places would not find it so hot.)
Walk One:
Date: June 8, 2016
Location: Home
Length: 1.3 Miles
Who: Sarah & Choppy
Walk Two:
Date: June 8, 2016
Location: Home
Length: 1.3 Miles
Who: Sarah & Choppy
Travels with Choppy 
I hate ticks! They must be hard to see against C’s black coat. (Our last dog had C’s markings.) It is much easier with Wren’s blonde fur. Yet even with visual checks after walks and Frontline Plus, we’re still finding them attached. 😦
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They are really hard to find on Choppy. And we’re in the same boat – she still gets them, despite all we do to combat them. Just last night, Paul found one that had obviously fallen off of her. If you hear of any other ideas to deal with them, let me know!
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One source suggested using a ingested treatment, a topical AND a flea collar! That seems like WAY too much toxin for the dog to endure. It is tough – stuck between a rock and a hard place. I’ve also heard about using a sticker clothes roller on both us and the dog to pick up any too small to see. We only use topical and it lasts maybe 3 weeks, but like you, we still find them on her even after doing constant visual checks. Makes winter look better all the time. 😉
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I actually was thinking winter has its strong points yesterday, as we did the post-walk tick check!
Choppy does get her lyme vaccine, so at least I don’t worry too much on that front. And I’m like you – I don’t want to put too many toxins in her. Considering how much she hates any topical treatment (they seem to make her skin itch or tingle), I can’t imagine it’s good for her. I’ll try the clothes roller tonight and see how that works – I’ll let you know if we get any ticks out of it!
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The roller is worth a try. Unfortunately, lyme isn’t the only tick-borne disease and the others have no vaccines. Wren got anaplasmosis last year, which must be a bacteria, like lyme, because they treated it with antibiotic. Ticks can be so discouraging. They are not too bad this year, thankfully. We really need all the breaks we can get – the last two years were awful.
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Oh, I wish ours weren’t bad. They seem even worse than last year, which was bad here.
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I understand they go in cycles based on ‘mast’ years of acorns, which feed wildlife, which are first hosts at nymph and larval stages. It takes two years to reach the adult stage where we notice them the most. 2013 was a mast year for us, so last year was pretty bad. Although we are still finding them, it isn’t the plague it was. Of course, we could be heading into another mast year and the cycle could start all over again. (sigh) 😦
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I’ve never heard this before – so interesting, and it makes sense. All these natural interactions that happen without my knowledge. Nature is absolutely amazing.
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I totally agree… endlessly amazing.
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Awe Choppy! What are you doing playing with ticks? They aren’t that fun… Although I did enjoy the cartoon 😉
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Seriously, you’d think she could ignore the ticks and play with Schooner! Much more fun (or at least, less gross for those of us who have to pull the ticks off).
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Regardless of poultry day (it is a poultry thing after all)… keep up the walks!!!! 🙂
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We got some good ones in this weekend, despite the heat!
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One can only dream about what can be done when the weather is a little more amiable! 🙂
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After having suffered having a tick myself, I admire Choppy’s refusal to let one stop the fun, lol. I on the other hand, have sworn off hammocks in cabins located in the forests of Belize. *shudders*
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I do not even want to think about the size of Central American ticks!
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Not that big at all. If you’re not too squeamish, there’s a pic of it in my post, https://satinsheetdiva.wordpress.com/2015/07/23/paradigm-shifts-they-do-exist/. *shudder* Then again, maybe you should skip it. Small or large…those things are YECH.
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I perhaps should not have clicked on that – I think that was much bigger than the ones Choppy has had!
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Oh my… @_@. Bigger huh? And now my skin is crawling, lol.
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I am not a fan of tics. They were not popular in NY growing up. In the south, they are very common. Fortunately Tucker doesn’t seem to attract them. For a beagle he has very fine close cropped smooth hair. It would be easy to see them on him. As for rabbit hunting (more like chasing since I am not a hunter) Tucker would give Choppy a fun challenge.
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I’m sure Tucker would put Choppy to shame on the rabbit hunting! Choppy enjoys it immensely, but she is horrible at it.
As for ticks, be glad you don’t have to deal with them – they are disgusting little guys. But we’re not about to stop going outside just because we might run into a few (I had one on me the other day, so it’s not just a Choppy problem!).
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Choppy’s looking sooo good! 🙂
But I hate ticks! Eeeuuuww! Luckily there are may tick-free places to walk here.
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I could probably do better avoiding tick locales, but they are so pretty! I guess I will just have to amp up the post-walk tick patrol.
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Do your tick sprays work over there?
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We have them, but Choppy really, really dislikes them. I think they make her skin itch or tingle or something – she has a reaction to them that I never see her have to anything else. She kind of goes nuts, actually, running in circles and panting and rolling around. I figure that it can’t be good if that is her natural reaction. She has other tick medicine though, and I check her (though obviously not enough to find all of them).
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Aw poor dog. No, you can’t use that stuff then!
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Nope, we can’t. I haven’t seen a tick on her for a couple days now, though, so that’s good!
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Excellent 🙂
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Haha love the last picture!
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A happy and exhausted dog – never a bad thing (and particularly cute in that pic)!
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yes!
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The ticks are so bad this year! I guess because we had a pretty warm summer so now there are just massive amounts of them. Every time we take a hike, even staying right on the path, someone has gotten at least one tick!
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I got one last week just sitting on a park bench and having a beer – I didn’t even get close to long grass!
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