Yikes! I found a tick crawling on our wall!

Now I'm worried that there are more in the house! This one was looking to feed, not gorged on blood. I'm freaking out but Brad says I'm over reacting and that it could have just come in on our clothes. Now he's in the woods alot because he disc golfs, but still, if he's going to come home with ticks, I think I should Frontline the cats don't you? I've never had a problem with fleas, let alone ticks since the cats are indoors only and I really don't want one with either. I've never seen one before tonight, and I'm creeped out. I don't want ticks on my cats. So should I Frontline them or am I overreacting to one tick? I checked the cats over after killing the one and I didn't see any on them, but UGH.. what should I do? What would YOU do?

I think indoor cats should be frontlined and checked occasionally, because as you have found, nasties can get in by all sorts of ways. Maybe they don't need it as often as outdoor cats, but I would deworm and deflea them anyway.

Dogs seem to get more ticks then cats. And ticks are not a home invastion insect - they attach on your clothes/skin, etc. and are carried in. So you don't have to worry you will have ticks all over the house.

I'd use a flea/tick product on the cat (not the collars) - use Frontline - it kills both.

On our dog we use BioSpot from Foster/Smith and the cats have never had a flea/tick on them (inside cats or outside cats). The barn cats you might find one occasionally but for some reason they were rare (maybe the cats didn't go in the high grass as much).

I'd use a flea/tick comb on the cats too.

Don't mean to scare you, but seeing the one crawling up the wall often means that a group of eggs have hatched somewhere and this one is in a nymphal stage. At one point they climb to a high area to molt. It may have been helpful for you to count the legs on the tick as that is some indication about what stage of life cycle it is in.

Keep your eyes open and go over all of your animals daily. I had a serious tick infestation in my home many years ago and was able to take care of it without chemical intervention, but it took a whole lot of time, and luckily I had light colored walls so the nymps were easy to see. They mainly gravitated towards the corner where the wall meets the ceiling.

I used Frontline at the time, and it wasn't all that much help- we went over every inch of every animal every day and manually picked off the ticks.

I don't know what area of the world/country you are in, but a call to local agricultural and/or cooperative extension agencies can tell you whether or not your area is having a problem. If ticks are out there you can bring them in on socks and shoes, so the cats not going outdoors isn't always relevant.

Any construction in the area? Trees and brush being cleared out? That always seems to stir them up.

If Brad was out in the woods, he could have easily brought some home on his cloths. Having lived in the country with woods nearby, we found ticks in the house all the time. It doesn't mean that they have laid eggs and have hatched - it is probably that they came in on Brad.

Whenever my husband worked in the yard, I would make him change his clothes and drop them directly in the washing machine (he failed to do that a few times and I would find ticks in the laundry basket). He would then shower and do a tick check on himself. If you catch them right away, they won't spread thru the house. It also helps if he sprays his clothes with a tick repellent when he's out in the woods.

Don't panic! I hate them and call them "icky-tickies", but know that with a little planning, they don't need to crawl around your home.

Brad and his disc golf. YIKES! ok. I haven't seen one today and the one I DID see was only as big as a pencil eraser (leg to leg) It was not fed, and I checked the cats again today and didn't see anything. I hate ticks, more then anything. They creep me out.
I hope it was a one time occurance, and I'll be sure that Brad puts his clothes in the washer right when he gets home.
I haven't had any problems with fleas or ticks since I've had our clan and I don't want one. ( I've only Frontlined them twice, and that's because my friends animals were infested with fleas and I didn't want to bring them home to ours.
Thankfully though, they got rid of them in a short period of time. Dogs and woods don't mix very well and they have both and cats too. )

Before we moved, we lived in the country. ONLY time we had any ticks on us or the dog was after a walk thru high grass to the river and back. We'd check each other and remove all ticks on our clothes.

The dog would get a few on her belly/legs but the BioSpot prevented them from really attaching and we would recheck before bed.

At NO time was our house overrun by ticks. The ones to be especially aware of are the tiny (which you might think are baby ticks) DEER ticks - they carry the lyme disease. If you have deer in the area where you live, you will have both the large "dog" ticks and the tiny deer ticks.

That's why its good to wear light colors so you can spot them a lot easier.
And also the reason (light color) we have a yellow lab

I have a friend who is seriously ill with Lyme Disease and I would encourage you all to be especially vigilant in checking pets and yourselves. LD testing in humans is quite inadequate at this point and early diagnosis is CRITICAL. If you do find one attached the best thing to do is to have the tick tested. Place it in a small jar and call your local health department for instructions.

I'm sorry about your friend. I haven't seen a tick since this post. I was going to ask the vet about them but I wasn't happy with the new one I got while there so I left with lots of unanswered questions about my cats health.

you  should use it i was the same way. but go ahead you never can overreact about that stuff do it dont want no one to get hurt