Poison on your pooch?

You want to protect your dog from fleas and ticks, but the treatments may be contaminating our rivers, say scientists. James Fair looks at the best ways to fight parasites, for both pets and planet

- James Fair

Bruno is an energetic 18kg Lagotto Romagnolo, an Italian breed of water dog with floppy ears, thick curly fur and handsome chocolate-and-white markings. He's in the prime of his life and gives every appearance of being indestructible - but he does, as owner Kath explains, have one Achilles heel. He's extremely prone to picking up ticks.

During one family holiday on the west coast of Scotland, Kath picked off more than 30 ticks from his body and his groomer found another 13 the following week. "I try to use an oral tick treatment when I remember to give it to him," Kath says. "But he spits it out, so I have to break it into small pieces and feed it to him with yoghurt."

Apart from the sheer unpleasantness of ticks - those little fat bodies that swell up like Augustus Gloop in a river of drinking chocolate and the fact they actually bury their heads into their victim's skin, leaving their little legs waving about like a toy doll's there's another reason why you'd want to avoid them. They spread diseases in both dogs and humans not just Lyme disease, but others such as babesiosis and, even though it's still very rare in the UK, tick-borne encephalitis, which can cause some very nasty symptoms.

TOXIC TREATMENTS

For ticks and other parasites such as fleas and intestinal worms, vets will normally recommend a course of drugs that contain a range of different pesticides, some of which are known as neonicotinoids. Two common ones are fipronil and imidacloprid, but you will also find others such as afoxolaner and milbemycin oxime in some of the many brands that are available. NexGard Spectra is a common one, as is Advocate.