#SwedeInMadrid: How I protect my dogs in different countries

As a matte (the Swedish word for female dog owner) my aim is to provide Love, Care and Leadership.

I have now lived with dogs in three different countries and the everyday care has been different in each of these. 

In Sweden (especially on the west cost near Kungälv) it is important to use this:

There are many ticks there and they can carry nasty diseases like Borrelia and TBE. Even though we use a spot-on preparation there is still a need to check our dog regularly and remove ticks from his skin with a tick-picker.

While living in the Netherlands I never encountered a tick. On the other hand I encountered lots and lots and lots of fleas so my lovely Lotti (on the picture together with our cat Vlekje) needed to use flea collars.

Now that we live in Spain, we expected lots of fleas, given the warm weather. We have not had a single one! We have also learned why - they need a humidity of  more than 50% and so far it has been very, very dry here in Madrid.

On the other hand there is a risk for a chronic disease called Leischmaniosis. It is transmitted through the bites of the phlebotomine sand flies. This is what we use to protect our dog from that fly: 

Another less dangerous but still annoying phenomenon are these thorny little things that now and then end up in my dog's paws during the walk.

Our care seems to have worked out fine so far - Jaspis is doing just fine in Spain!