OK, I almost fell off my chair laughing.
I love it that you love your dogs, as I have 8 myself. Ticks are dangerous for humans, not dogs, but yes they are gross. They fall off, and you might get one.
No need to go to De La Cruz, but for future reference... he is a decent vet. There are much better ones, but then you would have to drive to Santiago.
Now, about the ticks. They are a big problem in this country. We tried everything... Advantix, Frontline, Ivermectin, etc... and nothing helped. So I also checked the internet...
Here is the perfect and healthy solution.... go to the pharmacy in the international plaza (next to cmc hospital) and ask for the essence of garlic (aciete de ajo). It is a small bottle at 50 pesos, and you just put a drop or 2 on the food of the dogs.
Give it one week to work, and all ticks disappear as they do not like it in the blood. A cheap, healthy and practical solution... and for us the only one that worked.
The ears... ticks like ears as they are nice and warm. Chi's do not like you to get into their ears to remove the ticks... they actually scream like they are being murdered. Solution... take one of those Q-Tips, dip it into your favorite rum (not the one you are drinking at the moment) and rub it over the ticks... 30 seconds later you can just wipe them off, or if you prefer shake the chi so they fall out (just joking on the last bit).
Hope this helps, from one doglover to another.
BelgianK
Be CAREFUL, garlic is toxic to dogs and cats, plenty on the internet over this but certain breeds (Spitz) seem to be more susceptible than others. Same thing with Ivermectin, which was designed for cattle and pigs, although it is widely used for many other stock animals including salmon in certain countries. It is very effective in dogs (use 1cc per 50lb bodyweight, a strange mixture of imperial and metric I know, but it seems to work) but DON'T use it on sheep dogs or Collies as these breeds don't tolerate it at all well and it can cause serious problems (esp blindness)
Dr De La Cruz is generally an excellent vet and MUCH CHEAPER than Dr Bob