I live in MA, but my dogs train all over the NE area and NJ as well and I have had great, and I mean great success with Nexgard. I find dead ticks if any and you don’t need to worry about the getting wet part at all since my dogs are big swimmers. I would highly recommend this product – have been using it for about a year now. I also heard that Bravecto is good too and I think it lasts a longer period of time but I’m not switching from Nexgard – it is almost too good to be true! Sorry to hear about the collar reaction. I know several people that use them and love them with no problems. My dogs sleep with me so I don’t like to have the chemicals on the collars around their necks – and I don’t really like the collar method in general – seems like a throwback to when that was all we had in the arsenal to protect our animals. I do think they are new and improved though. Good luck and hope your baby feels better!
