Flea and Tick prevention?

toedtoes wrote:
I tried frontline years ago. At the time, it only sterilized the fleas rather than out and out killed them. As the dog was infested with fleas, it was pretty much useless for what I needed - to get rid of the fleas. After two weeks, the dog was still infested with fleas. I used Advantix as soon as I could re-treat and the fleas were gone in a few hours after application.

Has Frontline changed? Does is now kill the fleas?

Yes it must because we have never had a flea problems on Lucky with Frontline and Lucie with Advantix. We live in the country and stay out side a lot plus all the travelling we do. We do have ticks and I know for a fact as soon as they bite either one of them the tick is done for. I personally like both the topicals.

I tried frontline years ago. At the time, it only sterilized the fleas rather than out and out killed them. As the dog was infested with fleas, it was pretty much useless for what I needed - to get rid of the fleas. After two weeks, the dog was still infested with fleas. I used Advantix as soon as I could re-treat and the fleas were gone in a few hours after application.

Has Frontline changed? Does is now kill the fleas?

Campinghoss@51 wrote:
We use Frontline on Lucky our large dog and Advantix on Lucie the small one. Frontline for some reason made Lucie nervous and she could not rest. My son switched his dog over to one of the pills and within a week he almost became lame in one of his hind legs. The side effect of the pill was lameness in some dogs. So they switched him over to Seresto and now he is back in good shape.

Clearly, dogs react differently - both of my dogs acted like I had poured Drano on them, using topicals. Jimmy reacted so badly (physically and mentally) that I put him in the tub and washed the stuff off (can't remember which topical it was). I'm just grateful that we have plenty of options!

We use Frontline on Lucky our large dog and Advantix on Lucie the small one. Frontline for some reason made Lucie nervous and she could not rest. My son switched his dog over to one of the pills and within a week he almost became lame in one of his hind legs. The side effect of the pill was lameness in some dogs. So they switched him over to Seresto and now he is back in good shape.

We are now using Simparica Chewable Tablets for fleas and ticks.

Thanks for all the suggestions. We settled on NexGard. She is 11 pounds but we opted for the 4-10lb dosage. The vet approved. She seems to tolerate it fine.

Brewer's yeast was an old treatment before the stuff like advantage. We used it faithfully and it never did a thing... the dogs ALWAYS had fleas.

For me, the solution has been to use the chemical treatments when necessary rather than on an ongoing basis. No fleas, no treatment.

And naturally, just when I say that the Brewer's Yeast is doing the trick - Jimmy gets attacked by the FL mutant fleas. The grandkids were visiting - I don't know if they walked through a flea-infested area that I normally don't visit; but I recognized the frantic scratching and gave him a dose of Bravecto. Within about 5 hours of him receiving his "treat", I began to pick dead fleas off him. The stuff is amazing. It's now 24 hours later and he's resting comfortably, and the huge welts left by flea bites are abating. I still don't *like* to use it - but his comfort is important, too. By the time this dose wears off, we'll be back in Michigan with our "nice" fleas.

I am currently in florida and trialing:
wondercide spray and rubbed into her fur every other day
organic garlic daily according to her weight
So far so good, hoping there will be no infestation in our rv.
But I am all about prevention without toxic chemicals...
Donna

When we started Snowbirding, we discovered that Florida Fleas are far more savage than Michigan fleas; and poor Jimmy was allergic to the flea bites. He was miserable enough from the swollen bites, but to top it all off, they made him break out in hives. yeeesh. A trip to the local vet ensued, where we were given Bravecto (a chewable dose). It worked wonders - I would actually find dead fleas on his fur. The next year, I went to FL with Bravecto - and the moment the same old trouble started, we dosed him and he was fine. So I have a lot of faith in the effectiveness of the product, but a part of me was squeamish about something that remained in his systems for 3 months.

My daughter told me to try giving Jimmy "Brewer's Yeast with Garlic" tablets - I give both dogs 1 tablet per 10 lbs, every morning. They LIKE it - gladly eat it out of my hand or mixed into their food; and for my dogs, in Florida, it works very well. Once in a while I might see one scratch; but Jimmy has not suffered any allergic reactions to the occasional bite.

My daughter says it keeps the ticks off her dog, who has free roam of 10 acres of (Michigan) wild fields; but I DID have to remove 2 (Florida) ticks from Jimmy's nose a few weeks ago.