dog owners - flea control?
 

which do you use and why?

I used frontline for quite a while then my dogs seemed to become immune to it. I put them on Comfortis (vet recommendation) shortly after it came out and they have been on it ever since. One tab every 3/4 weeks and it's job done. Works great. $15 a tablet.

We have always used Frontline. I used Revolution on my cats for awhile, but they just use Frontline as well. Have never had a flea issue.

We have never had a flee. I guess its because of the super short hair. But, we do worry about ticks so we use frontline during the season. Costco has frontline. I have often wondered about buying the pack for LARGE dogs and using only a fraction on our medium short haired dogs since that would save us some $$$.

We use frontline but am thinking that I need to switch. When we go to the lake for the weekend they dogs always end up with fleas and it leads to a bio-spot bath and a capstar pill. If it is early in the frontline cycle they are usually pretty good but if it is late in the month the front line is worthless.

I will say that the frontline works great for ticks as we live in the woods and our lake house is in the woods as ticks are just a way of life and if they are in the dogs they are dead!

GD - yes, you can buy the large dog Frontline and cut them up for your smaller dogs. Just figure out the dose and cut accordingly.

my fiance is a vet she recommends both. she said neither is superior in her opinion.

our vet, and close friend recommends frontline. it is water repellent and works great for our little guy. its recommended that they are dry for a couple days prior and a couple days after application to work correctly. this is do to the oils in there skin, they need to be oily and the water dries up the oil in there skin, so no bath or swimming cefore or after application for a couple days. in 4 years we are yet to find a flea or tick on him. and him swims in the river or ocean daily.

I use sentinel...both heartworm and flea control in one monthly pill. Have 3 dogs and no fleas. Even when a fleabag dog comes over with fleas, they dont' stick around after it leaves. It's kinda pricey but well worht it.

Frontline. Pills don't repel the pests until they bite, and can be more problematic than any coat application.

I'm not trying to sound like a prick, but you are risking putting your pet through toxic shock with all of that. Lot of chemicals and when mixed they can cause somewhat of an overdose and lead to seizures

A-dub brought up a point that I was going to ask about. What are the health risks of having your dog on Frontline? I've been reluctant to keep my pooch on a consistent regimine. Are those chemicals safe?

Also, does Frontline have an expiration date? I looked closely at the packaging and couldn't find one. I found some that I'd had before I moved (close to two years old), but havn't wanted to use it.

Straight from the website:

Do FRONTLINE Brand Products have an expiration date?

FRONTLINE Brand Products do not carry an expiration date. We recommend storing FRONTLINE Brand Products at room temperature and keeping them sealed in their original packaging. If stored under these conditions, FRONTINE Brand Products will not expire.

thanks for all the feedback!

Frontline is safe provided that the dog is not able to ingest it, this causes the animal to foam at the mouth. Also, you don't want to get it in the pets eyes. Make sure to place it on the neck where the dog is not able to lick it. I am more cautious with my cats because of the circular range of their neck. Also make sure you are applying to the animals skin and not simply on the fur. As far as anything else, I beleive Frontline is safe. You can get it just about anywhere, unlike Heartgard which has to come from a vet.

We use frontline on our pups, but also use Interceptor which is a combined heartworm/tick treatment....we get a lot of ticks in our area so this covers all the bases.

Comfortis - one pill per month in the summer.

Same here. Actually this thread reminded me to go pick it up yesterday. I don't know if it's because of kick-backs or what, but the Vet is very Pro Frontline, and Con Advantix, stating the formulas and ingredients. She is also a Canine specific Vet.

We use K9 Advantix for our two Great Danes. It's cheaper than Frontline and works well. We use it about 5 months out of the year.

We use Advantix. Mainly because that is what the vet started them on. I also like the fact that it repels mosquitoes. I don't think that frontline does.

Frontline and Interceptor here as well. We were on Sentinel which worked well for our lab, but when we got our Golden, he got fleas, BAD! Since we have been using Frontline without any issues.

I believe Interceptor has some mosquito effects as well, probably not to the degree an application would have

I use Frontline and I have NEVER seen a single flea on my 100 lb lab that hunts and is outside in nasty stuff a lot. He also swims a couple times a week in the local lake. I have seen one or two ticks on his tail after getting home from the woods after hunting. I have been pleased with Frontline.

We use Frontline with good results.

So does your girlfriend/wife when she puts her tampon in. (check the warning label)

There is a risk with just about anything. The point is to evaluate your risk and decide.

Advantage and Frontline are pesticides. But guess what, so is bleach and many other household cleaners you use around your house. They get on your skin and have minimal adverse affects.

When used according to the label you will minimize the risk to your dogs.

Wow, so you try and somewhat insult me, and then basically state what I was saying. I doubt double and tripling up on flee medications is what the label says, and will give the pet toxic shock when they receive 3x the amount of pesticide because they all contain different formulas at different concentrations.

Sorry if that sounded like an insult. That was not my intention.

I may have misunderstood your statement. I thought you were talking about a normal treatment of Frontline or Advantix. Which would carry about the same risk for toxic shock for a dog as a woman has using a tampon.

It's all good. I was referring to giving a Bio-Spot bath, after Frontline/Advantix was already applied (with a CapStar(have no idea what that is))

(Reason being) When i got my pup, we gave her the Bio-Spot Puppy Flea Shampoo, she went into small seizures, went into the Vet, he looked at the bottle, turned over to the ingredients and threw it in the trash saying never put that on her again. Then we had to wait 15 days to use Frontline to avoid another toxic shock, when without the bath we could have used it right away, no seizures, and no fleas

I bought the advantix because it's what they were selling in Costco recently. That was a few weeks ago. Now, it seems to be by far the very worst tick season in the open area by my house I've ever experienced. After a few of some recent walks where I let the dogs run, they've ended up with up to 10 ticks right after. Now I know these chemicals don't keep the ticks from jumping on the dogs, but they are supposed to keep them from biting and staying on for very long, right? Well I've had to pull ticks out my dogs skin at least a few times and at least 12 hours or more after their last walk, so I'm less than thrilled with Advantix and will go back to Frontline again next.

Our vet actually recommended CapStar before using the FrontLine. CapStar is only needed if the dog already has fleas on their body. It is supposed to knock them off within 30 minutes. I would never use the shampoos, just don't see the need.

I am a veterinarian, and I actually use a product called Vectra. Partially because Frontline seems to have lost some of its effect as of the last few years (seeing more dogs using frontline being diagnosed with tick fever, and flea allergy dermatitis), and because Vectra also functions as a mosquito repellent. We dont have much heartworm out here in Arizona, but I do have a pond in my back yard and I do see mosquitos. And being on the lake all of the time, my dogs are safer when they are on a physical mosquito repellent (Vectra) and Heartgard as well. Just my 0.02

^^ If you don't mind answering, and thank you for chiming in, is my Vet likely pushing whatever one the have a "relationship" with?

It is hard to know, guess it depends on how much profit the vet makes per type of flea control medication. Vets are like human Drs. Drug companies do wine and dine us, especially if you work at a fairly large practice. An easy way to find out is to ask for a written perscription to see if you can find the product cheaper online, etc, and watch for their reaction. There are certain medications that I tell people that they can find online cheaper, just to let them know that I care less about the $ and more about how their pets health is. I do know a fair amount of vets refuse to write scripts because of the lack of profit, but that is not how I practice. I figure that the best way to make money is good preventative medication, giving the clients all the options and have them make the decision to what suits their lifestyle, financial situation, etc best. Dont get me wrong, I do like to make money, but I dont want my clients to feel like that is the reason I am in the profession. There are problems with every product, nothing is perfect. If your vet can not explain the potential downsides to what they are sending home with you, then they are acting more like car salesmen then vets. If you dont feel comfortable with their explanation (about anything, not just flea and tick meds), dont feel shy about asking questions. I tell my new vets and my staff, our job is not done until the clients feel comfortable and understand why we decided on the course of treatment/testing we did. I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.

thank you! just wish you were located near me

Where are you located? I may know someone near by

Human MDs aren't allowed to be "wined & dined" by Pharm companies anymore. That went into effect the beginning of the year. That's why you don't see anymore pens, note pads,coffee cups.... all that stuff NO MORE as dictated by the federal govt.

i gave my dogs frontline plus a couple nights ago. it's been great so far! thanks for all the responses y'all!