Flea treatments - particularly Advantage.

[AmyPC]

We have Rory on 'Advantage Duo' - a heartworm and flea treatment in one. It's the one where you part their fur and drop it on the skin between their shoulder blades.

Rory has now had her third treatment. About a month after her first treatment, we had Rory at the vet for a vaccination and the vet combed out a bit of fur and found some baby fleas. She was really surprised and asked if we'd applied it correctly (we had), if we have other dogs (we don't), had her on the right dose (we did), etc. She just kept saying that it was supposed to be a foolproof flea eradication method and couldn't understand why it didn't work.

She actually called the sales rep and they in turn called us and they basically said it was something we had done wrong, as it is a product guaranteed to work if the doasage is right. So we thought we'd keep going with it, at least until the pack is used up (I still think we applied it correctly - I mean come on - how hard is it, really?).

Rory still scratches, a lot. I really think this product might not be working for us. I haven't seen any fleas lately - I check her combed out coat and all that but there seems to be some little scabby flea bites on her back, near her tail.

The only other thing I can think of is that her puppy coat is coming out and that might be making her itchy, although she gets brushed and combed regularly.

If any of you have used this product, or a similar one, how have you found it to be?
Any other flea treatment suggestions? We used to use 'Programme' with our old dog (the oral paste) and we thought that was great but vets seem to pooh-pooh that type these days and lean towards the ones we're on now.

 

[Jeannie]

Amy,
I groom a lot of dogs so I tend to see lots of fleas. From my experience, for the dogs that have fleas and are on some kind of flea treatment--most are on Program or Advantage. I can understand seeing a live flea when program is used because it does not kill the fleas as Advantage is suppose to do. I know that my dad used Advantage on his dog and she still had fleas. After switching her to Frontline the flea problem was solved. The same for my sister's cat. For some reason Advantage does not work on some animals. I use Frontline on my 2 Newfs and I have never seen a flea on either of them or have them scratching excesively. My girls are in my grooming shop all day and can be exposed to dogs that have fleas and still I have never had a flea problem. We even walk our girls to the park where there are hundreds of ducks and geese and still no fleas. As you can tell I am sold on Frontline. I like it because it also kills ticks if you apply it every 30 days. If you only need it to kill fleas then it only need to be applied every 3 months (although I usually apply it every 2 1/2 months just to be sure) It may be a little more expensive, but it works and in the long run you save because you don't have to apply it every month--unless you want protection from ticks. Like all topical flea treatments your dog must be dry when applying it and the dog cannot get wet for 3-4 days. By the way, Frontline's strength stays constant even after bathing the dog. I bathe my girls once a week--yes every Friday they get a bath. We have to because of the pet therapy work we do with the dogs. I hope I didn't bore you with this. The bottom line is--I prefer Frontline
Jeannie

 

[Lynne]

I use BioSpot. I prefer it because it's supposed to REPEL, not just kill, ticks, a major problem in my area. I've been using it for several years and never had any flea or tick problems. We're out in the country, with critters invading our yard, too.

 

[GAD]

I don't live far from Lynne, and believe her when she says we have a tick PROBLEM!

Frontline is amazing - if we stick to the regimen the only ticks we see are dead ticks. If we miss the 30 day window by even a few days we start to find live ticks again.

I love frontline.

GAD

 

[AmyPC]

I think I'll ask the vet about Frontline. I think we get it here in Australia, I seem to remember seeing cute ads for it.

We didn't really choose a flea tretment - the vet just said 'and out her on Advantage Duo, here's a three month pack, that's x amount of $$ thanks'. But we run out on the first of this month so will most likely swap over.

Thanks for all your helpful advice - and no, I wasn't bored a bit!

Amy & Rory (scratching now as we speak).