Every summer, my dog gets fleas. Neither Advantage nor Frontline seem to be doing much - unless they’re just preventing an even worse situation from occurring.
Do you all just resign yourselves to your dogs having fleas during the summer, or is there some magic cure I’m not aware of?
Some fleas have built up a resistance to both. The Banter vets, who are somehow associated with petsmart have some stuff that works in those cases. Just remember they sell it but petsmart does not.
The lovely and talented Ms. Tubercle, who makes her spending money as a vet tech, said to tell everyone that the best treatment is with a capstar tablet, which will kill the fleas on the animal in ~30 minutes, and then treat with frontline on a regular schedule.
We had Fleabusters come treat our house (carpets and the dogs bed), and that was the end of the problem for us. I think it cost a little over $100, but this was 20 years ago. Different house now, and different dog, who thankfully hasn’t had fleas.
While that may be true for neonicotinoids used in agricultural settings (e.g., as a foliar spray), given its stability, method of application (how can bees not come into contact with it?), and tendency to runoff into water supply, etc., I think the use of a small amount in pill form (i.e., Capstar) for the occasional pet with fleas has a lot less potential to harm unintended insects.
I find it interesting that many of the people advocating organic gardening in other threads, are the same ones saying that they put topical flea treatments on their pets which can cause liver damage.
I really dislike using the medication on my dog, and I only do so during the summer when the fleas become a real problem. If there’s some sort of natural non-toxic solution that works well, I’d love to hear about it.
I don’t have pets so I haven’t tried it out on an animal but it’s supposed to work well for that. We had some critters under our screened in deck this summer, probably just small stuff like chipmunks and squirrels, and they were apparently carrying around a bunch of fleas. Enough so that they’d get up onto the deck and jump you whenever you went outside.
I sprinkled a healthy dose of the D Earth down through the cracks on the decks and that’s helped quite a bit. I’m also using some of these and they work as well: Amazon.com
Funny but with all the blood tests over the yrs none of our cats have had problems w/liver and our vet tracks the
results for yrs.
Have you seen the possible side effects for everyday meds on tv? and yet most people never have problems.
You drink and yet Alcohol has proven side effects>
Increases risk of gouty arthritis
Increases the risk of cancer in the liver, pancreas, rectum, breast, mouth, pharynx, larynx and esophagus
Causes physical and behavioral abnormalities in the fetus
Raises blood pressure, blood lipids and the risk of stroke and heart disease in heavy drinkers.
Enlarges the kidneys, alters hormone functions, and increases the risk of kidney failure
Causes fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis and cirrhosis
Increases the risk of protein-energy malnutrition,; low intakes of protein, calcium, iron, vitamin A, vitamin C, thiamine, vitamin B6 and riboflavin, and impaired absorption of calcium, phosphorus, vitamin D and zinc.
Causes neuropathy and dementia; impairs balance and memory
So as pet owners we take a calculated risk. by weighing the pros and cons carefully and yes the simple numbers say somewhere,somebodies pet willl have problems, thats life.