I'm curious, how many of you don't treat for fleas? We normally do not do any flea treatment, and our dogs never seem to have fleas. Both our Vet and I use a flea comb to check and never seem to find any. We did use Frontline before our Road trip to Missouri this year but that is the only time they have been treated. I know that some dogs here get fleas, so I'm not sure why we are so lucky. We also don't seem to have many ticks where we take the dogs. I know they are present here in some places but I have never found one on our dogs, except once in Missouri this summer. (When I was growing up in East Tennessee, we picked ticks off the dogs all the time, so I know what they are about) I just don't like putting toxic chemicals on the dogs if they don't need them, so I'm happy to avoid Frontline etc. if we don't need to use it.
It all depends on where you live. When I lived in Sydney (on the coast, warm and with a reasonable rainfall) flea and tick treatment was essential. Now that I live in Canberra (inland, mostly dry and with a cold winter) I don't see fleas or ticks and don't treat for them. If we visit the coast I do treat for ticks and fleas.
yep I'm only treat when I need to. I have only seen one flea on my dogs in 20 years and one in the kitchen. I check their coats most days while I'm stroking them and do a big brush once a week. I check for ticks everytime we go for a walk though countryside or when I know there a wild animals and sheep about. I'm lucky I don't live were it gets too hot. My friend lives on the coast in Cornwall and she has real problems with ticks and fleas. She got to the stage were no product worked everytime she took the dogs out the would come back with fleas.
I have to treat for ticks where I live and flea treatment is part and parcel of that. The day before Obi's last spot on was put on I picked 4 ticks out of his fur before they'd latched on - bleugh!!!
I have no choice. I don't treat for fleas per se, I treat for ticks. And treating for ticks means, by default, I treat for fleas. We have hundreds of ticks and we couldn't be without our treatments for them.
We live in the countryside so lots of deer means lots of ticks, so we treat for ticks, therefore the fleas get zapped even though we have never seen any
Like others, I treat for ticks so treat for fleas (I use Advantix). I don't view this chemical as 'toxic' - it clearly isn't toxic to dogs, it's very safe. I don't do it more than I have to though, but my vet is good at advising on an appropriate routine for where I live.
I do not use any flea preventative or treatment, so far my dogs have not had fleas. However, I did find a tick on my 10 year old a couple of days ago, his first! I will not use anything for that - yet! When I took my German Shorthaired Pointers to Cornwall some years back, I did treat them for ticks, but don't think I need to do so here.
I used to treat Snowie with spot-on treatments, but he scratched regardless. When we stopped the spot-on treatments (because he started having seizures and we stopped all chemicals), neither us nor our vet found any fleas on him even though he continued scratching. His scratching appears to be related to allergies. Is that an allergic response to a flea bite, we don't know, but we have not seen a flea on him since he was one years old (he is now 4.5 years old) and we've never seen a flea in our house. We do get ticks just after the first spring rains (only on the mountain walks) but we don't have biliary in our area and the ticks are easy to see and easy to pick off. However, we went to a biliary area for a weekend and Snowie came home with lots of ticks. We were terrified he'd get biliary so we gave him a Bravecto a week after we got back cos the ticks kept appearing -- they must've been there but as they drew blood, they got big enough to see, and after the Bravecto they all died and fell off. However, he had two seizures -- one a few weeks after taking the Bravecto, another a couple of weeks later. He is on an anti-convulsive and had not had a seizure in 7 months. Then two seizures within a month of each other after taking Bravecto. Was it the Bravecto? We don't know. But I'm not taking another chance. My vet says that there is always a trade-off and that biliary can kill, but I prefer to use something else to prevent ticks. When we were in that biliary area, we had sprayed his legs with a deterrent (very strong smell!), and he didn't have one tick on his legs (when not sprayed, we find the ticks on his legs after the spring rains in our area), so if in the future we need to prevent ticks, we'll use the spray again all over him as our first line of protection.
I believe that prevention is best and Tatze has Bravecto. All Guide Dogs and pups have Nexgard once a month. 1000s of dogs, no ill effects. They are very, very careful about their dogs' health. ...
I'm with Mags, prevention is by far the preferred choice than retrospective cure. I've also switched to Bravecto at the recommendation of my new vet. For prevention purposes I also use administer a wormer every three months.
Anyone would think fleas are sitting outside or even inside every house waiting to attack I have never had any need to prevent, never had fleas except once, one flea on one dog which I probably brought home when working for the vet.
There are gangs of them, cruising round my garden, looking for a way in..... .....only joking. Ticks are my biggest problem. I've no idea if fleas are an issue. Either way I speak with my vet to ascertain the risk in my part of the country/world and treat accordingly
As some one who once had the pleasure of sharing her home with a plague of fleas one hot summer, as did many friends and neighbours, I'll take prevention over cure any day. The plague was finally exterminated by the Local Authority coming and spraying the entire house. Of course with modern treatments, if you treat for ticks you are unlikely to see fleas
We use a wormer that includes flea prevention so Ella has that every month (monthly due to heart worm prevention). Personally, I'm happy with this as I hate the thought of having to treat fleas so I'd prefer to prevent them.
I treat for ticks, fleas, heartworms and everything. I lost my last dog for heartworm, so I know that some meds are dangerous and have side effects , but I've got no other choice.
It's the ticks I target too. I found Frontline pretty ineffective. A friend who works for Scottish Natural Heritage (not my vet!) told me of the increase in Lyme disease in the local deer population so I discussed the Bravecto with my vet who was more than happy to prescribe it, and used it herself. Since then it has worked brilliantly. One tick last year, none so far this year. Compared to over a dozen the year before. I use a dose in April and a dose around August - I didn't use frontline over the winter and I haven't with the Bravecto either.
I would certainly treat if heartworm was about here, but otherwise no, unless signs of fleas and ticks.
We do use Heart Guard, even though Heartworm is not common here. I figure I can always start treating for fleas and ticks if I need to, but with heartworm I need to be more proactive.
