Best wormer & flea treatment for dogs?

foreign_correspondent

frankie55 wrote: »

FC over 70 ticks found on my puppy last year when she went for her first grooming session!!!. She'd had had her head and body in a tick nest which we think was in our garden. Several of the dogs that live near me had numerous ticks last year and there is a report of the first one this year. We think the reason is that Hedgehogs wander around all or gardens, and that there are Foxes and Badgers in the area and some Roe Deer have been sighted.
There are several fields around the area where sheep are stored before going to the great mint sauce lake, and sheep are notorious for carrying ticks. Frontline was totally inefective and I changed to Advantix POM for the tick
season. I've had dogs for 30 years and last year was my first encounter with a tick which is a vile repulsive creature, I now have a 'tick lasso' which whips them out in no time, but the little burgers can and do run away. We went through the whole life cycle from tiny teeny dots to nymphs and full size ticks about the size of a finger nail uurrrrgggghhhhhh

Isnt it odd that you never had them for 30 years and now you do?

I walk my dog on some fields that clearly have foxes using them, and we have plenty of hedgehogs round here. I walk my dog next to some sheep grazing a couple of times a week, and we walk in some woods where there are badgers, muntjac and squirrels...

Never had a tick and rarely fleas - maybe its just luck of the draw?

frankie55

Yes I do find it odd FC, I used to live in a town and had lots and lots of fleas but no ticks. My DD lives in athe same area now and fights the flea fight all the time, We live in a new build area on ex pit land which was used for sport. They sold much of the land and built new sports facilities on the rest. We've been without a dog for a few years but when we first came here there wasn't a tick problem,
I'm sure the ticks have come from the Dule of N********habit of moving his sheep around and changing the use of the farm land from arable to animal 'storage'. All the farms in the village have been turned into barn conversions and now they are trying to sell/rent out the rest of the land. We are part of the 'wid life corridor' to the sea. We do have hedgehog wintering under our deck, it was built to preserve their habitat as well as the toads who live in my greebouse and garden. I've seen hedgehogs with lots of ticks, it just takes one to drop off and the cycle starts. Getting rid of the ticks in the undergrowth etc requires lots of very poisenous substances which destroy other wildlife, so I stick to my trusty lasso. I ( the Vets think that last years mild wet winter encouraged ticks, the local Vet certainly had hundereds of dog owners convinced that their dogs had developed strange cancerous type growths in a matter of days, ticks are utterly vile creatures which can jump onto humans too

little_monkey

Whats the difference between frontline combo and the usual frontline,what is the extra benefits if any?ta

rachiee

frankie55 wrote: »

FC over 70 ticks found on my puppy last year when she went for her first grooming session!!!. She'd had had her head and body in a tick nest which we think was in our garden. Several of the dogs that live near me had numerous ticks last year and there is a report of the first one this year. We think the reason is that Hedgehogs wander around all or gardens, and that there are Foxes and Badgers in the area and some Roe Deer have been sighted.
There are several fields around the area where sheep are stored before going to the great mint sauce lake, and sheep are notorious for carrying ticks. Frontline was totally inefective and I changed to Advantix POM for the tick
season. I've had dogs for 30 years and last year was my first encounter with a tick which is a vile repulsive creature, I now have a 'tick lasso' which whips them out in no time, but the little burgers can and do run away. We went through the whole life cycle from tiny teeny dots to nymphs and full size ticks about the size of a finger nail uurrrrgggghhhhhh

Oh my lord a tick nest?! Sounds bit scary!!

Just wormed and de-flead my dogs i used Panacur liquid for worming and Canac spot on. Just as good as frontline if im honest and its a hole heap cheaper!:T

lazza_w

little_monkey wrote: »

Whats the difference between frontline combo and the usual frontline,what is the extra benefits if any?ta

Both contain fipronil - a surface acting insecticide that kills fleas for up to 2 months and ticks for up to 1 month in dogs. Frontline combo also contains methoprene, an insect growth inhibitor that stops fleas reproducing.

The benefit of Frontline Combo is that it (theoreticaly) eliminates the need to use a seperate household flea spray. The additional cost of Frontline Combo should be more than offset by the saving on not purchasing additional household treatments.

Personally I am starting to find animals treated with Frontline that still have fleas so I wonder if it's efficacy may be reducing so we've started using more Advocate (which has additional benefits on controlling sarcoptic mange, intestinal roundworms, hookworms, plus lungworm although doesn't work aginst ticks). So far results seem encouraging but time will tell...

jim._2

For those interested, you can buy Frontline spray without a prescription from http://www.leguidesante.co.uk

Direct Link

Spudette

I use drontal and frontline although frontline doesn't seem to work anymore so i would recommend stronghold.

Missconduct

Hi,

I have a similar dilemma to the OP. We have 3 dogs (1 who is 63 kg and two at about 43 kg), 4 cats. Two of the dogs, but one in particular, has been scratching since about late Feb/early March and it seems to be getting worse.

We treated the dogs with Effipro (same ingredient as Frontline, to my knowledge) and the cats with Frontline but the scratching continued so we figured fleas weren't the issue. We have since tried homeopathy, change of diet, everything we can think of (one at a time of course) but it just seems to be getting worse. Then yesterday, I went to put some aloe vera on the worst-affected dog to sooth her itching and found two fleas on her belly. I removed and drowned them and keep checking for more but haven't found any. We have an electronic flea trap which we used back when we used Effipro and which didn't seem to catch any fleas, which I then plugged in overnight last night and it doesn't seem to have caught any this time either. The cats were only Frontlined on 19 June but we're still seeing flea dirt on them, so I'm thinking that Frontline (or the active ingredient in it) is ineffective and wondering what else to try. The worse affected dog does have a tendency to need to be bathed quite often as she loves to roll in poo, given the chance.

My vet only sells Prac-tick and Stronghold as prescription treatments, although I am happy to buy anything which isn't covered by insurance online, because our vet bills are huge. In all honesty, I'd prefer not to use a pesticide at all but I've been supplementing the dogs with garlic since around March and it's clearly not working (although I've just increased the dose) and we're desperate to knock this on the head.

I have read all of the above but am still undecided and would appreciate any advice/suggestions. Also, some of the posts are now quite old so I wonder whether anyone can offer any more experience with any of the treatments.

We have a can of Skoosh for the house (which we've not yet used) so wouldn't, I assume, need a treatment which deals with that too.

All advice gratefully received.

PS The dogs do get ticks in our area but we tend to remove them with one of the little remover sticks where you twist them and they drop off. But I would like to prevent them because of Lyme disease. What do other normally do with the ticks after they remove them - how do you kill/dispose of them? Thanks.

PPS Is it still obligatory for a vet to provide a prescription free-of-charge or did that change so that they are now entitled to charge? Thanks again!

alleycat`

Fc if it makes you feel better our GH-X has never had fleas or a tick in the 10 years we've had him (and we run him on fields very regularly).

For the first 5 or 6 years we had him i was religious on the dates for Flea / tick treatments.

The last 2 to 3 years (toddler arrival) has made everything less organised and we have not had a problem.

It is strange how some areas have massive problems even with regular treatment where as i can be a bit lax about it and nothing at all..

I'm happy to say this (with the chances of jinx) as i've just flea'd, wormed and had his shots done

Burtman87

I had a 3month Advocate flea and worming pack from our vet. I collected the advocate and applied as directed, my dog who is 10months old shook just after application and the advocate burnt my leather sofa, I was mortified. A week later, Where the advocate was applied on my pooch a very large patch of hair had burnt leaving a patch on her neck along with smaller patches all over her body. I took her back to the vet and he confirmed that the advocate had burnt away her fur (luckily it had not burnt her skin), he said it is something he has never heard of and said he would put in a report to inform advocate. She went back to the vet today and it was a different vet who ALSO said she had experienced the same thing with her dog.

My poor pup now has these patches and its not guarenteed it will return.

I am on the look out for a new treatement for my pup.

orlao wrote: »

I use Advocate(POM) for my dogs and cat for a couple of reasons......
Very good flea prevention
It helps control ear mites ( one of my dogs is prone to ear problems!)
and my vet has just told me that I only need to drontal once a year because avocate deals with most worms including heartworm as well which will save me a fortune as I will be buying 8 drontal tabs instead of 32.I think the drontal is needed for tapeworm prevention.
It also prevent sarcoptic mange according to the package which could be useful if we get any mangy foxes in the area.

Ex Large dog is >£20 online, (£27 at vets) Cat £13ish online (£22 at vets) for 3 months supply and I use it all year round.

It would be interesting to hear if there are any cons to this treatment because I haven't found any yet!:D