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Flea And Tick Treatments For Dogs
Advantage Flea (imidacloprid)Most everyone is too familiar with the issues created when fleas make their home on your dog, or in your home. Bayer Animal Health created Advantage flea treatment, a fast-working, month-long flea control for your pet, an exceptional solution for an age-old problem. Advantage flea offers numerous benefits including stopping the biting of fleas in three to five minutes providing quick relief for your pet, quickly killing fleas reducing the risk of secondary problems like flea allergy dermatitis and tapeworms. Advantage for dogs gives your pets relief from the continuous itching and irritation.
Frontline Plus (fipronil)Frontline Plus is one of the leading medicines for ticks, lice, and fleas. Many veterinarians recommend this drug for both cats and dogs. The product is deemed to work very well, as it can eliminate fleas in as little as 18 hours and ticks in as fast as 48 hours. The product is also known to provide prolonged protection to your pet for up to a month after the first use. Frontline Plus for dogs is a topical treatment for dogs and cats to control ticks, fleas, and lice. When applied to the skin of a pet, the drug's active ingredient eliminates the parasites on hair and skin.
K9 Advantix (imidacloprid + permethrin)The active ingredients in K9 Advantix don't require a prescription, so K9 Advantix isn't only available through licensed veterinarians and outlets that will accept a veterinarian's authorization. K9 Advantix must not be used on cats. It is extremely toxic to their systems. K9 Advantix for dogs (imidacloprid + permethrin) is a convenient, once-a-month flea, tick, and mosquito control for dogs and puppies seven weeks of age and older. K9 Advantix stops biting fleas and repels and kills ticks and mosquitoes. Imidacloprid, one of the active ingredients in K9 Advantix, also kills 98 - 100 percent of fleas within 12 hours.
Capstar (nitenpyram)Protecting your pet from fleas is an important part in keeping your pet healthy and happy. Fleas are the most common external parasite found on dogs and cats. In addition to the irritation and itching they cause, fleas can also carry other illnesses and parasites like tapeworms. If left untreated, a few fleas on your pet can quickly lead to a full-blown infestation on your pet with potentially serious medical repercussions and infestation in your home. Eliminating fleas on your pet is easy with Capstar Flea (nitenpyram) because Capstar provides fast flea relief for your dog or cat. In fact, Capstar starts working within 30 minutes killing adult fleas. You will literally see fleas falling off your pet! Capstar Flea Control Medicine kills adult fleas on your pet. An adult female flea can lay up to 2,000 eggs in her lifetime. Four hours is all it takes for Capstar by NOVARTIS to kill virtually all the fleas on your pet.
BioSpot (insect growth regulators - igr's)Bio Spot has a full line of flea & tick control products for your pet, home and yard. You can find Bio Spot making a trip to your vet. Bio Spot offers complete line of products that are as effective as those sold by veterinarians. Bio Spot Spot On Flea & Tick Control for Dogs differs from other flea and tick control products by containing both an insecticide that kills and repels adult fleas, ticks, and mosquitoes up to 30 days, and a long lasting insect growth regulator (IGR) that prevents flea eggs from developing into biting adults. Bio Spot works against adult fleas and flea eggs, as well as ticks and mosquitoes, in an easy to apply, spot-on dispenser. Insect Growth Regulators (IGR) mimic insect hormones involved in egg hatching and insect maturation. An insect egg exposed to the appropriate IGR fails to hatch and dies before becoming an adult. An IGR does not kill adult fleas.
Revolution (selamectin)Revolution is the safe, simple way to protect your dog from heartworms, fleas and other harmful parasites, that requires an easy once a month application to keep your pet comfortable and safe from the attacks from a variety of parasites. Revolution enters the bloodstream through the skin via a topical application. Concentrations of Revolution flea in the blood and tissues prevent heartworm disease. Revolution selectively redistributes from the blood to the skin, where it provides protection against fleas, flea eggs, American dog tick, and mites.
Sentinel (milbemycin oxime/lufenuron)Sentinel Flavor Tabs provides an exceptional option for dog lovers seeking a safe and effective approach to controlling and preventing a variety of canine parasites and infestations in their dogs and home. Both you and your dog will benefit from avoiding parasite problems before they arise. After all, it is easier and more cost-effective to prevent than to treat infections once they occur. Rest assured with Sentinel (milbemycin oxime/lufenuron) Flavor Tabs. Veterinarians trust the medicine in Sentinel Flavor Tabs most for their own dogs. Sentinel Flavor Tabs (milbemycin oxime/lufenuron) are the only oral medicine that prevent heartworm disease and fleas. Sentinel (milbemycin oxime/lufenuron) Flavor Tabs provides serious protection against roundworms, hookworms and whipworms - the three most common intestinal parasites for dogs.
Advantage Multi for dogs with its broad slate of treatment including flea, heartworms, whipworms, roundworms and hookworms, requires a prescription and is possibly the most expensive option considered. Advantage Multi has a relatively strong medicinal odor, is safe for cats. Information regarding safety for use in pregnant or nursing dogs is unavailable. Special care must be taken to make sure this drip on is not ingested by the dog (by licking a drip point). It is not advocated for dogs under 3 pounds or 7 weeks. Advantage Multi's active ingredients imidacloprid and moxidectin oxime have been previously discussed in association with other products. Review those sections for more information about their effectiveness and method.
What flea/tick prevention do you use to protect your dog against parasites? Do you understand how it works? The pesticides it contains? What other parasites it might impact? What about side effects or causes for concern? Never before have so many products been available for preventing fleas and ticks from coming between us and our dogs. If you are familiar with how Frontline, or Advantage or Capstar or Bio Spot or K9 Advantix or Revolution or Sentinel work, you will be able to be a valuable and collaborative part in the choice made. Otherwise the choice may be left to your pet professional without recognizing circumstances specific to your dog and your life.
The incredible variety has rendered our dog culture to be one that expects pets to be parasite free. As a result, it’s considered the height of irresponsible pet ownership and completely unacceptable for a dog to have a flea or tick. How do you go about choosing the product that will get the job done? How do you compare? How do you compare those with other companies offering? How easy is it to get confused while keeping all these technical aspects in mind? What about cost? What about the weight ranges? Are you better off with a product that both your dogs can use if the weight range includes them both with the one dosage than buying separate packages for each dog of another product whose weight range is only specific to one of them?
The flea tick comparison table accompanying this article shows specific information for each product, including side effects, safe age to begin dosage and other pertinent information not addressed in the content. Prior to making any decision, you would definitely want to refer to it for this additional information.
Revolution addresses a broad slate of internal and external parasites including fleas, ticks, heartworms, ear mites and even, sarcoptic mange. Revolution from Pfizer, is available as a drip-on, systemically absorbed, for dogs cats, kittens and puppies. It’s active ingredient is selamectin, a relative of the ivermectin family. Selamectin has a wide margin of safety and is considered safe for ivermectin-sensitive Collies.
Capstar is unique in several ways relative to the other products available. Capstar is a pill rather than a topical. It has a rapid-kill and lasts less than 24 hours as a systemic insecticide. Nitenpyram, the active ingredient, is not normally used alone for flea control, but is safe enough to give every other day. It also can be used effectively for pets on the go, at parks, the vets, boarding kennels, etc. Capstar does not require a prescription. Capstar’s effectiveness is limited to flea killing.
Selamectin causes paralysis in susceptible parasites. It kills many adult parasites as well as preventing flea eggs from hatching. Selamectin is not as effective as some other insecticides like firponil and imidacloprid and in comparison to those it’s quite expensive and requires a prescription. Still it’s recognized as a safe option and addresses a slate of dangerous parasites effectively serving as heartworm preventative while addressing fleas, ticks and other mites. It’s also recognized as controlling some intestinal parasites in cats.
K9 Advantix does not require a prescription and treats of fleas, ticks and mosquitos. However, K9 Advantix is not safe for cats or other animals. The active ingredients, imidacloprid and permethrin attack unique aspects of the parasites nervous systems, parts that mammals don’t have. Imidacloprid tends to wash off, therefore outdoor active dogs and dogs that swim or must be bathed because of dermatitis must be re-treated frequently, as often as weekly. Permethrin, a synthetic member of the pyrethrin family, is a heavily used insecticide in the agricultural industry, effective in killing pests by attacking their nervous systems. In lab tests it has been shown to cause cancer in mammals. Thus, it is falling out of favor as an option in the flea/tick prevention arsenal.
Sentinel offers products for cats and dogs. Sentinel treats fleas, heartworms, roundworms, hookworms, whipworms and requires a prescription. Active ingredients, milbemycin oxime and lufenuron work in combination attacking the nervous systems of parasites as well as chitin (their exoskeleton) development. Milbemycin oxime is a relative of the ivermectin family and care must be taken to keep dosages at safe levels particularly for susceptible Collies. It offers no protection or pesticide effect against adult fleas, so Sentinel and Capstar are often used in tandem to treat infestations. Because of this limitation with Sentinel and the slowness of lufenuron in addressing the parasites by this method, every animal in the environment (home) must be on this same treatment to be effective. Additionally, the occasional flea may be seen particularly if the pet ventures into other environments and becomes exposed (parks, woods, walks, other homes, boarding kennels, etc.).
Bio-Spot, another drip-on product that does not require a prescription and attacks fleas, ticks and mosquitos, is lethal for all cats. Additionally Bio-spot is not safe for dogs under 6 months of age. Its active ingredients are the previously mentioned permethrin, and s-methoprene IGR. S-Methoprene acts as an insect growth regulator with wide application in the agricultural industry. The side effects associated, while rare, are a bit more daunting than some other products.
Frontline Plus, one of the most popular options, does not require a prescription and treats fleas, ticks and lice. Frontline Plus uses Fipronil and s-methoprene to work in tandem to create a product that is water-resistant and suitable for cats as well as pregnant or nursing dogs as per instructions. Fipronil is a broad spectrum insecticide labeled for puppies and kittens of 8 weeks. Frontline with these active ingredients is available as a drip-on and alternatively as a spray. Frontline cannot be used more than once a month and it works a bit slowly, so some people think it didn’t work at all. Frontline Plus is recognized as more effective by many and a good choice for maintenance.
Natural Defense by Sentry approaches the problem quite differently than the products discussed to this point. It is likely the least expensive option of those listed without any of the associated pesticides. Instead, Natural Defense utilizes octopamine blockers found in peppermint oil, cinnamon oil, lemon grass oil and thyme oil. This does not remove any possible reaction since clearly there are those allergic to substances as common as cinnamon. Those reactions are relatively mild and easy to address by ceasing usage. The odor of Natural Defense is initially strong and herbal. Viewed as offensive by a few and very pleasant by others, Natural Defense is effective against fleas and ticks, does not require a prescription. Available for cats and dogs, it is reasonably water resistant but safe for usage as frequently as every 10-14 days.
The perfect answer for you particular lifestyle and dog(s) may not seem to be in this list. Some of these products, like Bio-Spot, are unsafe to combine with any other product. Other products may have concerns specific to your situation. Still, within this list, it’s very likely that you will be able to begin to address the question of the best long-term method of maintaining a flea-free environment for you and your dog in a healthy way.
To order, simply click on the product images above. You can buy these popular flea and parasite solutions right here at the lowest price online.
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