Title pretty much sums it up. Just got a new puppy and took her to the vet for the once over last week. Vet gave me Nextguard, breeder isn’t a fan of many of these type of flea/tick control and neither am I. My last dog had a bad reaction to Sentinel? (heartworm, flea and tick) so never used that medication again. She was fine with a Seresto flea/tick collar. I’m a bit hesitant to use a flea collar at this point because she’ll be crated while I’m at work and shes not with the dog sitter. Would be interested in hearing different opinions. I’m hoping the experience with previous dog was a 1-off.
My vet is a fan of Nexguard, but I don’t really like the idea of poisoning my dog from the inside to take care of an external parasite. So far I’ve stuck with Frontline topical, except for a couple of single Nexguards the vet gave or sold me. I haven’t seen a flea at my house in over 20 years, but we do get plenty of ticks. I generally don’t treat them in the winters.
I think a lot of people don’t realize, or forget how these preventatives work. They don’t actually prevent fleas and ticks from finding your dog, but it kills them and/or keeps them from reproducing once they do. I haven’t tried a Seresto yet (but might next spring). Are they removable? If so, you could take it off during those times your dog is kept alone in a crate and put it back on when you get home. Otherwise, a topical like Frontline might be a good choice if you don’t live in an area where the fleas are resistant to it.
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Hi Mango, thanks for your input. That’s kind of my way of thinking as well. My previous dog rarely had a flea problem - and if she did a new collar cleared it up and I rarely saw ticks on her too. I think for my puppy, I’ll get the age appropriate collar or topical and skip the ingestible. I’d never forgive myself if she had a bad reaction. I’m on the fence about Lepto vaccines too.
Here in the south, frontline doesn’t work. I recommend Next add or Brave to. You are poisoning parasites, not your pets.
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We’ve got big tick problems here where I live. There are two types of preventative treatments: one that kills the tick once it bites, and one that kills the ticks on contact. We had one dog who would get a bit ill for a few days after being treated with the contact formulation so we switched to the other type. The problem then was that ticks would come into the house on the dogs and then jump off onto our walls, furniture, etc. So we started checking the sensitive dog for ticks every time she came in and switched the other dog to the contact formulation. Fortunately, I’ve never had a problem with fleas.
i have a friend whose dog had terrible health problems as a result of a flea collar but around here most people seem to use Advantix or something similar.
