The Balerow Aussie Bull-Blog

Flea control

Revolution, Advantage and Frontline work well enough and fast enough that even if you have a heavy flea infestation, you won’t need to fumigate your house or spray the yard. Simply treat your your pets. Fleas jump on pets, fleas die. As simple as that.

Revolution

Applied to the skin like Frontline or Advantage, Revolution is a newer product that kills fleas and also prevents heartworms. It is easy to use, highly effective, and less expensive than using a monthly flea product in addition to a monthly heartworm product. We usually recommend Revolution in preference to either Advantage or Frontline, especially for cats.

Advantage

Advantage is easy to use, can be applied any time and works quickly. It does not last as long as Frontline and is not as effective.
Frontline

Frontline is the most effective flea medication we’ve got and also the most expensive. It lasts longer than other products and withstands occasional swimming or light bathing. The product has been around for a long time and we are starting to see resistance, which is a concern and the reason we recommend using Frontline Plus rather than Frontline TopSpot. Frontline Plus contains (S)-methoprene, an ingredient that prevents reproduction by fleas that aren’t killed by Frontline alone.

Because Frontline depends on natural skin oils to spread itself around, it’s best to wait about three days after bathing before applying the product and avoid bathing or swimming for a couple of days afterwards.

When used monthly, Frontline does a decent job of controlling ticks and is the only satisfactory product for tick control in cats.
Frontline spray

Frontline Spray works the same as Frontline Top Spot. It must be sprayed all over the body, so it is more difficult to use, but works much faster. For cats and small dogs, Frontline spray is also much less expensive. Using Frontline Top Spot for cats costs about ten dollars a month. The spray costs less than a dollar.

Advantage

Advantage is easy to use, can be applied any time and works quickly. It does not last as long as Frontline and is not as effective.
Frontline

Frontline is the most effective flea medication we’ve got and also the most expensive. It lasts longer than other products and withstands occasional swimming or light bathing. The product has been around for a long time and we are starting to see resistance, which is a concern and the reason we recommend using Frontline Plus rather than Frontline TopSpot. Frontline Plus contains (S)-methoprene, an ingredient that prevents reproduction by fleas that aren’t killed by Frontline alone.

Because Frontline depends on natural skin oils to spread itself around, it’s best to wait about three days after bathing before applying the product and avoid bathing or swimming for a couple of days afterwards.

When used monthly, Frontline does a decent job of controlling ticks and is the only satisfactory product for tick control in cats.
Frontline spray

Frontline Spray works the same as Frontline Top Spot. It must be sprayed all over the body, so it is more difficult to use, but works much faster. For cats and small dogs, Frontline spray is also much less expensive. Using Frontline Top Spot for cats costs about ten dollars a month. The spray costs less than a dollar.

Other monthly insecticides:

Hartz Control, Bio-Spot, Sargeant’s Pretect, Zodiac Spot-on, Powerspot, and Defy all contain permethrin, an insecticide that has been used for many years as a flea spray. When used to prevent a flea problem, they work ok. If your pet already has fleas, get Advantage or Frontline, which work better and may be less toxic than permethrin. Advantage and Frontline are safe for cats and puppies, these other products are not.
Program and Sentinel: Flea birth control
Program for flea control

A monthly flea control pill for dogs or once-every-six-months flea control injection for cats.

Pets receiving Program secrete the drug into the natural oils on their skin and fleas living on the skin absorb the drug. These fleas lay sterile eggs, but in other respects live full and happy lives. The female flea will still live about three weeks and suck blood two or three times a day. This makes Program an acceptable drug for pets that do not already have fleas and do not have any exposure to fleas.

The main benefit from using Program is that it controls fleas without continuous insecticide exposure for your family and pets. Experts believe that all these new flea control products are safe to use, but of course nobody really knows for certain that any of them, including Program, are completely harmless.

The main problem with Program is that when pets receiving it are exposed to fleas, they get fleas. This tends to make pets, pet owners, and veterinarians very unhappy.

Program is given to dogs as a once-a-month tablet, or to cats as a once-every-six-months injection. It is also available for cats as an oral pill or liquid, but the pills are too big and and the liquid tastes bad. Injection or pill, Program costs about the same as Advantage or Frontline.
Sentinel : for flea and heartworm Control

Sentinel contains two drugs: Interceptor, for heartworm control, and Program, for flea control. Sentinel costs about the same as using the two drugs separately, but if your dog needs both, it is slightly more convenient than giving two separate pills. My comments about Program apply equally to Sentinel
Traditional flea control products
Flea spray and powder:

Don’t bother. Frontline Spray works ten times better, it is safer, and costs about the same.
Flea dip

Not safe for cats, but flea dip is a perfectly reasonable choice for big dogs, which are expensive to treat with Frontline or Advantage. You need to dip the entire dog, nose to tail, every three weeks throughout the flea season. Because of the smell, dip is not a good choice for indoor dogs. Dip is a waste of time for small dogs, since Frontline spray is cheaper, more effective and easier to use.
Flea Collars

Flea collars are still an economical and useful method of flea control when used before you see fleas. If your pet is already itchy, it is too late for collars.

Many flea collars kill adult fleas and also make flea eggs sterile. They aren’t very effective if you already have a flea problem, but they are easy and cheap, and a lot better than nothing. Many people, including myself, don’t like the smell of flea collars or the smell and oily feeling the insecticide leaves on their hands after petting a dog wearing one.
Why are fleas still biting my ankles?
The flea life cycle:

Fleas and butterflies have the same life cycle: egg, caterpillar, cocoon, adult. The adult female lives its three week life on the dog, sucking blood two or three times and laying twenty or thirty eggs each day. Growth from egg to adult takes about three weeks. This means that by the time you notice fleas, there will already be enormous numbers of eggs, caterpillars and cocoons in your carpet. Flea pupae, protected in their cocoons, are invincible. Even if you vacuum and fumigate, they will continue to hatch and most of them will bite somebody before they die. Use Revolution, Advantage or Frontline for your pets. Fleas will hatch, jump on the pet and quickly die.

Fleas and butterflies have the same life cycle: adult, egg, caterpillar, cocoon, adult.

Adult flea emerges from cocoon full-sized and ready to go

The newly emerged flea will leap at any likely source of warmth and vibration. Although fleas greatly prefer the flavor of dogs and cats, they will settle for your ankle.
Once on the host, the female flea takes two or three blood meals a day and soon begins laying eggs . . . about 150 to 300 eggs per week. Seen with the naked eye, flea eggs look like large grains of salt.

When ready to hatch, baby fleas use their tiny egg tooth to cut their way out of the eggshell. Program keeps fleas from hatching by preventing development of this egg tooth
The female flea sucks much more blood than she needs for herself, processing nearly all of it into nutrient-rich fecal pellets for her babies to eat. The baby caterpillars crawl around in your carpet or lawn eating whatever they can find, including cookie crumbs, miscellaneous organic matter, and these nourishing little fecal pellets.

When full grown, the flea caterpillar makes a little cocoon, just like butterflies do. Protected by this cocoon, the flea is impervious to insecticides and can wait many weeks for a host to come near. When the flea senses vibration from footsteps, it pops out, looks around and immediately takes a leap. You can spray that rug all you want, but fleas will continue to emerge from their cocoons and nailing you on the ankle for about three weeks.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 1st, 2008 at 4:57 pm and is filed under Health Info. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.