Which flea preventative is best?

[Bridget]

Frontline just isn't working for us anymore. My son says it doesn't work for his dog either. So what alternative works the best?

[Rott-n-GSDs]

I don't use chemical preventative at all. I use a combination of a spray made with oils (peppermint is one of them), neem oil mixed with their shampoo when they get bathed, diatomaceous earth, and they are fed garlic capsules.

[saraja87]

Frontline stopped being effective in our area is well. Since we're feeding raw and trying to minimize exposure to chemicals, we thought we'd try the natural route first. We used diatomaceous earth in their food, coat, and in the yard, a garlic additive to their food and water, and oils in their shampoo and in the yard. It did nada, zip, zilch. We really, really wanted it to work but our puppy and one of out cats are allergic to fleas and they were insanely persistent. We gave the garlic plenty of time to build up in their system too but in the end it wasn't fair to the animals.

We're using Advantage now which is effective, but only for a shot period of time. To keep the fleas away we have to dose twice a month instead of once. I'm thinking we may have to switch to Comfortis which is supposed to be really effective, but I was hoping to avoid it since it's taken orally. We still put diatomaceous earth in their food for general health (worming, digestion etc) and use natural oils in their shampoo since Advantage doesn't repel fleas.

[GatorDog]

Originally Posted by Rott-n-GSDs

I don't use chemical preventative at all. I use a combination of a spray made with oils (peppermint is one of them), neem oil mixed with their shampoo when they get bathed, diatomaceous earth, and they are fed garlic capsules.

Same here! It helps that mine absolutely LOVES the garlic too! I could probably use them as training treats! Lol

[Courtney]

I was using Springtime bug off garlic, food grade DE in the yard, neem oil sprays and never used a chemical like Frontline or Advantage and it was fine-no fleas at all last spring & summer of 2010. Then late fall (2010) way into November my boy ended up with fleas and it was AWFUL. Now I admit to cutting back on the garlic but he was consistently getting it for 6 months prior. It was such an awful experience that we ended up using Frontline and I really hated to go that route. I have heard of Frontline not being effective for some but so far we have been fine-no fleas.

I still use the bug off garlic, DE and neel oil but also the Frontline during peak seasons

[natalie559]

I use comfortis on Penny- only thing that has helped her flea allergy and I use nothing on Sasha as we don't have fleas and she doesn't have an allergy to the occasional one we come across.

[PaddyD]

Frontline works on fleas for us but not for ticks. We switched to Advantix last month. Yesterday we went in the woods with another dog for about an hour. Abby got no ticks, the other dog got 25-30 of them.

[e.rigby]

saraja87, how much diatomaceous earth per pound do you use?

[saraja87]

Originally Posted by e.rigby

saraja87, how much diatomaceous earth per pound do you use?

Our cats get 1tsp per meal and we give 1tbsp per meal for dogs over 35lbs. It might be a little higher than some people dose but our puppy had worms when we first got her so we err on the side of caution. Puppies get 1tsp too. We may reduce our DE to one dose per day in a few weeks.

[EJQ]

From a previous post ...
All else aside; we were at a dog show about two years ago. Stopped by one of the vendors to buy flea/tick meds. The lady advised us to buy the Advantix product because the parasites were building a resistance to the Frontline products.
We now use the Advantix II version.