Flea medicine? Info please

    • Gold Top Dog

    Flea medicine? Info please

    I have never used any flea medicine on Ash, although she needs it very badly. I don't know which to use or how to use it. I also don't know how to check for ticks. She is ALWAYS itching and biting at herself and I know I need to do something about it now. Any advice?
    • Puppy
    For fleas I like Advantage and have used it with good results.  I have also used Advantix which is for fleas & ticks.  Do not use Advantix on cats!!!!.

    I would give her a bath and then wait 24 hours and apply Advantage.  Apply to the skin between the shoulder blades.  You can apply this once a month.

    Go to Images on Google and do a search for ticks, you will see exactly what they  look like. [sm=eek.gif]
    • Gold Top Dog
    to look for ticks, you can rub the fur the wrong way so that you can see all the way to the skin. go slow and hopefully have your dog standing or sitting still. the most likely places that we find ticks are around the neck, head, and ears. also, if you have been hiking in the woods (or tall grass for that matter) with the dogs have your spouse check you over for ticks as well. the best way of removing embedded ticks that i have found is to use tweezers and grab near the head, pull slowly so that you will hopefully get the head out. if you pull out an embedded one watch the spot for a few days to make sure that there isnt an infection.
    • Gold Top Dog
    We use Frontline which takes care of fleas and ticks.  Unfortunately the ticks will still bite, but they die and fall off.  We usually find more dead ones on the floor than actually on our dogs.  When we do find ticks, they are also in the armpit or groin area besides the afore mentioned places.
    • Puppy
    Hello there [:)]

    As some helpful people already pointed out, K9 Advantix or Frontline work great against Fleas and Ticks. However, there are other options, depending on where you live. If the tick infestation in your area is rather low for most of the year, or the incidence of tick transmitted diseases is low (one or the other goes for most of the US actually), you often times only need tick protection for about 2 months of the year (usually in late spring/early summer). In this case I would suggest you do use something like K9 Advantix during those months, while otherwise using Sentinel. Sentinel is not a topical treatment, but a tablet that protects against all the common worm problems (which you need anyhow) and against fleas. Not only does it provide flea protection that is according to trials as good or better than can be achieved with topicals, it also is more price effective than buying K9 Advantix and a separate Worm Pill like Interceptor every month (this even holds if you buy the off-brand worm pills that are now available).

    But no matter which way you go, make sure you do something quick - trust me, you do not want fleas in your house. [;)]
    • Puppy
    Thanks for the reminder, I use Sentinel here and it's a good product.