Advantage is better than Frontline
Frontline is better than Advantage
Other monthly flea products, Control and Pretect
Sentinel - flea and heartworm control
Program - birth control for fleas
Effective flea and tick control
After years of frustration, we finally have flea products that work: Advantage and Frontline. They work well enough and fast enough that even if you have a heavy flea infestation, you probably 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 new 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. To download more information on Revolution for cats, click here. This file requires Acrobat reader to be installed on your computer and may take a minute or two to download.
Advantage and Frontline Top Spot
Advantage and Frontline Top Spot are supplied in a little plastic squeeze tubes. Select the size that matches your pet's weight and apply the entire contents directly onto the skin, once a month.
Reasons to choose Advantage instead of Frontline
Advantage is easy. The packaging is easy to use, and Advantage comes with a little picture showing exactly where to apply it.
It can be used any time. You can bathe your dog and apply Advantage a few hours later.
Using both products according to label instructions, Advantage is slightly cheaper.
Reasons to choose Frontline instead of Advantage
Frontline lasts longer. For flea control in dogs, it's probably good for three months. For cats, two months. When the manufacturer began recommending it for tick control, they changed their recommendation from every three months to every month.
Used monthly, Frontline does an acceptable job of tick control. We have had clients complain that it doesn't work and others sing its praises. If you have a serious tick problem, Preventic Collars (dogs only) may work better. Preventic collars make the ticks fall off before they die. With Frontline, ticks usually stay attached and must be removed individually.
Frontline doesn't wash off as easily as Advantage. Both products withstand occasional swimming and light bathing, but Frontline stands up to frequent swimming and even a serious bath now and then.
If used every two months, which is adequate for flea control, Frontline is less expensive.
With Frontline, keep these things in mind:
Do not bathe your dog three days before or three days after applying Frontline Top Spot.
Your veterinarian should give you the the little extra sheet that shows where to apply Frontline and explains how to deal with the somewhat awkward packaging.
Frontline spray
Frontline Spray works the same as Frontline Top Spot, but is not quite so easy to use, since it must be sprayed all over the body. For cats and small dogs, it is much less expensive than Frontline Top Spot and just as effective.
Other monthly insecticides:
Hartz "Control", Sargeant's "Pretect", Zodiac "Spot-on" and "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 a lot better and are less toxic than permethrin. Advantage and Frontline are safe for cats and puppies, these other products are not.
A note about cost:
Advantage and Frontline are non prescription products sold by the manufacturers only to veterinarians. Before they reach the pet store they have usually been sold by a veterinarian to a wholesaler and by the wholesaler to a pet store. The product that originally cost the vet six dollars probably costs the pet store owner eight or nine dollars. This, combined with the fact that pet stores charge higher markups than many veterinarians, means that Advantage and Frontline will usually be much cheaper at the vet's office. Check prices at the pet store, then phone the vet. If the vet price is not cheaper, phone another vet. All your pets need to be treated, and you will need to know how much they weigh.
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 a good drug for pets that do not already have fleas and do not live in a flea-rich environment. For cats that live indoors and dogs that stay in fenced yards, Program is an excellent product.
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.
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, such as the Ovitrol Plus or Ovitrol Plus II sold by veterinarians, 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 insecticidal 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. If you have already sprayed your house once or twice and still have fleas biting your ankles, pupae are your problem. Vacuum again. Spray the house again. Use advantage or Frontline for your pets. If you do a reasonably good job vacuuming and spraying, that should do it.
click on chart above for flea pictures and more information about the flea life cycle
source material for chart courtesy Miles Inc.
Natural flea control methods
Natural or non insecticidal flea control methods, such as flea combs, eucalyptus oil, sonic collars, flea traps, brewer's yeast etc. are not very effective. If you have only one or two small pets and a lot of spare time, you may find them helpful.
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