araluen

To my knowledge with fleas only 1-5% of them are actually on the dog at any one time, so for every one flea you see on your dog there is up to 99 other fleas somewhere in their environment breeding away happily - which is why it is so important to treat the environment. We had huge flea problems at our old house - the neighbours cats used to wander into our yard and they had a lot of fleas so we struggled to keep on top of it. We used to use frontline but since they added the second ingredient to the spot-on ones they dont seem to work well for fleas or ticks. The spray is much better but doesn't bind as fast. We use the fidos Free-itch concentrate now - seems to work very well for fleas and when I was working as a vet nurse in a very high tick area, we tested all the different products on some live ticks we'd pulled off dogs and fidos seemed to kill them the fastest everytime. And it is really cheap!

I prefer the down the throat option for my dogs - although they will usually gobble them down with furtive looks at each other - he's not getting the treat - its mine!! My mum had a good trick for getting tablets into our old dog - once she was over 15 she was a pro at taking the treat and spitting out the tablet. Mum used ice cream for giving her tablets - just put the tablet in a small ball of it - its very slippery and tends to slide down before they have a chance to think about it!

We feed all our dogs Eukanuba and they do really well on it and seem to love the taste. With samples, its worth asking in your local pet store because a lot of the premium foods have a money back guarantee in case you or your dog doesn't like it - so you can buy a big bag and try it for a few weeks to see how they go with it.

We use Kongs and Treat Balls and Buster Cubes to slow down our dog's eating. They are great and also give some mental stimulation!