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I have two dogs one with a flea allergy. I'm using frontline on them both sometimes ever two weeks, other times I stretch it out to a month. It is now two and I found a flea on him scurrying away. I still find a flea or two on him maybe once every two weeks.

If you use fronnltine, do u still find fleas? Do you then use it every two weeks?

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i normally use advantage instead of frontline...but have used both....and have only had to use it once a month.

How often are you bathing your dogs and what do you use? some dog shampoos will strip the coat of the flea stuff...and if you use it to soon after a bath there isn't enough oils on hte skin/coat to move the flea stuff around.

You might have to look at using something to treat the area as well as using a product on the dog.

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I would think that dependong on what is you it could dilute it. I'd suggest perhaps washing the dogs once a month and two days after washing them apply the frontline and see how it goes from there.

If you have a severe flea problem that could be why you are having to aplly the stuff more often.

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I think Advantage would be better to use than Frontline if your dog is allergic, as with Frontline the fleas have to bite the dog to die but Advantage they just have to hop on to get a lethal dose (no biting means no allergic reaction). Advantage also kills fleas in about 6-8 hours while frontline takes up to 24hrs.

I actually had exactly the same problem as you with Frontline, so i changed to Advantage and have not seen a flea since.

They are both really good products but i guess you just have to find out what works best for your situation. I like Frontline if you are in a tick area, but if not i would go with the Advantage as it seems to work great against fleas (you can also bath the animal just as much as you can with Frontline). :laugh:

Edited by melt
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Something interesting that our vet told us is that frontline only works properly if it is used to a minimum. If frontline is used more then necassary the fleas will eventually become immune to the product.

Not quite sure about all of the technical things, but im sure that the vets here on DOL would be able to provide you with more info :laugh:

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Did you check out fleas in surroundingd? Carpets, furniture, grass, under house - the beasts can stay anywhere for long:(

We tryed Advantage , Sentinel and Advocate - didn't work, I think the fleas were in the dust Stella loved to lay in. Once we moved house and returned to monthly Frontline - third month no fleas at all.

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as with Frontline the fleas have to bite the dog to die but Advantage they just have to hop on to get a lethal dose (no biting means no allergic reaction). .

This is not true, as Frontline as Advantage the flea needs to be in contact for 20 min in order to be effected and die. Fleas don't have to bite at all. That's what makes both products so good for allergic dogs.

Advantage also kills fleas in about 6-8 hours while frontline takes up to 24hrs

Advantage does not say that in the directions for use. It said (and I quote):

Advantage has been shown to kill adult and larval fleas within 20 min of contact by absorption via the flea intersegmental membranes. Stops fleas from feeding in 3-5 mijn. Fleas are not required to bite the animal to receive a lethal dose (end quote).

I find the main difference with them is difference in coat. A dog with a woolly coat is better of using Advantage as it spreads better through a woolly coat than the Frontline. But as said before, both are good products.

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I recently went to a seminar for vets (I smiled sweetly at the Merial rep and he said I could go) on this very problem. The speaker was THE world expert on fleas and gave an excellent unbiased presentation of the current state of flea control.

He gave us a lot of valuable information - so I'll just recount the major points.....

- Only the very rare flea is "immune" to any of the registered products available, in cases where the flea problem remains there is nearly always some part of the flea control program that isn't as good as it should be.

- All the products used, if used according to directions (ie. religiously every 28 days) will kill adult fleas within 24 hours of hopping on to the animal. If you leave it longer than 28 days, it will take longer to kill the fleas - longer than 24 hours means that adult fleas get the chance to lay eggs. Eggs means more fleas.

- You need to be patient. If there's a large flea burden you have to wait. The fleas you see now are the result of whatever was happening up to 6-8 months ago - it doesn't reflect "now". The speaker also noted that the problem can get worse before it gets better - but it will often get better dramatically after a bad week (he mentioned that that point is often just after people switch to another product - when the first one has done all the dirty work :laugh:).

- You need to find where the fleas are and treat the environment. If the fleas are in the house - the treated pets need to be in the house. If you kick the "walking flea vaccum" out of the house the fleas will attack the next available host - you! You need your pets to go where the fleas are - think of them like a permanent salt & pepper (flea egg) shaker, wherever they go they drop eggs and pick up adults. We want them to drop sterile eggs that wont hatch, then pick up the living adults so they can die an early death. The flea problem will disappear when there are no more eggs and no more adults.

- Do all the cleaning things like wash bedding, vacuum regularly, let off flea bombs and get a pest person in to spray under the house if you need to.

- Fleas wont jump from pet to pet. That means that if two of your dogs have fleas, they are both going to places where there are fleas. Also consider if there are any other animals getting into your yards - are there stray cats dropping flea eggs in your garden? This also means that you need to treat ALL your animals, regardless of whether you think they "have fleas".

- Just because you can't see fleas, doesn't mean there aren't fleas. Cats particularly are very efficient groomers and can get rid of the fleas before you even notice. That said, it will only take one bite to set off an allergic reaction in a sensitive dog or cat.

- If your flea control needs a boost - you can use Capstar tablets to dramatically drop the flea burden on your pet. Can use it once a week if you need to. For dogs, you can use Permoxin spray weekly also but NOT IF IT WILL BE ANYWHERE NEAR A CAT!!!!

- Be honest with yourself. There are no flea repellants - just flea killers. THe products aren't infallible - they're distributed through the oils on the coat so anything that disturbs that will affect the efficacy of the product. How much that happens you can't know - but once weekly bathing shouldn't affect it too much. Daily swimming is anyones guess. They're not fool proof - if you think you've got a serious problem, call the manufacturer - they have a team of "flea investigators" that can come out and try to find the problem.

Hope that helps......

Edited by Rappie
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I like Frontline if you are in a tick area, but if not i would go with the Advantage as it seems to work great against fleas (you can also bath the animal just as much as you can with Frontline). :laugh:

Advantage are launching a new top spot called Advantix which is for tick/flea prevention. It is a different ingredient to Frontline, so hoping it actually works!!

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I've stopped wasting my money on Frontline. It got to the stage of using it fortnightly with little result.

Now using PERMOXIN as a weekly rinse/sponge bath.

A friend's Shit Zu X, Coco, was recently so flea ridden, I was shocked. This friend was using Frontline but also lives beside an off-leash park. I would suspect her dog was being re-infested every day at the park.

I gave her some Permoxin to try and Coco is now flea free. :laugh:

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Interesting idea that swapping from one product to another which we feel works is because the first prep did all the work :laugh:

I disagree, my dogs are dosed according to directions.

I regularly swap from advantage to frontline with Rusky, the mal.

I always use advantage for Cindy the Golden and the cat.

They each have their own boxes, no sharing, I tried that and got confused.

So based on at least 8 years of swapping around I would have to say that sometimes the products do not work on a wooly dog.

I won't be doing a thesis on it, if you still have fleas, swap products but follow the directions.

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Interesting idea that swapping from one product to another which we feel works is because the first prep did all the work :laugh:

It's only an idea though - certainly not a definitive reason.......

If you've found something that works, stick to it.

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I use Frontline on all 3 of my dogs. It has always worked well and I have never seen a flea on any of them :)

I also like that Fontline gives protection against ticks (but only for 2 weeks :laugh: ).

Peter D

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Quote Dali-Love

Advantage does not say that in the directions for use. It said (and I quote):

Advantage has been shown to kill adult and larval fleas within 20 min of contact by absorption via the flea intersegmental membranes. Stops fleas from feeding in 3-5 mijn. Fleas are not required to bite the animal to receive a lethal dose (end quote).

I looked up the Bayer site and it says Advantage kills 98-100% of fleas in 12hrs, so i would think that it "starts" killing the fleas in 20mins but it takes 12hrs to kill most or all of the fleas, whereas Frontline takes 24hrs to do this.

Sorry i thought i remember a rep telling me 6-8hrs.

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