Flea And Heart Worm Prevention

[cavNrott]

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Edited May 29, 2009 by cavNrott

[ellz]

I've been using Advocate but I'm not happy with it. My dogs are bathed weekly (long coated) and despite being apparently waterproof, I guess it really doesn't survive full-on bathing on such a regular basis.

That is why I'm considering the switch to Sentinel, at least I can be sure it is staying put, even with the bathing regime.

[kamuzz]

Agree if you have a dog with a flea allergy there is a problem. However Chance, my last rescue girl had a horrible flea allergy and once I cleared it up and put her on Sentinel she had no further problems. I was taking the dogs to the leash free park so they may have picked up a flea occasionally but we had no more flea allergy hassles with Chance.

We used to have a cocker with the same problem & Sentinel was the only thing that worked for us.

We still use it now for all our dogs, even though we don't have a problem currently.

[PepitoVFR]

This thread reminded me of a chat I had with my vet about Sentinel Spectrum so I just ordered some from pricelesspets.com.au

[Akitaowner]

i started using frontline then switched to advantix never had any probs with waterproofing my boy used to be bathed once a week and now swims regularly at the beach (altho his skin may not get wet) never had a flea. need to wait 24hrs before washing tho....

[t(AD)pole]

Many people find Sentinel to be good, but remember that it is only an insect growth regulator, it works by elminating the lifecycle by making fleas infertile, but does not kill adult fleas that come from other dogs or places. It works brillianty for dogs who never leave their property. rolleyes.gif So dog goes out, gets a flea, flea lays a bazillion eggs in your carpet and vwalla! You have a new lifecycle, new fleas hatch and need to jump on your dog for a feed before they get the medication.

The thing about Sentinel is that all the dogs in the home need to be on it, and any/all cats need to be on program injections 6mthly for it to be totally effective. No point paying extra for an IGR if the cats carry around a nice breeding lifecycle on themselves.

Also Sentinel is not great for flea allergy dermatitis as all the fleas still need to bite the dog to get the medication, so for dogs sensitive to only a couple of flea bites it's basically useless. Hence why they give out capstar packs for free in the summer and pretend as though they're being generous. wink.gif

Mel.

Does this mean that if I start giving my BC sentinal it wont work because we have 3 cats who don't get flee treatment and there are probably flees everywhere? Sorry for all the questions but I just want to get it right!

[cavNrott]

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Edited May 29, 2009 by cavNrott

[t(AD)pole]

Yes it does. No point in treating the dog if you don't treat the cats.

Why not flea treat your cats? Otherwise you will have a continuing problem with fleas.

I would treat the cats if I could but my mum thinks there is no point. Well, really she thinks it will cost too much (with 3 cats its a lot). They don't even get vaccinated or wormed or anything but they are healthy. I would like to treat them though.

[ellz]

would treat the cats if I could but my mum thinks there is no point. Well, really she thinks it will cost too much (with 3 cats its a lot). They don't even get vaccinated or wormed or anything but they are healthy. I would like to treat them though.

I don't know how old you are, but if you get pocket money, I'd be hightailing it into Coles and spending some of it on (at the very least) some wormers and flea treatments for the toodie-tats. Even Exelpet stuff is better than nothing at all.

In my house, everybody gets wormed at the same time...hoomans, dogs and toodie-tats. Better to be safe than sorry. Although I'd be more worried about my animals catching something from my kids than the other way around!