Flea Protection A *must* In Summer?

[Guest EmilyAnne]

I have always used a heartworm preventor that takes care of fleas and ticks as well. For Henry (who has been having seizures at least weekly lately) I am using Interceptor. This does not prevent fleas and ticks. Our other dog is on a preventor that does take care of fleas and ticks.

 

Is Henry very likely to get fleas if I dont use something to prevent it?

 

I understand fleas who bite a dog who is on heartworm preventor that takes care of fleas and ticks as well become unable to reproduce, so I am wondering if Riley's heartworm preventor that takes care of fleas will also protect Henry from fleas even though Henry is not taking that same preventor? (Did I make sense? )

 

By the way, yesterday was 1 week of no seizures. I'm really hoping he can finally make it to two weeks with no seizures!

[Guest greyt2love]

The first year I had Caesar, I used Advantix and he had a major seizure. Not his first one, but the very worst ever. E-vet hospital for 3 days after being stabilized for transport at our vet. I never used Advantix on him again, hoping that keeping my other dogs flea-free would protect him. I did use TriHeart heartworm medicine for him. I did not ever see any fleas on him during that time. Last year my vet recommended that I try Frontline, which has fipronil instead of permethrin. Caesar had no negative reaction to Frontline at all, so I am using it again this year.

I don't know if just the heartworm meds would be enough, or not. With 7 dogs and two cats, I'm not taking any chances on having fleas invade !!!

 

[turbotaina]

Depends. I've found a flea or two hitching a ride on Turbo after a trip to the barn. When we visited my uncle, he went out in their yard (lots of squirrels and pine straw) and came in 5 minutes later with probably 100 fleas on him (and yes, he had been frontlined).

[RobinM]

We do not use anything here in the South Shore of LI,NY. It's just not necessary. But my good friend, Nancy (Freddygirl) lives on the opposite shore and absolutely must. When we go to the PA house, we put it on them 5 days before going up there.

 

[Sighthounds4me]

In my opinion, it really depends on what you encounter. I used prevention early last spring/summer, mainly for ticks (DH and I are birders, so we are in the woods a lot in spring during migration. We had found a few on ourselves.). But after about June, I did not use any flea/tick prevention at all. I did see a couple wood ticks on my guys, but nothing major. And sisnce I groom the boys often, I know I will see fleas if there are any...

[Guest EmilyAnne]

I just remembered, we do plan to go camping in June. I guess I should definately use some kind of prevention then.

[Guest Ola]

I think it depends on your area. We don't use anything here (Southern Ontario) and haven't for the past 5 years or so. The only time one of my dogs got fleas it was from a play buddy that was an outdoor dog and had them. We do some hiking and walks in wooded areas also, although I've never seen ticks around here either.

[Guest MZH]

As long as you don't use permethrin you'll likely be OK.

 

You can use the Adams mists, the ones without the IGR, too. One lasts a week, another lasts 9 days; might be good for the length of a camping trip. I'd probably use that if I still had a seizure dog; the stuff that lasts a month may not be the best thing for one of those guys. Your mileage may vary however.

 

Marcia

[Guest longdogs]

First question is, do your dogs regularly pick up fleas? If the answer is 'no' you probably don't need it. Occasional fleas are easily dealt with using Capstar or by keeping a supply of Advantage or similar for emergencies. We keep a close eye open for fleas and use Capstar immediately if one is spotted, but rarely have to use it.

[Sighthounds4me]

First question is, do your dogs regularly pick up fleas? If the answer is 'no' you probably don't need it. Occasional fleas are easily dealt with using Capstar or by keeping a supply of Advantage or similar for emergencies. We keep a close eye open for fleas and use Capstar immediately if one is spotted, but rarely have to use it.

 

Agreed, and we also keep a natural flea shampoo spray on hand. They are both neem-based.

[Guest EmilyAnne]

First question is, do your dogs regularly pick up fleas? If the answer is 'no' you probably don't need it. Occasional fleas are easily dealt with using Capstar or by keeping a supply of Advantage or similar for emergencies. We keep a close eye open for fleas and use Capstar immediately if one is spotted, but rarely have to use it.

 

This would be my first time ever having a dog not on flea preventor, so I'm not sure yet.

 

[Guest longdogs]

First question is, do your dogs regularly pick up fleas? If the answer is 'no' you probably don't need it. Occasional fleas are easily dealt with using Capstar or by keeping a supply of Advantage or similar for emergencies. We keep a close eye open for fleas and use Capstar immediately if one is spotted, but rarely have to use it.

 

This would be my first time ever having a dog not on flea preventor, so I'm not sure yet.

 

I suggest you try it. Just keep a close watch for fleas until you know one way or another. The odd flea on your dog - from direct or indirect contact with dogs or other animals - is no big deal and easily treated. Frequent fleas are another thing entirely because they start getting into your home environment and take effort to control. We find that kennels or other space where dogs come into contact, share bedding etc are a source of fleas but casual contact is rarely a problem.

[Guest karma98104]

I don't regularly put flea stuff on my dogs. I do keep Advantage on hand and use it when I feel the need to. I just don't like putting chemicals on them unless it's neccesary. We survived a year at the dog park flea free-- but when I move into my last house they picked them up right away from the yard. I just put advantage on them the second I noticed it and never had a problem again. BUT- fleas are really my only concern, we don't have to worry about heartworm or ticks here. I kind of feel like Seattle is "Eden" in that way. When I lived in NY our dogs regularly came home with ticks- and probably 1/2 of my friends and family have Lyme Disease or another TBD. Scary

[Guest Cris_M]

I know this sounds whacked. When I started raw feeding, folks were writing about how it dealt with the flea problem by boosting the overall health of the dog. The theory is that fleas are opportunists and attack the weakest animals. I just figured they didn't live in the Deep South and had never really fought in the Flea Wars -- the ones where no animal is too strong to get fleas. However, last summer we used absolutely no flea stuff and Duncan only had 5 or 6 fleas. And, we take him everywhere -- to parks with lots of dogs, to the woods, on vacation. People kept bemoaning how awful a year it was for fleas, too, so I know it wasn't that the flea population was just down.

 

However, Duncan is a healthy dog and, for him, raw feeding is making him healthier.

 

When we had Gabriel, he had pancytopenia/leukemia/lymphoma. Nothing could keep fleas off of him, and, like you, I was very concerned about the flea chemicals making him even sicker. Our vet, who specializes in internal medicine, said that Frontline was the safest of the flea meds because it resides in the hair follicles rather than being systemic. We did use it and did not notice any side effects. However, it did not fully control the fleas.

 

Hopefully, you will find something that works well for Henry. Meanwhile, congrats on being 1 Week Seizure Free!!!! Go HENRY!!!!!

[Guest HeatherDemps]

I haven't used flea/tick prevention in years. The last time I used it was when we took the dogs with us when we stayed at a cabin in the woods. Our yard is not fenced so I'm out with the dogs every time and can fortunately see when/if a flea lands on them most of the time. My IG is pretty much completely white, so he's the easy one. My GH is white and brindle so I have to look him over a little more carefully. We've been very lucky over the years.

[Guest longdogs]

I know this sounds whacked. When I started raw feeding, folks were writing about how it dealt with the flea problem by boosting the overall health of the dog.

Fleas don't just attack weak animals. It is perfectly normal for fit wild animals to have a few (or many) fleas and usually a selection of other parasites. Properly wild animals obviously have a raw and natural diet. A weak or sick animal will however be more debilitated by fleas or other parasites, so the relationship kind of works in reverse.

[Guest SusanP]

We're in Iowa, and I don't use any flea protection. We've had 5 hounds over 6 years and no fleas. My beloved childhood lab got fleas once in her 14 years with no flea preventative. It was from a raccoon nesting in our chimney!

[Greylover97]

It really depends on your area. We have a lot of ticks around here so I do Frontline from the spring until late fall. Knock on wood we have never had any issues with fleas.

[Guest budsmom]

I Frontline, but it's for the ticks not fleas. We are Lyme disease heaven here, every year my vet sees more cases. Mine also get Interceptor for heartworm, cuz wouldn't you know it, it's also misquito heaven here, too. We even have our very own strain of encephalitis. After the winter we had, you wouldn't think anything would survive, but those bugs are tough little critters!

[Guest SoulsMom]

Soul and Archie have never had a problem with fleas at all. I've never had to use flea prevention on either one of them (knock on wood). And Archie has lived all over the country (Oklahoma, Texas, Oregon, CT, and MA). However, we live in tick country, so they do wear Preventic collars from April to November.

[Guest PhillyPups]

I use advantage, not had a flea problem here at all.

 

Personally, in your shoes, I think, I would be more concerned with any dog having a seizure a week than the fleas. I know a lot of people with seizure dogs, and they do not have them that frequently, and in time, all are pretty much controlled with medications, and they go long periods without a seizure.

 

Good luck.

[Guest EmilyAnne]

I use advantage, not had a flea problem here at all.

 

Personally, in your shoes, I think, I would be more concerned with any dog having a seizure a week than the fleas. I know a lot of people with seizure dogs, and they do not have them that frequently, and in time, all are pretty much controlled with medications, and they go long periods without a seizure.

 

Good luck.

Yes, we are extremely concerned with Henry having weekly seizures. We are trying very hard to get them under control and if we don't see improvements soon, we will be adding another AED. He is already on Potassium Bromide. He started having them weekly after a bad reaction to Flagyl. He has been having them weekly for two months. There is a theory that seizures set a pattern in the brain for more seizures. I think this is what happened with Henry due to his raw causing diarhhea, which is why we gave him Flagyl, and then he had a grand mal as a reaction, we wrote it off as his usual epilepsy, then we have him Flagyl again a couple weeks later, this time there was no doubt the Flagyl triggered grand mals. He is back on kibble, hopefully he will go back to only having seizures every three months.

 

It's all enough to make you go