Vectra Flea Meds; Pill Form; How Long Before Residue Goes Away?

[Guest lynne893]

Hi guys,

Following on my thread about Greta going to vet for limp, weird scaling issues in her ear, I'm wondering about Vectra flea medicine.

 

Our vet, whom I trust empirically, recommended Vectra today because Frontline didn't do anything for our poor girls' fleas this month!

 

Coming home after we'd already given them the dose of Vectra (which, btw, is $$$), I see on Greytalk that there's some controversy abt the safety of Vectra on greys. That aside (it's too late), it does get me concerned about how toxic these topical flea medicines are.

 

I'm 5 mo pregnant and was so reluctant to expose MYSELF to chemicals and poisons in my first trimester, that we let the spring go by without putting topical flea meds on our dogs until June.

 

Then at a friend's today, I learned that their dog takes a pill form of flea preventative. I'd never heard of such a thing!

 

What brand is the pill form? Does it work on greys and do you need prescription? I'm all ears.

 

The Vectra liquid makes such a big deal about not getting it on you, your clothing, your furniture, etc. It must be really poisonous. And of course now I'm paranoid about "did they jump up on our bed while we were gone?" "did she just rub against my leg?"

 

How many hours/days do you have to wait before feeling like you can hug and kiss on your greyhounds again? That residue seems to take forever to dry up /evaporate :puke

[KF_in_Georgia]

After 24 to 48 hours, I'll bathe my dogs or just take a wet paper towel to their necks and rub off the residue--but I'm not using Vectra. When I first put a topical on my guys (tomorrow's the day), I put bandannas on both dogs to remind me not to pet there. The bandannas also, I think, help keep the oil off the furniture. Usually, all signs of the topical are gone in 24 hours. I have one therapy dog who has to get baths before therapy sessions, and both dogs do some weekend meet and greets. I give the topical on a Monday (usually the first Monday of the month), then bathe the dogs any time on Wednesday or after. (And the reason they're getting meds tomorrow is that we have a nursing home visit on Tuesday next week, so I can't wait until next Monday for meds.)

 

I'll let other people discuss oral flea/tick meds. I've got a girl who gets diarrhea from oral heartworm meds, so I use Advantage Multi, which is a (very smelly) topical that does heartworm as well as fleas.

 

P.S. The Vectra warnings about clothes and furniture may have less to do with the pesticide and more to do with stains the carrier oil will produce on fabric.

Edited June 30, 2014 by KF_in_Georgia

[macoduck]

I am one of those who posted about the bad side of Vectra. I watched a friend's non-greyhound suffer a horrible death due to Vetcra and the Petsmart vet clinic. That was a few years ago and there is a newer version of it now. It may possibly be marketed under a different name. I will never use or recommend it.

 

We use Trifexis here. It's the pill form for heartworm and flea control. My mutt Pudge always got a little tummy upset from it but my greyhounds did fine.

[a_daerr]

Then at a friend's today, I learned that their dog takes a pill form of flea preventative. I'd never heard of such a thing!

 

What brand is the pill form? Does it work on greys and do you need prescription? I'm all ears.

 

It's called Nexgard. It's one of the newest flea/tick preventatives, only recently receiving approval to market the product for use on Lone Star and black-legged ticks. It has mixed reviews regarding safety and effectiveness, but I know of several people on GT who have tried it without problems.

[RedHead]

I'm no expert in flea/tick meds, but isn't Comfortis a flea control pill?? I thought it was safe for greys....

[macoduck]

I'm no expert in flea/tick meds, but isn't Comfortis a flea control pill?? I thought it was safe for greys....

Comfortis is a once a month flea killer. We have used it in the past. I used to use Capstar when I had to pick up a surrendered greyhound but it's only good for one day and is harder find now.

We switched to Trifexis since it has the added benefit of preventing heartworms.

[a_daerr]

Comfortis is an oral flea preventative, but it does not cover ticks. If you use Comfortis, you'd also have to buy a separate tick collar.

[KF_in_Georgia]

Trifexis also does not control ticks.