Flea Control Options

Flea Control is an issue that we face year round here in the Four States.  There are several options when it comes to control of these pests, and they are listed below in what the doctors and our staff consider to be the best to the worst options.

Because fleas are not the only parasite that affects our pets, several products treat more than one parasite type.  Commonly, flea medication is mixed with heartworm prevention and deworming medication.  Sometimes other medications are included in a monthly form as well. 

One thing to avoid at all costs is "dipping" your pets.  As you will read below, dipping is an obsolete procedure that is harmful to the environment and dangerous for your pets.  We fully expect dipping to be outlawed in the USA in the next few years and fully support efforts to do so.  If anyone offers to dip your pet, you should run, not walk, away as fast as you can. 

Best Option

Sentinel (for thinking, patient persons only)

Drug Profile

Positives:  Heartworm Preventive, Deworms for Hookworms, Roundworms and Whipworms, and Flea Birth Control.  No residue, easy to administer chew tablet.  Very safe.  Cats must take six month injection.

Negatives:  Every pet in household must take it monthly.  It MUST be given with a full meal.  Does not eliminate tape worms.  

 
Twenty years ago, Sentinel was introduced to the market for flea control.  From the standpoint of owning pets, it has been the best twenty years of my life (Dr. Leavens)!  Since we started using Sentinel in our house (and we have a broad exposure to fleas from many sources!), we have not had fleas!  It works extremely well, it is non-toxic to mammals, and it is the only flea control program that ALWAYS works. 

Sentinel is a once a month pill that must be given with a full meal. It is the Thinking Person's option for flea control because Sentinel does NOTHING to kill adult fleas, and it does not work on ticks. It is extremely effective, however, over the long haul. Sentinel immediately sterilizes any flea that bites the pet. And fleas MUST bite the pet and drink pet blood before they can lay eggs (that's why they get on the pet in the first place).

For cats, there is an injection called Program that lasts six months. If you are concerned about injections in cats, there are also pills or liquid Program options that are given monthly by mouth. If you go the route of Sentinel/Program for your flea control, every pet in your household, indoors and outside, MUST be on the treatment every month, year round, for it to work.

Because of the flea life cycle (95% of the fleas in your household are in the egg, maggot, or cocoon form) it can take a few months for Sentinel/Program to be fully effective, and it must be properly given (with a full meal) every month.

For households with existing heavy flea infestations, it can take a few months to run out of flea eggs, maggots and cocoons.  During that time, the adult flea killer Comfortis is by far the best and safest way to kill the hatching fleas. Capstar can also be used. 

Once you run out of fleas, you are essentially done with them! Just keep giving the Sentinel year round. Even if your pet picks up a few fleas when out on a walk, or staying somewhere, the fleas will never be able to reproduce and you will never have another infestation.  If you want to, you can get rid of them with a Comfortis or a Capstar pill. 

Sentinel/Program represents products that are SAFE, EXTREMELY EFFECTIVE, and the LEAST EXPENSIVE options available for flea control.  And to date (about 35 years worldwide) there has been no resistance developing to these products.  All other flea control products work in ways that guarantee that resistant fleas will develop.  It is just a matter of time...

There is a new product on the market that we now recommend with confidence:  

Trifexis

Drug Profile

Positives:  Heartworm Preventive, Deworms for Hookworms, Roundworms and Whipworms, and Kills Adult Fleas for 20-30 days.  No residue, easy to administer chew tablet.  Very safe.  Comfortis, a sister product, may be used in cats.

Negatives:    Does not affect 95% of the fleas in the household (only kills adults, not eggs, maggots, or cocoons). Does not eliminate tape worms.  Does sometimes cause a pet to vomit.  If this happens within an hour of taking the drug, it must be repeated. 

Trifexis is a new product that protects against heartworms, the three main intestinal parasites, and kills adult fleas.  It is an excellent product that kills adult fleas very rapidly and lasts for up to a month if given with a full meal.  This product is very competitively priced and is very easy to give.  There is no messy liquid to apply and the product is safe.  A big bonus with this product is that is also appears to kill ticks at least for a couple of weeks.  We are very excited to have this medication available for the 2011-2012 flea/tick/heartworm season. 

For multiple pet and mixed pet households, Trifexis is our recommended product.   This is because it is common for people not to treat every pet every month, and while Sentinel won't work properly if not given to all pets every month, Trifexis will at least work on the pets to whom it is given.   

Other Adult Flea Killers

Capstar is the pill that eliminated dipping.  It is the reason that we can say with confidence that we are a flea-free clinic!  It kills all the fleas on a dog or cat or puppy or kitten in 20 minutes and lasts for about two days.  It only affects insects, and it is extremely safe.  We have never seen a side effect to it.  Ever.

Comfortis is another oral tablet that kills fleas only, but this one lasts for thirty days.  It needs to be given with a full meal.  It is highly effective at keeping your dog or cat free of adult fleas.  But, why use Comfortis in dogs when Trifexis is just a dollar or two more and provides so much more protection?

We do not recommend topical products that you dump on your pet in most cases. They are huge sellers, because people like something they can dump on and then forget, but they are far from ideal, and they are simply not effective for the long term. Because we realize how bombarded you are by advertising for dump-on products, we do review them below. 

Think about it from another perspective as well...  Would you dump pesticides on your child!?!?!?  All other products available for flea control are pesticides that you would never even consider giving to your children, and they were all originally developed as bug control sprays for the garden!  All can have very serious side effects in some animals.  

Tick Problems

If you have tick problems, which Dr. Leavens' pets do, then you may need to use a Preventic collar for dogs in addition to Sentinel/Program/Trifexis. The Preventic collars:

• Provide safe and effective control of ticks
• Prevent new ticks from attaching and feeding within 48 hours after application, which prevents spread of Lyme's Disease
• Provide over 97% effectiveness against ticks for up to three months*
• Kill and detach ticks
• Are water resistant
• Are for use on dogs only
• Fit dogs of almost any size
• Are safe when used as directed

We learned about Preventic collars from our hunting dog clients, who use them extensively because they work so well.  REMEMBER that NOTHING is 100% against ticks.  Ticks as a species are extremely tough and it is almost impossible to safely eliminate all ticks. 

There is another tick collar coming out very soon that is supposed to work for six months, and that will be a very exciting development.

If you have tick problems with your cats, control options are somewhat limited, and you have the choices of either Top Spot or Revolution, neither of which is very effective. You should also note that most healthy cats do not have tick problems (because they eat the ticks that get on them) and if your cat does have problems with ticks, we recommend a veterinary examination be done and soon!

Best Adulticide Options

Other than Trifexis/Comfortis and Capstar, we do not recommend adulticide products.  We feel there is no longer a valid need to dump insecticides on your best friends.

In cases where we feel like the pet's owner is not likely to be reliable with giving the monthly pill, Advantage is a product that rapidly kills most fleas before they bite the dog or cat.  It can also be very helpful to dogs and cats with flea allergies since it kills the fleas so fast. 

While we do sell other flea and tick products, like Frontline Top Spot and Advantix, we only do it because demand is high due to advertising and we can make a little extra money by selling them.  If you ask us, we will no longer recommend them. 

Also, these products do not take care of any other parasites. You must still provide heartworm p rotection and more intensive deworming than when using Sentinel or Trifexis.

Side Effects: We have seen a few adverse non-life threatening reactions to Advantage and none to Capstar. K9 Advantix, on the other hand, does have some side effects in a significant number of dogs (NEVER use it in cats, where it can be fatal!). Side effects have included itching at the site of application (sometimes severely, sometimes just an annoyance for a few days), shaking, hyperactivity, vomiting, and depression. If any of these reactions are pronounced or severe, do not use this product again on that pet. 

While these other products make some great claims on their labels, time and our extensive experience has shown us that the claims are false.  Frontline Plus does not effectively control flea reproduction (it does NOT work as birth control like Sentinel does), and mosquitoes still bite dogs on Advantix.  By the way, it does not matter if a mosquito bites your dog.  The only significant disease passed by mosquitoes in the USA are heartworms, and your dog must still be on heartworm prevention when on Advantix because they can still be bitten by mosquitoes.  Advantix is NOT a heartworm preventive. 

The new drip on the pet insecticide from Bayer, Advantage Multi, is fraught with serious side effects.  Like ProHeart Plus, which we never recommended, we expect it to be even worse when it is used in the broad market and we do NOT recommend the use of this product.  If it does prove safe after a few years, we may change our minds.  But we fully expect there to be major problems with this product in the long run, although the company will probably make a lot of money in the meantime.

Good Adulticide Options

Other good adulticide (flea killing) options include the product Revolution for dogs and cats, which is a drip on the back of the pet product that works well at killing fleas, but not nearly as fast as Capstar. It is not a good option for pets with flea allergies. It also kills some ticks and hook worms and round worms (it does not get the deadly whip worm in dogs), but does require supplemental deworming at a more intense rate than Sentinel.  Revolution protects against heartworms and works on many forms of mange and is also a good ear mite treatment (you do not have to put anything in the ears!).

We have recommended this drug for flea control and heartworm prevention in cats and ferrets because it does so many other things that are beneficial. In dogs, it lacks enough punch on the fleas and worms to make us entirely happy with it.

Side Effects: We have seen no side effects to date. It is a very safe drug.

Frontline Top Spot and Frontline Plus is a good old standby drug. It kills most fleas and ticks, but it kills them very slowly. If you use this drug, expect to still see live fleas and ticks on the pet routinely, but rest assured that if it is applied correctly, it will work much of the time. It will do little to help pets with flea allergies because the fleas will still bite the pet.

Frontline comes in a drip on the back pre-measured dosing and also as a spray. The spray is handy to use for reptiles as well. There is little to no cost advantage to using this product, so we rarely recommend it.

Side Effects: Very rare in our experience.

Obviously there are many choices for flea control. We encourage you to discuss your options with us if you have any questions.
 
Things That Do Not Work

Flea collars are totally useless, do not waste your money!

Drip-on and Spot On products from discount houses and feed stores are old technology products that often no longer work when used at safe doses. We see several cat fatalities and severe illness in dogs EVERY YEAR from these products.

Flea shampoos and older discount house/feed store products are very ineffective. We see several fatalities in cats and severe illness in dogs EVERY YEAR from these products.

Dips are obsolete, and we expect them to be outlawed in the next few years.

Dips are also dangerous, both to the pet and to you. They can be devastating to the environment as well.

Bombs for your house are essentially a waste of time. You can make them work, but it is such an effort if done right that no one ever does it right!

Household Sprays are not effective for flea control.

Garlic does absolutely nothing. It has been studied extensively for flea control, but it simply does not work. It can have other minor health benefits in people, however, so do not quit using it for your food!

Brewer's Yeast preparations for control of pests are useless, despite the wonderful testimonials you may see in certain venues.

Skin So Soft (the Avon Product) has been studied as a flea repellant and a mosquito repellant. It has no effect that lasts for more than 60 to 90 seconds.

Motor Oil applied to pets can lead to severe illness and death. Applying motor oil to your pets can be prosecuted as a crime in the state of Missouri, because it is cruel to do so.

And a warning:  Many parasite control products available from on line sources and big box retailers are bootlegged products and do not carry any warranty or recourse if they do not work.  Except for Bayer, no major manufacturer will sell direct to on line retailers.  At this time, we strongly recommend that you do not get your heartworm and flea prevention medication from on line sources.  Even Bayer products could very well still be bootlegged with on-line retailers, but most big box stores will be getting these through proper channels now we expect.