Which tick prevention product do you like for your pets?

[my2boysteacher]

Our cats and dog (and kids) are starting to bring ticks in. We have always used Frontline or the like, but they haven't been that effective in the past two years. I am wondering about the effectiveness of a natural spray? Any thoughts?

[Unicorn.]

Frontline has never worked on my pets, but the Advantage does! Revolution was another one that didn't work. I sometimes wonder if it's because the majority of my neighbors used frontline, and the little pests built up an immunity to it, and that's why advantage works so well for us. I am thinking of trying the vinegar rinse the next time puppy gets a bath....can't hurt, right?

[AngieW in Texas]

Frontline worked well here, but my vet stopped stocking it because it was found to be ineffective in my region. Now they offer Revolution and Trifexis.

 

Revolution didn't work for us, but Trifexis seems to be working so far.

[vettechmomof2]

Trifexis does nothing to control ticks or stop ticks in any way. http://www.trifexis.com/default.aspx It is a monthly heartworm, fleas and intestinal parasite control only. Something else must be used for tick control when using Trifexis.

[kewb]

I mix fresh garlic into my dogs food. It seems to be working.

[Pawz4me]

Frontline Plus has worked very well for my pets for many, many years. If it stops working then I'll switch to something else. But as long as it works I'm sticking with it.

 

As far as natural stuff -- All I can tell you is that I'm plenty old enough to remember the time before the "spot on" flea/tick treatments were available. And I tried all the natural stuff that was rumored to work back then. And none of them worked at all.

 

Garlic shouldn't be fed to dogs or cats. It can cause Heinz body/hemolytic anemia.

[ktgrok]

Preventic Collar. Only for dogs, not cats, and prescription. Awesome. They don't kill fleas, just ticks. Use in conjunction with Frontline or Advantage Multi.

[ktgrok]

I mix fresh garlic into my dogs food. It seems to be working.

 

 

Garlic can be toxic to dogs over time. Also, they have done studies, it doesn't repel anything.

[TracyP]

Get a couple chickens :D Completely natural and you get eggs to boot.

[Melissa in Australia]

frontline. We have parasitic ticks that kill dogs in our area and on our property, so frontline is essential.

[Kyr]

Interested too. HARTZ almost killed my cats so I am leery of using chem stuff on them again.

[StephanieZ]

For dogs, Preventic Collar (over the counter -- ticks only) along with Trifexis (for fleas, intestinal parasites, and heartworms).

 

For cats, either Advantage Multi or Revolution. Neither is awesome for ticks, but they do well enough for most cats and are better than most options and also handle the other dangerous parasites.. Cats are great groomers, so ticks are generally not as problematic for them as they are for dogs.

 

However, I'd ask YOUR vet, as every region varies with what preventives are most effective. Your experience with the declining effectiveness of Frontline is not rare, FWIW.

[Pawz4me]

Interested too. HARTZ almost killed my cats so I am leery of using chem stuff on them again.

 

Hartz has a very, very long record of serious problems. It's a brand you don't want to use for anything. Nothing. To tell you how long they've had problems, when I got my first dog as a teenager (and that was 34 years ago), my vet advised me to use nothing made by Hartz or Sergeants. Not even shampoo. They had terrible safety issues that long ago, and it seems that nothing has improved in all those years.

 

One reason I'll stick with Frontline for as long as it works is because it has a good long safety record. That doesn't mean that some individual pets won't react to it. But on the whole it's got a very good safety record.

 

I'm also never quick to jump on the latest and greatest, preferring to wait and see how things go once a product is widely used. I'm also hesitant to use combo products that treat fleas, ticks and heartworms. I'd rather use separate products and give them a week or two apart.

[ktgrok]

Interested too. HARTZ almost killed my cats so I am leery of using chem stuff on them again.

 

 

That stuff should never have been on the market. Highly toxic to cats, and if you lowered the dose of that chemical to the point the cats were safe it did nothing for fleas. awful stuff.

 

Frontline really is safe for cats, as is advantage.

[mrs.m]

Another Frontline user! My kitty hates it though. But we never have a flea or tick problem unless I forget to put it on her.

[oceanseve]

Frontline stopped being effective on my pets a few years ago and we had a HUGE flea outbreak that year. I tried all the natural remedies and sprays. Leaving out soap pans and bathing the dogs in dawn worked okay, but eventually we went ahead and removed all the children's things from the house and sprayed with real stuff. It was just that bad.

 

That is when I discovered Sentry. It works incredibly well, a lot cheaper than frontline. I've been flopping between it and another that I can't remember the name of right now because I don't have any of the packaging and I get it at a feed store an hour from me. Not going that way anytime soon so I picked up a new one called Liberty yesterday. I've never heard of, curious to see if it works as well as Sentry. I think the key is to change it up, never rely on the same thing for very long.