Dog people: Nexgard for fleas?

[Pen]

I hate using poisons on anything. But trying and trying by natural / organic methods, I am not winning the fight against fleas this year, and my dog is allergic.

 

I am considering Nexgard. I'd appreciate knowing experiences with it you may have had with it. Is there a better option for the dog, my family, the environment to consider?

[Spryte]

Do you only want flea protection? Or ticks, too?

 

The same manufacturer makes Frontline - ticks, fleas, louse, and something else. It works well.

[Pen]

Really only need to deal with fleas.

 

And because the dog swims, possibly a edible rather than topical would be better.  ???

 

 But I dunno. Maybe that just makes the dog a walking flea bomb, toxic to all he encounters... including that he likes to co-sleep with people, but I fear will have to go outside for a few days at least following his treatment, both because of the treatment, and also because I want to do lots of vacuuming and laundry  to get rid of ones indoors at that point. 

[quark]

Do you have a VCA animal hospital nearby? We have used Accugard and now Comboguard with great results. It's a chewable tablet and I think it is similar in price to Nexgard. My very highly allergic dog does well with it.

[foxbridgeacademy]

What we did was treat with a combination of Program (doesn't kill adult fleas makes eggs nonviable) then every 7 days we gave Capstar (for about 6 weeks).  We had a horrible infestation(like something out of a horror movie) due to the dozens of stray cats that roamed the neighborhood.  I had tried frontline, and several other topicals and nothing else worked. This method took care of it so well that when we moved we stopped treatment and haven't had a single flea in 3 months at the new place.

[StephanieZ]

Frontline generally sucks these days, and it's a pesticide. (EPA regulated, topical)

 

Nexgard is "the bomb" and is a medicine. (FDA regulated, internal) 

 

Dh is a vet. He carried Frontline back when it was quite effective. Now it is not terribly effective, so he dropped it a few years ago (and carries several alternative products).

 

Fipronil, the active ingredient in Frontline, is widely used agricultural (and termite) pesticide besides being in frontline, and thus, resistance has become a big problem.) Anyway, Nexgard is great for fleas and ticks. Frontline is relatively quite safe, so if it's working for your pets, you don't need to switch, but if you're looking for really good protection or what you've been using isn't working anymore, Nexgard is definitely the way to go, IMHO. It's what we use on our own pets, and we have half a dozen products at work to choose from.

 

Anyway, Nexgard has a great safety record, is well tolerated, is very effective against both fleas and ticks. I also *really* like flea/tick products that are internal instead of topical, because although I adore my pets and want them healthy/well, I *more* adore my kids and family want to prevent human exposure to the topical pesticides. Dogs live 10-15 years; people live 80-100 . . . So, the human lifetime exposure to pesticides is more of a concern to me for multiple reasons . . . Something that is safe in pets who live a decade may well be carcinogenic/etc to people who are exposed for 10x as many years . . . Plus, human health is just more important to me. 

[Callie]

Seresto flea/tick collars have worked here for two years.  They are about $60 per collar and last 8 months.  We were going to use the oral meds but were concerned about seizures being a side effect in some dogs.

[Spryte]

Frontline generally sucks these days, and it's a pesticide. (EPA regulated, topical)

 

Nexgard is "the bomb" and is a medicine. (FDA regulated, internal)

 

Dh is a vet. He carried Frontline back when it was quite effective. Now it is not terribly effective, so he dropped it a few years ago (and carries several alternative products).

 

Fipronil, the active ingredient in Frontline, is widely used agricultural (and termite) pesticide besides being in frontline, and thus, resistance has become a big problem.) Anyway, Nexgard is great for fleas and ticks. Frontline is relatively quite safe, so if it's working for your pets, you don't need to switch, but if you're looking for really good protection or what you've been using isn't working anymore, Nexgard is definitely the way to go, IMHO. It's what we use on our own pets, and we have half a dozen products at work to choose from.

 

Anyway, Nexgard has a great safety record, is well tolerated, is very effective against both fleas and ticks. I also *really* like flea/tick products that are internal instead of topical, because although I adore my pets and want them healthy/well, I *more* adore my kids and family want to prevent human exposure to the topical pesticides. Dogs live 10-15 years; people live 80-100 . . . So, the human lifetime exposure to pesticides is more of a concern to me for multiple reasons . . . Something that is safe in pets who live a decade may well be carcinogenic/etc to people who are exposed for 10x as many years . . . Plus, human health is just more important to me.

Thank you! What do you use for ticks, since I think Nexguard doesn't do ticks? Or maybe it does. :) Ticks are my main concern. (I think you and I may have gone to the same HS, way back when, and I moved further out into tick territory. We fear Lyme.)

[StephanieZ]

Thank you! What do you use for ticks, since I think Nexguard doesn't do ticks? Or maybe it does. :) Ticks are my main concern. (I think you and I may have gone to the same HS, way back when, and I moved further out into tick territory. We fear Lyme.)

 

Nexgard does ticks!!! :) 

 

Oh, my, did you go to HHS? I was class of 88. My brother was class of 85. PM me if you went there. 

 

And, yes, Lyme country -- super scary. We live in WV now, with little Lyme, but NoVA is so bad, and we lived there for several years after dh got out of vet school. Super scary. 

 

There are also some collars that are good against ticks. We used to use the Preventic collars by Virbac (available OTC) before better products became available. (Frontline was never good enough against ticks for Lyme country, IMHO.) If I lived in Lyme central, I'd use Nexgard, and I'd add a Preventic collar during high tick season if the Nexgard wasn't good enough.

 

IME, when we lived in NoVA, Frontline did fine protecting the DOGS against tick bites, because it'd kill the ticks eventually, before they could bite . . . but we'd get "hitchhiker" ticks on the dogs that'd ride into the house, then crawl on me or the kids. NOT GOOD! The Preventic collars stopped that, because that pesticide is also a repellant . . . That level of pesticide exposure was worth it, to me, even with young kids, to prevent the Lyme/etc carrying ticks from getting on our humans . . . 

 

So, anyway, if you have tick problems that are too bad for Nexgard, consider adding a Preventic collar during the summer. (They're cheap and last all summer.)

[Acorn Island]

We use Nexgard, and it definitely works on ticks!  

 

Also, the Frontline was an oily mess to apply, you had to worry about it getting on furniture, kids touching the Frontline spot before it was absorbed by the dog's skin.  Nexgard is a chewable tablet - no muss no fuss.   I REALLY prefer it to Frontline, and am so happy we switched.

[Pen]

Dog was put on Nexgard. So far at least no bad reaction. But also cannot yet tell any improvement in the flea situation.

 

We did use that Program / Capstar combo one year with a different dog, some time back. It worked really really well for the fleas. But I also was concerned that the dog's health might have suffered long term.

 

Now that the dog has had his Nexgard, I guess next step is a lot of laundry, vacuuming to lower the eggs and flea population in the house, and probably diatomaceous earth outside. Other ideas?

[Pawz4me]

Dog was put on Nexgard. So far at least no bad reaction. But also cannot yet tell any improvement in the flea situation.

 

We did use that Program / Capstar combo one year with a different dog, some time back. It worked really really well for the fleas. But I also was concerned that the dog's health might have suffered long term.

 

Now that the dog has had his Nexgard, I guess next step is a lot of laundry, vacuuming to lower the eggs and flea population in the house, and probably diatomaceous earth outside. Other ideas?

 

With topicals it's usually the second (or later) application that triggers a reaction. Or so says my vet. She says it's just like most things and the body has to have some exposure before it decides to react. So I'm always particularly alert the second (and even third and fourth) time I apply or give something. We've had to go to Comfortis because our dog had a bad reaction to a topical (on the second application). The vet advised that Comfortis was probably the least likely to cause a reaction and if it did it would probably just be throwing it up. Unlike the horrible neurological reaction he had to K9 Advantix. Unfortunately, Comfortis only works for fleas.

[poppy]

We use Nexgaurd monthly plus a Seresto collar in the summer.  One repels, the other kills those that do hang on.

I like to be fairly natural. I use combos of vinegar, water and baking soda for most home cleaning.  But lyme is wretched and I'll go pretty far to avoid it.

Edited June 8, 2016 by poppy