Flees...?!

[Cath]

My two have Advocate and in the summer months (March to October) they have Seresto collars. The collars work for us in France.
Before we use them Fred use to get covered with ticks. They have never had ticks in England. I have never seen flees on either of them.

 

[Anne123]

Finn is our first dog that would have flees. Never had any of our dogs flees. That’s why I was a bit overwhelmed yesterday when the vet thought he had them. I am stil very much in doubt if he has them. To me it seemed like mud, we made a long muddy walk this weekend in the woods, through bushes etc. We had to clean Finn thoroughly. On the other hand what if she was right. That’s why i treat him as if he has them. I let him sleep on a white cloth in his bed, this morning there were no pupa in his bed where I would have suspected they would. Also no pupa or black little spots on Finn either. I checked him thoroughly......Today I am off to the shop to get some chemicals to put on in our house and dog bedding, and keep checking on Finn and vacume him....

I will also talk to my OH about the Bravecto, perhaps we should have a thorough research and not only media to rely on....

 

[M.F.]

Until it happens to your dog... Snowie had two grand mal seizures within six weeks of taking Bravecto. The fact that the manufacturers did not originally state on their packaging that it can cause neurological problems and seizures, and then did so only after being made to do so by the FDA, is worrying.

I often wonder how readily people would ingest a poison to kill mosquitoes after they’ve been bitten by the mosquitoes. I’d rather use a repellent on my dog’s fur if there is a problem with fleas and ticks. Otherwise, I would rather treat the environment where he sleeps in the house, because if the fleas will bite him, they’ll bite me, too. For ticks, in our area they’re seasonal, and I pick them off Snowie when I see them.

Since stopping all tick and flea chemical preventatives three years ago, Snowie has not had any seizures. He’s been off epilepsy meds for a year and a half. It makes me wonder how many dogs are being treated for idiopathic epilepsy which is being caused by tick and flea chemical preventatives.

 

[Cath]

May be this could help you decided Anne. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[snowbunny]

I’d rather use a repellent on my dog’s fur if there is a problem with fleas and ticks.

I agree that repellants are more important for me. I do think killing the bug when it bites has benefit in terms of population control, but that repellant is for me actually more important, otherwise you still risk bringing the critters into your home - as I experienced with ticks when I did use Bravecto. Having said that, I've not found any stand-alone repellant that is really very effective against ticks - and especially against the blasted mosca negra. I'm very happy that the Advantix is by far the best solution for my dogs, and I also give all of us a spray of Dynamite when we go out in "danger" times. I'm not sure that that has any measurable effect, though.
The Tesco mosquito spray is amazing, but I wouldn't use it on the dogs.

 

[Cath]

I have never heard of Dynamite, how do you use it on your dogs @snowbunny

 

[MellowYellow]

All our dogs use Bravecto, no side effects. I wouldn't say this is controversial either. We know that the data supports a low side effect profile, however any adverse events do seem to be hyped up in the media.

As @M.F. says - until it happens to your dog. Then you suddenly start to consider that you are putting poison into your dog's system, that has directly caused seizures. Never, ever will I use Bravecto on a dog again, and I am very reluctant to use the collars either.

 

[snowbunny]

I have never heard of Dynamite, how do you use it on your dogs @snowbunny

You dilute it with water (it's massively concentrated) and then just spray it over them. I pay particular attention to tummies, as that's where the black flies attack.