# Safety of Flea Treatments?



## Paula_in_Oregon (Feb 13, 2010)

How safe are topical flea treatments like Revolution, Advantage, Frontline, etc.? Just generally speaking.


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## Graco22 (Jul 16, 2007)

They are supposed to be safe. I know many, many people that use them religiously year round, with no known effects..yet anyway. Could be 30 years before we learn its actually not as great as we think? I personally, don't use it on my dogs as a preventative. If I see a flea, I pick it off..if I see alot, then I will use it once and get the issue under control, and that is very rare, maybe once in the last 5 years. I just don't understand how something put on the skin, then absorbed into the body, that is potent enough to kill fleas for 30 DAYS, cannot have an ill effect on a pet over time?


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## FilleBelle (Aug 1, 2007)

I suspect dogs don't live long enough for us to see too many adverse effects. I mean, if a person put this poison on them for their whole lives (70+ years), it might be a problem, but I'm guessing a dog's lifetime (10+ yeras) isn't long enough to accurately guage results.

I do know that many of the spot-on treatments are losing their efficiency. We've bred Frontline resistant fleas!


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## lauren17 (Apr 14, 2009)

FilleBelle said:


> I do know that many of the spot-on treatments are losing their efficiency. We've bred Frontline resistant fleas!


We've been having problems with this. Frontline used to work great and in the last year we've been fighting off fleas on two of the dogs. Our vet changed them to Comfortis and so far no fleas in site, but I don't know what we will do now that ticks will be coming out again because Comfortis doesnt protect from ticks.

I have heard that some of the cheap brands of Flea meds you find at like Walmart and TSC (like Bio Spot) can cause serious problems like loss of hair, vomiting, seizures, and death. 

I've also heard that K9 advantix can cause neurological problems, but I don't remember where I heard this so it may not have been a reliable source.


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## Terrie (Sep 11, 2009)

Lexi has had one dose of k9 advantix. Where I live the, you practically breathe fleas/ticks so I don't have much of a choice unless I keep Lexi indoors ALL the time.

So far she has no side effects. I bought a 4-dose package and will use for the upcoming summer months, during the fall/winter we see less bugs so I probably won't be using a preventative.


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## LazyGRanch713 (Jul 22, 2009)

lauren17 said:


> We've been having problems with this. Frontline used to work great and in the last year we've been fighting off fleas on two of the dogs. Our vet changed them to Comfortis and so far no fleas in site, but I don't know what we will do now that ticks will be coming out again because Comfortis doesnt protect from ticks.
> 
> I have heard that some of the cheap brands of Flea meds you find at like Walmart and TSC (like Bio Spot) can cause serious problems like loss of hair, vomiting, seizures, and death.
> 
> I've also heard that K9 advantix can cause neurological problems, but I don't remember where I heard this so it may not have been a reliable source.


Same here. We used to use frontline on EVERYONE. For the past few years it's been dumping money down the drain. I put frontline on everyone and everyone is crawling within 2-3 days. 
I've been using DE and just recently ordered Bug Off Garlic from Springtime, Inc. I've been feeding BOG for about a week and a half. It's not flea season quite yet here, but it will be beginning shortly. www.springtimeinc.com. I will try and let everyone know what I see; the papillons (Dude in particular) is a flea magnet. I could put him in a field with 100 dogs and one flea, and I can almost guarantee he would pick the flea up  (He's also allergic to flea bites). 
I decided to try advantage (not advantix) a month or two ago because Tag was itching, and I suspected a flea. I put that stuff on him and he acted WEIRD. He was at agility, and wouldn't run the course, wouldn't do his jumps or his beloved A-frame, and was spitting out food. I can't believe something that can make a happy dog who loves food, people, and agility turn into a shut down pile of jello is as "safe" as the manufacturers make it out to be, but that's JMO.


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## HyperFerret (Feb 7, 2009)

lauren17 said:


> I have heard that some of the cheap brands of Flea meds you find at like Walmart and TSC (like Bio Spot) can cause serious problems like loss of hair, vomiting, seizures, and death.
> 
> I've also heard that K9 advantix can cause neurological problems, but I don't remember where I heard this so it may not have been a reliable source.


Way back when, I used to use the stuff from Walmart. None of the products worked, not even a bit. One of the products made Moomoo SICK. After that I completely stopped using any of those. 

I hope you're not right about K9 Advantix! Gulp, that's what I use. However, I've used K9 Advantix on my dogs for years and they all seem to be fine. Dutchess made it to 14 years old till she got liver cancer. I normally don't use preventive during winter months. If the flea/tick population starts to spike then I'll apply a dose for a month or two but normally I'll wait for spring. But fleas and ticks are BAD here, especially the ticks. So I gotta do something and K9 Advantix has worked so far.

I'm sure it also depends on the individual dog. How their system reacts to one product may differ to another dog.


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## lauren17 (Apr 14, 2009)

HyperFerret said:


> Way back when, I used to use the stuff from Walmart. None of the products worked, not even a bit. One of the products made Moomoo SICK. After that I completely stopped using any of those.
> 
> I hope you're not right about K9 Advantix! Gulp, that's what I use. However, I've used K9 Advantix on my dogs for years and they all seem to be fine. Dutchess made it to 14 years old till she got liver cancer. I normally don't use preventive during winter months. If the flea/tick population starts to spike then I'll apply a dose for a month or two but normally I'll wait for spring. But fleas and ticks are BAD here, especially the ticks. So I gotta do something and K9 Advantix has worked so far.
> 
> I'm sure it also depends on the individual dog. How their system reacts to one product may differ to another dog.


Yeah my dad tried to go cheap once and picked up something from Walmart for the cats. One of the cats lost her fur where it was one her  We never used it again and shortly after there was something on the news about certain brands causing problems.The only one I remember them mentioning for sure was Biospot though.

I may be wrong about k9 advantix, I can't remember where I heard that. It could've been some random person just told me that lol. 

I don't know what to use for this summer. We have really bad ticks here so I've got to find something that protects for them too. The fleas are the biggest issue though for us. Boomer is allergic to them. preston gets them the easiest and Duke never has had them and he's the one that spends the most time outside and has gone without meds a few times.


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## amdeblaey (Jun 27, 2009)

Topical hasn't been working for my dogs either-I've been using Comfortis for awhile now and it's been good so far.


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## losinsusan (Nov 20, 2009)

I have only used K9 Advantix. I do know that if you search for Hartzkills.org you will find horror stories of illness and death of cats and dogs from the cheap brands. I know that if I apply the Advantix without gloves on, it will start to destroy my acrylic nails! And it removes the polish on contact. How can I put that crap on my dog? But we are in the woods hiking everyday and I have no choice. I only use it till Oct. and then stop for the winter months. Here in IL the ticks are active already in March. Given a choice I would not use anything but I feel like I am forced too. Avoid Hartz products including flea shampoo.


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## Deron_dog (Feb 21, 2009)

I've been using Vectra, and no issues on my end. It worked quick and easy


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