# Fleas immune to Frontline??



## Catdancer (Apr 11, 2012)

I have 6 cats and 1 dog. I get the big 4.0 ml dose of Frontline and divide it between all of them. 

For the last 2 months I CANNOT get rid of the fleas on Dexter. I've used Capstar twice and that helps as it kills what's on him, then I follow up with the Frontline and a couple of days later he's itching like crazy. His belly is white, so I can SEE the fleas...they are laughing and mocking me. My kitties are all mostly dark colored, so actually seeing fleas on them is harder, but I see "flea dirt" or flea poop. And this is AFTER applying Frontline. This last time I applied it between the shoulder blade AND at the tail root, both ends so to speak, and the fleas are STILL THERE. I'm going nuts. They seem to be gravitating AWAY from where I applied the Frontline. For example, the one that I saw on Dex last night was on the end of his paw at his toes, as far away from the Frontline as possible, yet alive and itching him. 

The worst thing is that when I was at the vet last, I spent $140 on enough Frontline to last us a year, and I've got 10 doses left. And it's worthless.

Suggestions? Advice? HALP!!!!!!


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## sassafras (Jun 22, 2010)

First, I'd double and triple check that you are splitting the doses correctly. 

Having said that, in some areas of the country, fleas do seem to be building a resistance to Frontline. The company does have a guarantee, but unfortunately you've probably voided it by splitting up doses the way you are (you have to use it as directed for the guarantee to apply IIRC). Surely your vet should allow you to return the unopened doses, though?


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## 3doglady (Jul 31, 2011)

Fleas are bad in some areas this year, and have been in several others over the past few years. My exterminator said his business increased for home flea treatment this year. Frontline doesn't kill on contact. It takes 24-48 hours to kill the fleas. You can re-apply 2-3 weeks if you have an infestation though. I used 2 boxes of Capstar over a period of 3 weeks for my 2 dogs, in addition to Frontline/Advantix and repeated treatments to the house. 

Each flea can lay hundreds of eggs and only a small percent make contact with your pets. To get rid of them completely, you need to apply an IRG product to your home, furniture, carpets, baseboards, under furniture, outside, etc. (it stops the reproductive cycle). Flea eggs drop and blow all over the house, so it's important to declutter and treat every nook and cranny. Then wash all bedding, towels, curtains, 1-2 times a week. Once they hit the larvae stage, the cocoon is impermeable, so additional home treatments are needed once the larvae emerge. It's a long process and takes several weeks/months to eradicate them. I have been spraying my yard as well and spreading borax to help dehydrate any missed with the spraying.


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## wishiwas (Mar 3, 2008)

Half the dogs that come into the grooming shop I work at with fleas are on Frontline. It just doesn't seem to work well anymore. I tried it on our new dog since it was given to me for free when I adopted her, and it decreased the amount of fleas I found on her, but didn't get rid of them. If it were me, I'd try to sell the Frontline and put that money toward something new.

I know a lot of people say you need to treat the house and yard, and maybe some places you do have to? But I'm in a hot, humid area and I've never once had to do it.. Even when we had an infestation after three months of Frontline doing absolutely nothing. We put Advantage on everyone and before the day was over there were literally piles of dead fleas on the pet beds. We kept them on it for a couple of months, then were able to go back to just giving as needed without a problem.


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## juliemule (Dec 10, 2011)

Frontline failed bigtime this year here in TN. So did advantage. Comfortis worked great, but don't think you can give it to cats??


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## erinmeurer (Sep 17, 2012)

Dog frontline and Cat frontline have different ingredients so I hope your not using the dog version on your cats and vise versa. What do you bath your dog in? If the shampoo has soap in it then you could be striping the frontline off of him. (make sure you use a soap free shampoo, as well as your groomer if you are using one) Merial has come out with a new frontline called Tritak (frontline top spot and advantage came out 20 years ago, advantix and frontline plus came out 15 years ago) you can try that if the frontline does not work for you. You must buy the product from a veterinary office to benefit from their guarantee. Merial's guarantee is you have to apply frontline for 3 months consecutive per pet in the house and if you still have fleas they will pay terminexx to come to your house and spray. Fleas can be very hard to get rid of, can take up to 4 months to get all the different cycles of the fleas under control. Most of our clients we have transitioned to Trifexis (spinosad (comfortis) + milbemycin oxime) with the addition of Tritek depending on the infestation. We have not had a client need to use the terminexx guarantee yet. Good luck with the fleas... they can be a pain just don't give up!!


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## sassafras (Jun 22, 2010)

erinmeurer said:


> Dog frontline and Cat frontline have different ingredients so I hope your not using the dog version on your cats and vise versa.


The ingredients are exactly the same, although the percentages are very slightly different. Not enough to make a difference safety-wise, although it's possible it could affect the efficacy. One of the reasons I'm not a fan of splitting doses, it never seems to work out right.


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## georgiapeach (Mar 17, 2012)

My vet changed to another Frontline product about 3 months ago b/c clients were complaining about Frontline Plus not working anymore. They now sell Frontline Tri-Tak.


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## sassafras (Jun 22, 2010)

It's funny, one of the huge advantages of the "newer" at the time (now not-so-new) products like Frontline and Advantage when they first came out was that their active ingredients were much safer than the traditional flea and tick products, especially for cats and you didn't have to worry about the dogs being around the cats after applying. Now all the "new" formulations have those older ingredients (pyrethrins) added to them like it's some sort of revolutionary idea. What's old is new again, I guess. 

The big problem being that with any product containing pyrethrins, you're back to much bigger safety concerns, particularly for cats, and concerns about which products are safe to use on cats vs dogs or on your dogs if you have cats.

Stupid biological arms race.


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## Catdancer (Apr 11, 2012)

Thank you all. 

My vet is the one that sold me the Frontline and gave me the info on how to divide the doses and what dose to give to my dog and cats. It was HIS idea. lol So, I follow his advice and it seems to help some, but it's just not killing all the fleas like it used to. I will say though, that the cats have zero ticks. Frontline has always been great for ticks. When I used Advantage, my kitties, who hunt in fields and forests, would come home with several ticks each. And with Frontline, they have none. But the fleas.....ugh!


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## Bethl (Apr 30, 2012)

Yep, same thing happened here. Switched over to Advantage (sp?) same issue. Went to Revolution - BINGO 

Plus we had to vacuum vacuum & vacuum some more EVERY day!!

PS: down side to Revolution - does not cover ticks (got a tick collar from vet that lasts 90 days) but it does cover heart worms - so it's all even in the end


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## go_hiking (Apr 16, 2012)

We just had this same issue with Frontline and our vet recommended we use Frontline in summer months (because it also kills ticks) and Advantage in colder months (because we wouldn't need the tick protection). This is to help the fleas not build up a resistance. We were told not to give Advantix to our dog since we have a cat. It is toxic to cats and our dog and cat like to play together.


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## misfitz (Oct 12, 2012)

The same thing happened to me last summer. I don't know if they changed the formula, or the fleas developed a resistance, but Frontline did not work at all. I had to switch to advantage. I've heard that if you rotate it helps keep the fleas from becoming resistant, but I haven't tried it. But yeah, Frontline is pretty worthless, at least on California fleas. 

Sassafras has a good point, too. I was splitting Advantage for a while but stopped because it didn't work as well.


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## hanksimon (Mar 18, 2009)

This has been the worst flea season we've had in this area of Texas in the past 10 years. I haven't had to use any flea meds before. I tried Frontline Plus and it worked mostly, for the first week or so. Then, the fleas came back, and the same for the next few months. 

I read that Frontline kills, but does NOT repel. Therefore, dogs continue to get re-infected. In addition, pyrethrins can be a contact poison, so the flea may have to get onto the dog, and maybe even bite the dog before dying. So I got Advantix II.

I don't know if it was seasonal timing or med effectiveness... but all fleas are now gone from the dog, from inside the house, and from outside. ... And the temperature was in the high 80s this past weekend.


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