flee/tick question

Hi everyone. Was just wondering how often we need to treat Gwen for flee and ticks? Our vet said to treat her once a month. I am just wondering if this is necessary..if she doesnt have flees is it necessary to treat her and expose her monthly to all those chemicals? Just want everyones opinions on what is best!!!

A lot, if not most, people flea their dogs only when they have fleas. I don't flea Loki, and I worm him every three months. I think it's recommended that you worm them at least every three months.

I worm Chiquito monthly at the moment because he is still little, but we will change to three months after his next tablet.

In regards to flea treatment, I use Comfortis which is a monthly treatment, but as we do not have a flea problem at our house Chiquito has only been treated with it once (I found a flea on him after we had visited with some other dogs).

I check Chiquito for ticks regularly and do an extra check if we go somewhere that I think is a higher risk for him picking one up. (The tick treatments here are all in ones that cover fleas as well but are not effective on fleas at all and I do not want to have to double dose him to cover both).

Okay so i dont need to flee her monthly then, only if she gets flees? Thats what I would rather do, i dont want to expose her to all those chemicals to treat a problem she doesnt have..but here in the US people seem to do it every month to prevent them getting flees in the first place which i guess is smart..thats why im stuck on what the better decision is.

My personal thought is that if you do not have a problem you do not need to give extra chemicals as a 'just in case'. The treatment I use (spinosad) is monthly, as I said above though, I have only used it once ... if I was finding fleas on him constantly though, I would use it monthly.

I have spoken to our vet and she supports the treat if needed technique. As I said though, we do not have a problem with fleas here so this works well for us, but it may be different for others.

Zac only ever had fleas once in his life, about a year or so before he died, so he went a good few years without ever getting fleas. It was pretty easy to get rid of them, so I've gone with only fleaing Loki if it's needed. There are some natural things that decrease the chances of them getting fleas, but you'd have to ask Ella, she knows loads about natural alternatives to treatments.

I don't flea Steff and I haven't seen a flea, yet I give a teaspoon of crushed garlic mixed with her food twice a week, fleas don't like garlic blood

Not a fleaer here either, I did when I first got her from advice here I stopped and have never needed to

Before learning from here that there's no need to use flea products monthly, I did, but darcy has never had fleas, so I don't either now since this wonderful forum advised me its not needed unless they actually have them.

This forum is wonderful! I love it! So i have never fleed Gwen..and I've decided I'm not going to unless i see a flee on her or something.

As long as you groom/check her regularly you'll see if she gets fleas & you can treat accordingly.

Obviously, if you're the type of owner (which I know you're not!) who doesn't give two hoots about their dog's health & never gets close enough to see if they have fleas, then regular defleaing is a must. But then, maybe people like that shouldn't have dogs in the first place!

I don't use conventional flea treatments anyway, i just give a crushed garlic clove everyday/other day and haven't had fleas!

So no i wouldn't flea if they didn't have fleas