Flea preventative

I was wondering what everyone uses as a preventative. I've never had an issue with fleas. I use effipro on the dogs & cats. Yesterday Crash, my only cat that goes outside, had fleas on him!! He is long haired so I brush him when he comes in. Anyway I saw the poops so got a nit comb & removed 2 fleas. I can't find any on my dogs or other 2 cats but suspect its just a matter of time. They got effipro on nearly 3 weeks ago so do I dose them all early? Or get stronghold or something else from my vet

I use seresto collars on the cats. Both are outdoor cats and one is long haired. Never had fleas on them since, though I do change them every 6 months.
As to the dog, don't know yet. Vets were talking about a combined tablet that does internal and external parasites. Have appointment Wednesday so will ask for more info

The preventative is meant to be done every 4 weeks so I was worrying about doing it a week early. But that would probably be better than them multiplying everywhere

I can't really advise Laura, Flo gets her Advocate and we've never had any problems

Maybe I need to change to a different one

I use Advocate on Katy & have never seen a flea on her

Id ask for thr best up to date flea prevention, from the vet same for the cats

Sounds like advocate is good. I'm worriedly combing everyone, still just my cat who goes outside with evidence. I will ask my vet in morning what's best

dave has advocate and stay kill for the house...when I laid new carpets and flooring...gave the floor a good spray of insecticide before hand all in the floorboards cracks..the lot then put the new stuff down..i hate flee's with a passion and have no problems using chemical warfare on them..(he writes with a sinister laugh)..see just the one flea...that's it..war !!

Another one here who has advocate. I used to give her another one but it didn't have the lung worm treatment that advocate has.

Thanks everyone. I've gone for advocate. Apparently this year is bad for flea epidemics, to do with the muggy weather. I normally brush the dogs & cats with soft brushes but while checking them discovered they love being combed. Rebel starts grooming me back, it's so cute but a bit painful lol

Best of luck Laura,I hate the little blighters but as you well know,if you have a cat that goes out of doors you will always have an ongoing battle.

Thanks Kit, I've been lucky until now. I think the effipro hasn't been strong enough this year or maybe I've just used it too long.

I'd definitely check your carpets as well, we sprayed ours the one time Gizzy got fleas and they went pretty quickly. My main reason for doing Advocate was all the other preventatives as well, we've got a lot of foxes in London so it helps against all the things they pass on too.

I gave them a good spray after a steam clean so fingers crossed all should be ok. I just hate fleas, felt so sorry for my cat that had them

They're horrible so and so's. I had to get Gizmo a cream because he got a rash from them.

Staffies have such sensitive skin.

i'm a great believer if you see one on the animal you can hedge your bets that they're in the house as well...when I spray the house I do one room at a time...sort of start at the furthest point from the door and walk backwards towards the door spraying not just the carpet but under the beds etc as that room is done close the door then on the  next until I do all the house and leave a top window open in each room ..plus I also spray the  furniture curtains dog bed etc...then take the dog out for a walk with a fresh squirt of advocate on the back of his neck...sounds excessive but I found that fleas are pesky little bleeders so I don't take the chance..... talking of which I also get a reminder from the vet via text message each month when to give the advocate.

Your right, fleas are sneaky & best to blitz the place

Mia never ever had a flea. but my friend her cats got fleas all the time and at first they were house cats then she let them outside to play they didm't seem to have fleas as much. If i ever have a pup id definitely buy the advocate as you all seem to use it and highly recommend it.

I've been using Bravecto for Dodge; he has the tablet and it gives three month's protection from fleas and four month's protection from ticks. It's the second year of using it and we've had no problems with it.

Not heard of that one, glad it gets rid of ticks. Gizmo got one tick once and I had no idea what it was, was googling skin tumours and all sorts.

where we walk up on the south downs loads of sheep..dave had a couple of ticks in the spring...I just pick them off..get the head as well...if you don't know or unsure how to do this use the appropriate stuff and tools...you need to get the whole tick including the head..other wise cause all sorts of trouble.

I've never heard of the tablet either, sounds good

We get NexGard from the vets and I just assumed getting it from the vet it would be the best to get for him, but I have just googled it and there's some worrying questions and stories about it on there He's not had any side effects but some dogs have, same with that other brand listed further up Bravecto. We have just got this months the other day I'll change to advocate for his next dose.

I think its a bit worrying using any chemicals on our animals but fleas are just horrendous

You have to weigh the risks and benefits. Where I live has a massive dog, cat and fox population, so it's deemed a fairly high risk area for infectious diseases and parasites. If you live somewhere where your dog's not going to come into contact with many others, and there are no foxes then it's probably less of a worry.

Paris1990 wrote:We get NexGard from the vets and I just assumed getting it from the vet it would be the best to get for him, but I have just googled it and there's some worrying questions and stories about it on there He's not had any side effects but some dogs have, same with that other brand listed further up Bravecto. We have just got this months the other day I'll change to advocate for his next dose.

I was going to recommend NexGard too but there are 2 versions.
Standard only for external (flea and tick) but Spectra version covers internal parasites too.

I am wary of reviews on the net because they're almost as helpful as reading the list of potential side effects on any medication to presume you will have them all.
Spot ons are potentially bad for kidneys, any chemical by definition can cause harm so it's really a question or balancing the risks.

Aaaah I didn't know there were different versions of NexGard,I'm not sure which we get, Hank has been fine apart from he had abit of a bad number 2 today and put it down to that and his worm as I do them together so might have upset his tummy, I'll maybe quiz the vet about which one we get

What I had read had a list of results from dogs and cats and what had happened to them from the treatment

I can understand how disturbing the report must have been but
I also read of bad reactions to seresto collars from seemingly loads of cats but I never had the slightest problem on my 3.