Anyone use flea/tick collar ?

I've been reading lots of threads where alot of you treat for fleas curatively and not preventitively.
That's personal choice.

I live in the country so with the outdoor cats, hedgehogs and other wildlife, and long grasses - fleas and ticks can quickly be a problem for us.

The seresto collars have really been successful for the cats after we noticed resistances to monthly frontline pipettes. But I'm wondering if it's a good idea to have a collar on a dog 24/7 ?

I'm realizing that staffys have a very fine coat and sensitive skin but is it "better" to have the collar or monthly pipettes ?
We went for out first walk on bridlepaths last weekend and she came home with a tick under her tail.

I don't have experience of a collar for this sort of thing but do use a monthly dose of Advocate. Some might say that a collar on 24/7 could be a danger but I would think it unlikely. I guess it comes down to personal choice or recommendation for which I am completely useless

I use Advocate on Katy, we are also in the country & I have never found a flea or tick on her!! I don't use it monthly, more like every 3 months as the cost would get ridiculous using it monthly! I don't use it over the winter months either.

Must confess we don't know she Advocate every month cos I forget to apply it but certainly every other month (cos I get moaned at by the wife else)

Don't mess with the wife

I wouldn't use a collar of any sort 24/7. although the risk is minimal, it's still there & very real.

Ok, lots of tendancies towards x monthly pipettes. Will ask about advocate when I go to vets for wormer though does it really smell that bad ?
Gillybrent - exactly what risk are you thinking of (however minimal it might be) ?
I was concerned about cats hanging themselves, or the like, but up until now (fingers crossed), the collars have been easy to remove in case of need.

It's the hanging that collars 24/7 pose.

We use separate wormer and advocate but don't have any smell with it, though it can stain your flippin expensive leather sofa

Oh wow, if you buy an expensive leather sofa for Flo then I'm moving into your palace too !

We had an incident a year or so ago. While visiting my in laws, I left a collar on Chaos in case I needed to grab him for any reason. At some point I noticed he wasn't around so went to check. He was in the garden, with a metal plant support wedged at an angle through his collar. It was stuck tightly, a bit twisted, and had he been alone that's how it would have stayed, unless he'd started to panic. No collars get left on here.

If you need flea & tick treatment, make sure you get one that covers both, few of them do ticks. I don't bother at home as we've never had a problem and I prefer not to use chemicals when not needed. They get a zap before going to France on summer trips as the ticks there are awful.

We use advocate on misty each month. Shes never had a flea, also the vet recommended that brand as it also protects from heartworm whereas our old flea treatment didn't.

Mistys Mum wrote:We use advocate on misty each month. Shes never had a flea, also the vet recommended that brand as it also protects from heartworm whereas our old flea treatment didn't.

as far as I know heartworm isn't a problem in the UK.

I too live in the country, and have never had to use preventative flea treatments. I believe in her 13 years ive only noticed fleas once, and it was a really weird summer weather wise and everyone got them. I was a bit bold and just doused them all in stock louse powder and bathed them all in tea tree oil. I respect that you feel its a personal decision, so if you think a flea collar is the way forward then thats your choice...i just don't like them having that chemical literally around their neck 24/7 and its really unproven as they either get them or they don't and there is not much research to say that a dog with one on wont get them vs a dog without one.

Nifty staffy wrote:Ok, lots of tendancies towards x monthly pipettes. Will ask about advocate when I go to vets for wormer though does it really smell that bad ?
Gillybrent - exactly what risk are you thinking of (however minimal it might be) ?
I was concerned about cats hanging themselves, or the like, but up until now (fingers crossed), the collars have been easy to remove in case of need.

Cats' collars are generally elasticated so very little problem. Not so with dogs. I have also heard of a dog scratching & getting its paw/claw stuck in a flea collar. the result was a severely damaged hip & toes.

Thanks for all of your points of view.
I popped back to the vets to discuss and they recommended the nexgard spectra which is for internal and external parasites.
Nifty is 4 months old so 3 doses until we switch to every 3 months.

I did ask about advocate which was said to be much better than frontline but equivalent in effect to nexgard spectra.
The internet is unfortunately full of negative views on just about everything - it's easier to complain about what's not working rather than what does (reviews on internal/external antiparasites) but at least
I'm trying something.

I didn't realize that canine collars were not elasticated so thanks for the warning.
Lexii - I respect your system which sounds great, except that ticks are very numerous here and one of the cats always comes home with fleas and the such without his seresto and I don't want a flea farm here !