flea preventitive?

[dreamparkingspace]

This may be a stupid question, but I was wondering how many of you have your dog(s) on some kind of flea/tick/parasite/whatever preventitive medication? I ask because even though my dogs are up to date on all of their shots including bordatella and take heartguard chewies april-december, I have never put them on any type of flea preventitive medication. And recently a friend asked me which flea preventitive my dogs are on and I just said, "Umm, none" because my vet has never mentioned them needing to be on any, and I've even taken Tatum in there when I thought she had fleas once and it just turned out to be itchy skin and nothing was ever mentioned about being on a flea preventitive. Should my pooches be taking some sort of flea/tick preventitive??

[Catlady711]

I'll tell you the same thing I tell our clients.

If you're not traveling to a place that's noted for fleas/ticks, and you're not currently or in the recent past had any problems with fleas/ticks on any of your pets, then no you do not 'need' to be on preventatives.

If any one of your pets has fleas/ticks, or you've had problems with fleas/ticks in the recent past (1-3 years), or are traveling to a place noted for having them (forrests, beaches, etc), then yes you probably should be on preventatives.

Hope that answeres your question.

I have 7 cats myself but every summer I put them on flea preventative (Revolution) because I do take them outside for walks, and a few of them travel with me to a place that has woods and is noted for fleas/ticks.

[chocolatepuppy]

My dogs use flea meds for 1/2 the year May-Oct. We do have fleas here. If your dogs never have fleas, I wouldn't use anything.

[lute]

My dogs only get flea/tick prevention when I see fleas or ticks. I don't normally have a real bad problem with them. I don't use Frontline Plus anymore. I hear fleas are becoming immune to it. I don't doubt it either as it wasn't working real well last summer.