Fleas

[Freedom]

I use Frontline Plus and have been very happy with it. I also give my dogs a 1/4 teaspoon of minced garlic daily.

The Frontline Plus is a topical treatment, it comes in a small tube. You open the tube and put the liquid on the dog's skin. Part the hair on the back up near the base of the neck and apply it that. Up there, the dog can't reach and lick it. You do NOT want them to ingest it!

Frontline Plus, and other flea treatments, kill adult fleas when they bite the dog. Some treatments, and Frontline Plus is one of them, also interrupts the larvae cycle to help stop them developing.

So I use the garlic, as the dog secretes this through the skin and it acts as a repellant.

You can buy Frontline Plus at your vet, or in many pet stores. I buy it on line as it is cheaper, even with the shipping. (I have 4 dogs and now 5 with the foster pup here).

You apply this once per month.

There are some oral flea treatments (pills) but those are relatively new on the market and I don't know much good about them, lol.

There are also flea collars, I did not have good luck with those.

Whatever you do, please do NOT buy Hartz flea products, they use a pesticide which almost half of dos have a bed reaction to. A vet visit becomes critical and many dogs die from using that brand.

You will also need to use a heart worm medicine! There are 2 primary ones: Interceptor, which I use, and Heartgard. This you must get from the vet as it is a prescription medicine. There are a few online pet pharmacies which carry it, but you still need to get the prescription from your vet. These are a pill form, and you give it once per month.

I like Interceptor as it also controls hook worm, tape worm, and . . . a 3rd one, so no need to deworm in addition. Those are intestinal tract worms. The heartworm is transferred to the dog by a mosquito bite, and the worm develops in the heart.

[Freedom]

Here is a chart on the various flea products:
http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body...omparison.html

You will want one which includes a flea sterilizing ingredient (Table 1).

A similar chart, easier to read, not as many issues addressed:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?aid=281

[Freedom]

Comparison chart for heartworm products:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?aid=281

Hope this helps!

Ask questions i you have any.

[MonicanHonda]

Here is what I use (taking a more natural approach because I've heard of lots of reactions to the applicator medicines... and have heard that in certain places the fleas are actually becoming immune to certain applications):

-A nice spray down of Cedarcide before going to where I KNOW there will be fleas. This stuff is killer. It is a cedar oil that suffocates the fleas (or other bugs for that matter... good to have around in case there is a spider LoL)
-Neem oil mix (you can use straight neem oil, lemon, and water and mix that) to spray over her to make her smell good/add a little preventative.
-I used to use Bug Off Garlic (I would recommend the pills) but I had the powder and it just smelled too bad after awhile. Lol So the pills smell less.

And the most important, I think, is a good diet. Delta has never had a drop of flea preventative except for what is above and she's never had a flea.

There are a few different applications such as Revolution (which includes a heartworm preventative), Advantage, Advantix, Frontline, Frontline Plus

Buffalo, I believe, has bad deer ticks which carry lyme disease... but I don't know about fleas. I would research lyme disease and look at pictures of a typical 'bullseye' that appears where they were bit by a deer tick with lyme disease.