Fleas! (Houston, Austin: apartment, house, school)

[Megan1967]

Do you treat indoor cats with Frontline in Austin? I've heard the fleas are wicked in warner climates. I know you can carry them in yourself if they jump on you while you are outside.

What about heartworm medication? I only treat the dog where I live now. We have tons of mosquitoes here, but I've heard it is worst down there and theoretically a mosquito *could* fly in the house, bite your cat. I get them in the house here sometimes so I guess I could be living on borrowed time even now, but somehow it seems more like a doggie problem.

Thanks much for humoring my constant pet questions. Consider them the equivalent of school and playgroup questions from the parents of human kids.

[achtungpv]

I use Advantage flea med on my dog maybe every 3 or 4 months. It's suppose to be used monthly but I always forget. She has free range of a very large yard that and (knock on wood) has never had a single flea in her 6 years.

[twange]

We use frontline for both the dog and cat. They both caught a few critters when we moved here in September, but we haven't seen any since. I give the dog one of those chew-able Heartguard thingys every month as well. She thinks it's a treat and just devours it immediately.

[love roses]

We give our dog Heartgaurd, and our neighbor and another friend use Sentinel. We didn't pick Sentinal because we were a little worried about long term effects, but they all work. Yes, especially in the summer fleas get really bad. Our dog gets them often.

[twange]

Originally Posted by love roses

We give our dog Heartgaurd, and our neighbor and another friend use Sentinel. We didn't pick Sentinal because we were a little worried about long term effects, but they all work. Yes, especially in the summer fleas get really bad. Our dog gets them often.

If I remember correctly, you have a Border Collie who's outside a lot(can't imagine one of those guys being very happy cooped up all day)? I'm guessing that's why she/he gets fleas more often. What do you use for fleas? And does it work? We have a beagle/border collie mix who goes hiking a lot. The frontline seemed to work ok last year, but we got to Austin late in the summer and so we haven't had a whole "season" to make a good determination on which is best. But she definitely had them within a week of moving here. Back in Ohio, it was rare to ever see one on her.

[jread]

Austin does not have as many bugs as you think. It's not like the humid, Gulf Coast here, but more rocky and not a lot of standing water. We have two cats and two dogs, and none of them have had a single flea the entire time we've lived here. Also, I've seen like 5 mosquitoes in the entire 8-years I've lived here. They were these tiny, sickly things and nothing like the pterodactyl mosquitoes you see around Houston.

[love roses]

Yep, we do And he's busy right now running from window to window chasing cars and people because it's too wet and cold outside right now My husband puts frontline on him and it works alright for a few weeks. You just have to be diligent about it. Before we were married, he owned a Chow and said he used some sort of mineral? based product. I think he said he sprinkled it around his apartment or something (I could be totally off as to where he spread it) or on the dog and he said it got rid of fleas everywhere and it was non toxic and worked better than any other things he'd found.

[b. frank]

Originally Posted by jread

Austin does not have as many bugs as you think. It's not like the humid, Gulf Coast here, but more rocky and not a lot of standing water. We have two cats and two dogs, and none of them have had a single flea the entire time we've lived here. Also, I've seen like 5 mosquitoes in the entire 8-years I've lived here. They were these tiny, sickly things and nothing like the pterodactyl mosquitoes you see around Houston.

Compared to Colorado (where I moved from) Austin has a LOT of bugs.
My experience has been different from jread's - I've only been here about 3 years and I've seen many mosquitos. During the wet summer of '07 I couldn't even stand being outside during dusk. The previous years there were hardly any, though.
On the other hand, my dogs (and indoor cat) have never had fleas. They all get Frontline heartworm meds (I think - it's the kind that you drop on their skin) and that controls fleas too I think.

[ITChick]

Megan, what about using Advantix? It takes care of Fleas, Ticks and Mosquitos. My dog hated it the first time I used it on him, but after that, he's been fine with it. I think it's only $5.00 more per package cost than Frontline.

[faithr]

We are moving to Austin from DC where we use Frontline monthly on our two dogs due to the tick population and the rampant Lyme disease in our area. I have to say that I personally hate using pesticides on my animals and that is exactly what Frontline, Advantage and the rest are. The active ingredient in Frontline is fipronil which is supposed to be safer than what is used in Advantage, if you believe some of the researchers. Since I lost both of my previous dogs to lymphoma (which has been proven to increase with exposure to lawn pesticides) I am much more reluctant to use anything that i would not use on myself on my animals.
I think there are more natural remedies for fleas that I will pursue in Austin should fleas prove to be a problem. I have heard that ticks are not the issue they are in this region (Northeast and Mid-atlantic). If anyone has been successful with other natural remedies, please post. Thanks!