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My mom doesn't see the need to treat her dog for fleas (with a product like Advantage or Frontline) because "I never see fleas on him."
Shouldn't he be treated for fleas b/c even minimal contact with the pests can cause an allergic reaction in dogs? Her Shih Tzu scratches himself A LOT so I'm trying to help her cover all her bases. I realize it could be food allergy too but I want to rule out flea problems at the same time.
My mom doesn't see the need to treat her dog for fleas (with a product like Advantage or Frontline) because "I never see fleas on him."
Shouldn't he be treated for fleas b/c even minimal contact with the pests can cause an allergic reaction in dogs? Her Shih Tzu scratches himself A LOT so I'm trying to help her cover all her bases. I realize it could be food allergy too but I want to rule out flea problems at the same time.
Thanks.
Talk to her vet, the vet should be able to tell you if the dog has flee's and what course you need to take. I use Revolution with my dog's and it covers all the bases. Flee's,Ticks,Heart worm and something else. There are a lot of good things out there, he could have a allergy but needs to be seen as it could be the start of a bigger problem. I had to put a dog down because he developed a fungus problem in his foot pads and after months of trying everything it got to the point where the dog's quality of life was not there anymore and he was in pain.
I agree with your mom. I don't medicate myself or my pets for conditions we don't have or have a risk of having. The flea medications are poison and that is why they kill fleas. I would look at diet. Dogs can also be allergic to the grass in the yard as is ours. I have a dog that gets flea bite dermatitis and had a cat that also got it. They will be more than itchy and will leave big open patches where they chew like they are being eaten alive. Also, dogs can be bathed to often resulting in dry skin. So many possibilities to look at.
I agreed with your mom until one of our former dogs got sick from ingesting flea eggs, got bites all over him and then brought them into the house. Since so many meds treat both fleas AND ticks -- we use them, but only in spring into fall.
I'm with you Tina. Here in the South we have fleas and ticks year round and just to test for heartworms before they can take the rx, it costs $50 and that doesn't even include seeing the vet. So I keep them on heartguard year round but only spring thru fall for fleas and ticks. UNLESS I see the critters on them and then I start treating again. We also have 2 indoor only cats and I cannot take a chance the cats get fleas either. I try to be skimpy with all chemicals but I think in the long run, prevention is better than treatment.
I'm with you Tina. Here in the South we have fleas and ticks year round and just to test for heartworms before they can take the rx, it costs $50 and that doesn't even include seeing the vet. So I keep them on heartguard year round but only spring thru fall for fleas and ticks. UNLESS I see the critters on them and then I start treating again. We also have 2 indoor only cats and I cannot take a chance the cats get fleas either. I try to be skimpy with all chemicals but I think in the long run, prevention is better than treatment.
Seriously! It costs $50 just to walk in the door at our vet's office. Prevention is critical to our checkbook!
I have not used flea chemicals for 15 years and have zero flea issues. Even if I did, I would simply give the dog a bath and remove them rather than spread toxic neurotoxin pesticides all over my dog and have get transferred all over me each time I touch my dog.
It is easy enough to prevent an infestation by simply observing your dog, and giving it a good natural flea bath if you see a flea. By the time a dog becomes infested...the owner has already been ignoring the issue and not paying attention to what is going on with their dog for quite some time. A dog will not become bitten up and infested overnight.
Pet owners and vets who sell flea chemicals would disagree with me, but I can tell you that many fleas are now becoming resistant to flea drops. I have had a lot of k9 clients coming in infested with fleas after owners have applied Frontline every 2 weeks. I have also observed the fact that those who use flea chemicals religiously have the worst flea issues. I have clients who have a professional company bomb their yard and home 2x each year, and they have created such resistant fleas on their property, that they still come in with fleas. I firmly believe that my complete lack of fleas, while owning 5 dogs, is entirely due to NOT using flea chemicals. I have also seen waaaaay to many dogs get ill, vomit, drool, and almost die after applications of flea chemicals. Not my dogs, no way.
When I lived in Colorado, fleas were so rarely an issue that I rarely treated for them; only if I saw evidence. Which was something like three times in 17 years. Here in Michigan it's a bit more of a problem and while I don't automatically get the stuff from the vet just because, at the very least my Rottweiler gets it since he is very allergic to flea bites. I'd rather be pre-emptive than have him develop giant sores and bald spots and be very uncomfortable.
I'm definitely a minimalist with meds and vaccines and so on but since I've had three dogs with flea allergies in my life, and heartworms are common here and IMO an unacceptable risk when HeartGard is pretty darn safe, I pick my battles. They get Heartgard May through December, and nowadays they all get flea spot treatment from the vet (no charge except for the med) because I have one dog who is allergic, and another who is a therapy dog and goes to schools and hospitals and so on (obviously I cannot bring a dog who is hopping with fleas!) Plus a dog who is going insane with itching from fleas is not a happy dog. I've had swimmers itch a couple of times and it was so miserable that if a flamethrower or cancer-causing chemicals were the only solution to stop the horrible itching, I really wouldn't have cared.
Even so I skip months or go 5-6 weeks, depending on what I see. Fleas absolutely become resistant to the chemicals and I hate over-medicating. So it's situational and requires a cost-benefit analysis approach. IMO.
By the way my primary vet is of the "if fleas are an issue, let's treat it but if they are not, then hold off" philosophy. Not EVERY vet is a money-hungry, meds-pushing business person.
When I lived in Colorado, fleas were so rarely an issue that I rarely treated for them; only if I saw evidence. Which was something like three times in 17 years. Here in Michigan it's a bit more of a problem and while I don't automatically get the stuff from the vet just because, at the very least my Rottweiler gets it since he is very allergic to flea bites. I'd rather be pre-emptive than have him develop giant sores and bald spots and be very uncomfortable.
I'm definitely a minimalist with meds and vaccines and so on but since I've had three dogs with flea allergies in my life, and heartworms are common here and IMO an unacceptable risk when HeartGard is pretty darn safe, I pick my battles. They get Heartgard May through December, and nowadays they all get flea spot treatment from the vet (no charge except for the med) because I have one dog who is allergic, and another who is a therapy dog and goes to schools and hospitals and so on (obviously I cannot bring a dog who is hopping with fleas!) Plus a dog who is going insane with itching from fleas is not a happy dog. I've had swimmers itch a couple of times and it was so miserable that if a flamethrower or cancer-causing chemicals were the only solution to stop the horrible itching, I really wouldn't have cared.
Even so I skip months or go 5-6 weeks, depending on what I see. Fleas absolutely become resistant to the chemicals and I hate over-medicating. So it's situational and requires a cost-benefit analysis approach. IMO.
By the way my primary vet is of the "if fleas are an issue, let's treat it but if they are not, then hold off" philosophy. Not EVERY vet is a money-hungry, meds-pushing business person.
When I was living in Jersey, I think Revolution was a good thing for most dogs - took care of everything. There you are at risk of ticks, fleas, heartworm and mange pretty much year-round.
I'm in Colorado now, and my old guys got nothing until we moved to an area with a nearby lake. Now they're on heartworm May-October. I will probably treat my year-old Catahoula for ticks though once we start hiking in the mountains.
But fleas? Meh. Unless it's part of the treatment package alongside whatever I'm really worried about, I'm not going to think about it unless my dogs/cats actually turn up with them.
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