Cheap Pet Insurance

July 5th, 2010 by D. Thurmond, D.V.M.

To kills fleas, most ticks and also kill mosquitoes, K9 Advantix Blue is effective flea medicine for dogs. 90-100% of the fleas on your dog are killed within twelve hours. Advantix Blue is great unless your dog is best friends with a cat and is available without prescription.

Ingredients in K9 Advantix can be harmful to cats if the cat is one that rubs against or grooms your dog. For homes where cats and dogs reside together, pet owners should choose Advantage, Frontline Plus or Revolution dog flea medicine. Revolution for dogs is widely recommended by veterinarians and is a prescriptive flea medicine for dogs that also solves other health problems in canines. Revolution eliminates fleas while it also protects the animal from heartworm and other worm parasites. Revolution is approved by the FDA and is a systemic, broad spectrum parasiticide that has been shown to offer a high safety factor for canines. Compared to other spot on flea products for dogs, Revolution is more costly than leading brands but adds the benefit of heartworm prevention that others lack.

If you need to protect your dog from ticks as well as fleas, Frontline Plus is the choice. Ticks are a big problem in some areas of the country and this is especially true in spring and fall. Ticks are nasty blood suckers that carry diseases such as Lyme disease which can affect people and dogs.

The flea medicine for dogs listed above are topical, spot on treatments that are applied monthly. If you prefer to give an oral med for flea control, there are several choices available. Program and Sentinel are popular and available by prescription. The latest flea med is Comfortis which is a tasty wafer given to the dog monthly. The oral meds break the flea life cycle but do not work as well to protect dogs who suffer flea allergy dermatitis. That’s because adult fleas that might jump on your dog outside have to bite the animal before the medicine kills them. The saliva from that bit will trigger a reaction in a dog with flea allergy dermatitis. If your dog is infest with fleas, one dose Capstar will kill all adult fleas on the animal within hours and can be followed the next day with the first application of flea preventive.

Treating your home and yard for fleas and other insects is part of flea prevention for your dog. If your dog has fleas, your home has fleas. There is no way around that. Washing dog bedding in hot water and using flea killer sprays on furniture, carpeting and anywhere else fleas might be present will increase the ability of your flea medicine to do its job.

If you live in states where fleas are active year round and climate is not cold enough to kill off the populations in the winter, you may want to treat your entire yard for fleas. The strong sprays meant to kill lawn insects are no longer available to home owners. The poisons in the sprays were great at killing fleas but poisonous to the environment. Organic enthusiasts suggest sprinkling or spreading diatomaceous earth over your grass. This will not harm humans or pets but will kill fleas and other insects. It is definitely environmentally safe but you may need to re-spread this product every time you mow and most homeowners will not have the time or patience for this remedy.

Some professional pest control companies offer to spray your yard with chemicals such as Talstar or Demon WP which kill fleas as well as ticks, ants, roaches, spiders and other common bugs. These products contain growth regulators just as included in flea medicine for dogs and one application should last up to 3 months.

The only thing you can do if your dogs has fleas is to attack the flea on every front. Treat your home and your yard, wash petting bedding in hot water, find a reliable online source and buy the best flea medicine for dogs at com petitive prices. Flea and flea dirt do not have to be part of being a dog owner.

When fleas make a home on your dog, fight back with the best flea medicine for dogs. Buy your favorite flea prevention products direct from a veterinarian at http://www. petscriptsdirect.com .