Safest flea and tick prevention for dogs Reddit

Hi guys -

I have a 14 week old mini schnauzer puppy. I'll start off by saying that I love him with every morsel of my being (it's honestly probably unhealthy, but I'm sure most of you can relate).

I'm someone who lives pretty holistically. I eat organically, and try my best to avoid unnatural things, unless, of course, it is 100% necessary. With that said, I really wanted to go the holistic route when it comes to flea and tick control. Emphasis on the tick. This idea was pounded into me even more by my breeder, who explained how toxic that mainstream flea and tick preventatives are. However, I live in MA, where lyme disease risk is pretty high, and I just found a tick on my baby. This one was attached. I found another one the other day that luckily was not. I've been using Dr. Mercola's natural flea and tick spray for puppies. Obviously this isn't going to work.

I definitely want to go with something oral- no collars or topicals. I've done a lot of research, and I've come across Bravecto, Credelio, and Nexguard, which seem to have a lot of backing, safety wise. What do you guys think/suggest? I'm sorry if this has been a bit rambley. I just want to do the best for my little guy. Thanks in advance.

Edit: FYI I saved the tick, and will be bringing my pup and it to the vet tomorrow.

Hello,

I’ve never lived in an area where Fleas or Ticks have ever been a problem but am looking at potentially moving and realized I may need to start my dogs on a Flea & Tick Preventative. The potential side effects really worry me, if you have some time I could use all the info I could get on what you personally use for your dogs and your experience with Flea & Tick Preventatives.

Some questions I have:

1.) What brand do you use and has your dog ever reacted negatively to it?

2.) Do you prefer oral, topical, shampoo, collars or etc. and why do your prefer it over the others?

3.) Have you tried all natural preventatives, did they work as well as the chemical ones?

4.) If you have had success with natural preventatives, what did you use?

Thank you in advance.

It seems you have to experiment, and to keep checking and change when necessary.

Mine had fleas on and off over the years. I tried many things, and had to change every so often. Never fought ticks.

I hate to give the poison pills to kill the fleas, especially the long term ones. Scary stories on the interwebs. Credelio worked pretty good, but was too damn expensive.

I'm disgusted by how much of a ripoff the prices are on the flea pills. Also by how they only sell them through veterinarians.

Capstar kills fleas within a few hours, but only lasts a day. Useful for a quick fix or something like a new dog or one time exposure. It does tend to drive the dog crazy with itching for a few hours. Someone said it's something about the dying fleas making the dog itch. Seems safe to me.

There is also some Oster flea and tick shampoo that gives a quick kill for immediate relief, but doesn't last.

I had good luck with a cheap Adams flea and tick collar in the red can from Walmart. It seemed to take about a week to work, but worked for a long time.

Advantix and Frontline quit working for me, and seemed to really bother the dog anyway.

I was going to try Activyl drops. The mechanism of action of the pesticide they use seems safer to me, but the Adams collar seems to have done the trick for now.

Posted by4 years ago

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I've read that oral flea and tick treatments are the safest options available, but there isn't a lot of information that says if a certain brand is safer. All I seem to get are allegations from local news channels and unproven Snopes articles. Anything you can say would be greatly appreciated!

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level 1

"Safer" depends on your dog, their breed, medical history, etc.

It's definitely safest for my dog to take Nexguard given his history with skin issues (and so topical treatments irritate him). Dogs with a history of neurological problems might be safer on a topical med.

Most commonly prescribed/vet recommended flea and tick treatments and preventatives are safe for the vast majority of dogs.

level 1

Nexgard or bravecto are the ones that are in use now that do both flea and tick

level 1

Well, the danger from tick borne diseases is pretty significant and likely much greater than the possible side effects to most dogs from the preventives. FWIW, my vet's office has decided on NexGard as the preferred flea/tick preventive. He said that it seems to have fewer side effects (mostly benign but unpleasant, like nausea) of the other options. He didn't say the others were bad; they just felt that NexGard was a better option for most dogs.

level 2

I'll be sure to get info from my own vet, but in the meantime this is exactly the kind of information I was looking for. Thank you!

level 1

I thought that oral preventatives had more side effects, not fewer.

Either way I would highly recommend talking to your vet about this, some formulas work better in certain areas. Your vet may have an opinion about what products work with the local pests. Also depending on where you live fleas or ticks may be more or less of a concern. (Fleas are relatively unusual where I live but ticks are a daily nuisance.) Above all you want something that is going to work, or else there is no point.

level 2

Flea collars can cause chemical burns and other topical forms can release their pesticides into the house, causing neurological conditions in both humans and dogs. The NDRC and CBC's Marketplace can explain this much better than I can, though, so check them out.

level 1

My beautiful 7-year old boxer, Sophie, was euthanized yesterday after suffering from multiple, Nexgard induced, grand mal seizures. This is an oral pesticide and should be banned. The seizures started within an hour of taking the chewable dose for dogs 60 - 125 pounds. She was 60 pounds. After 16 hours she was blind, lame and barely responsive. Check out the Facebook page “Does NexGard Kill Dogs” which has over 10,000 members with stories like mine.

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