Dogs: best flea treatment

[pattihews]

We used to treat our dogs with the liquid stuff that you dot around their necks. Both really hated it and seemed unhappy for the next few days. Over lockdown, with our remaining dog unable to visit anyone else's house and no one visiting ours we left off the flea treatment and all was fine. Now he's picked them up from somewhere. Only a couple and very little flea dirt, so we've caught it early.

What do you use? I'd prefer something we can obtain over the counter and preferably something that the dogs don't feel has poisoned them.

Not over the counter unfortunately as it needs a prescription.

We use a monthly tablet called nexgard spectra which also kills lots of worms and ticks as well as fleas.

My dog also didn't like the spot on treatments but this tablet doesn't appear to give him any side effects.

Thank you. I guess if there's nothing suitable OTC tomorrow I'll approach the vet.

I suspect if they don't like the dot on (advocate I'm assuming?) they will hate the tablet.

I gave it to one of mine twice. Never again

It's a dot on, but we have an Itch subscription. We get monthly flea treatment and 3 monthly worming treatment through the post. My dog tolerates the flea treatment much better than she did the old one we used to buy OTC.

Mine has a tablet (Simparica). He is dumb enough to just eat it as if it is a treat, I don't even have to wrap in in ham or anything.

Ignore me it wasn't spectra it was bravecto. Evil little pills

So spectra May well be fine as bitey says

With mine he hated the smell from the spot on and would not settle or sleep.

The tablet obviously doesn't smell so no problem with it.

Over the counter options -

capstar tablets - kills the fleas that are present but if you have eggs in the home then doesn’t really have any residual activity

frontline/frontline plus/effipro/itch pet spot ons - fipronil (kills fleas) with or without s-methoprene (prevents eggs being laid)

advantage spot on - imidacloprid (some people anecdotally find this more effective than the fipronil based ones)

I’d also advise treating your house with one of the big aerosols like indorex as there will be eggs which will hatch out and jump back on to the dogs in the coming weeks/months.

Parasite treatments you get from the vets or on prescription will often contain the above drugs in combination with others, to cover multiple parasites ie worms/lungworms/ticks/mange in addition to fleas, and they can advise you on the best choice for your dogs’ individual lifestyle and risk (which might include telling you to get an OTC product if that’s all you need - contrary to popular belief we don’t have a vested interest in selling unsuitable treatments….!)

Thanks all. We used to use Frontline from time to time and both dogs behaved as if they'd been poisoned in the days following applications and would run and hide as soon as I broke the top off the applicator. The surviving dog thinks pill are treats, so if there's a pill that'll do the trick I'd prefer it.

We've been over him very carefully with a nit comb and taken five fleas off him. We haven't been bitten so far. All his bedding and the chair cover on the chair he sleeps on have had a hot wash and we've hoovered very thoroughly. I hope a quick spray with Indorex will sort the problem out. It's the first time in 15 years of dog-owning that we've had fleas and we've gone for long periods in the past without treating them because they hated it so much. Now need to work out where he got them from...

fipronil (kills fleas)

I thought that Filronil (frontline) was becoming less effective now as fleas have become resistant.

Hi @pattihews Thanks for posting. I just wanted to pop in and share the link to our guide to the best flea treatment for dogs. It was created with the help of recommendations from dog-loving Mumsnet users and consumer reviews, so I hope you find it useful.

@LouiseGMumsnet Ive followed that link and the top rated one is Indorex - that is a flea treatment for the HOUSE and it should never be put directly on the dog - which I think isn’t completely clear in the reviews.

That's awful!

it's inaccurate too as Indorex isn't "Indorex for dogs" it's just one product for all fleas.