Frontline and Flea resistance

[BartonStacey]

A while ago I noticed that Frontline was no longer killing our cat's fleas. I went to the vet and asked for an alternative, and they said that the reason that Frontline appeared not to be working was most likely that our house was infested, so that new fleas were hopping on straight after the treatment. This didn't sound right to me so I eventually got some Advantage and this seems to be doing the job.

I went back today to get more Advantage and the vet told me the same thing again, that there was no issue with resistance to Frontline, and if it didn't work this was due to "environmental infestation", despite checking the cat for fleas and finding none, and being told that the fleas disappeared once we switched from Frontline to Advantage. He seemed quite certain that fleas do not become resistant to a particular treatment. If this is true I just don't know what the explanation could be.

Have any vets or cat owners on here had experience of this? Is he right and the change of treatment is just a coincidence? Or do we have resistant fleas? (We are in London if that helps.)

That's interesting Lizcat (although for us of course the mystery remains as to why the Advantage then worked for us with one application).

I don't have anything against Frontline, of course. Why on earth would anyone? I hadn't heard anything about there being a problem with it until I looked it up in exasperation some time after the fleas stopped dying. But I suppose it could be one of those collective internet delusions, like the Mumsnet one where for about 3 days everyone believed Waitrose Bottom Butter to be a miracle face cream...

However (at the risk of doing that Google vs the Medical Profession thing) there do seem to be a lot of mentions of Fipronil resistance - and not just from dissatisfied veterinary customers and impressionable MNers but from, you know, proper researchers, eg here (ticks on Mexican cattle) and here (German cockroaches) and here (actual cat fleas but "more detailed
investigations are needed to establish or reject any
link between the incidence of the mutation and
observed treatment failures with fipronil in domestic
pet populations"). But then again I notice that a couple of researchers on that last one seem to be something to do with Bayer (manufacturers of Advantage) so who knows?

Our vet told us that frontline doesn't always work - at least, not against French fleas. Mind you, the nits round here take some killing, too.

I had the same trouble..been using frontline on our cats/dogs from years then it stopped working!!
My vet said it was because the fleas become immune as I've been using it for years...so I brought advantage, trouble is for 4 cats and 2 dogs this wasn't cheap and it didn't work either!!
I spoke to my local pet shop and I now buy bob Martin spot on and I use it every 4 weeks on all animals and so far it seems to be working and is so much cheaper!

My vet is clear that Frontline is longer effective. Lizcat - I may be a little simple but surely if it takes 24 hrs for Frontline to kill fleas, that's ample time for them to hop off and start breeding in the dark crevices of your armchair, surely. Swear by Advantage myself. Had the worst flea infestation of my life when I used Bob Martins rather than Advantage for one month only.

Now that's interesting, I just came onhere to post a thread about Frontline. My vet gave me it last time for both cats and it appears to be next to useless. Before this I always used Stronghold, which worked fine. I only changed because they queried me giving Geoffrey Milbemax as well for tapeworm control. Apparently Stronghold does some worms but not tape. So what should I use now?

I'm going through this at present. Used Frontline on my cat's fleas several times, it seemed to work for a week or two, then tried Effipro, exactly the same thing. I phoned the vet who told me the house was infested. I paid to have the council to fumigate the house, they've done this 4 times now. The cat still has fleas (not many now), The vet still maintains it's the house, the council said I need to try Advantage, I've ordered some, awaiting delivery to see if it works, fingers crossed! They are also going to test the type of fleas this time too! I need these totally gone for Christmas, I have family over!

Coming in on this one. After regularly getting shredded whilst trying to get worming tablets down the Mooncats, my vets prescribed Broadline. I have been using it for a couple of years, which seemed to be a blessing despite cats hating the feel of it and givng me dirty looks for 2-3 days after. Cats ALSO have Program to prevent feeding adults breeding, and we also have Indorex. You'd think we wouldn't have a flea.

After nearly two years of disrupted sleep due to being very sensitive to bites (and on some of the strongest antihistamines you can get for humans, all year round) I got a bit fed up just over a month ago and refused to buy any more Broadline (that and I didn't like what I was hearing about fipronil). Vets gave me a three-month application of Bravecto.

I have not been bitten since. It's bliss. I can finally dare have cats on the bed again. I don't care if I have to play the worming tablet game again. There was no appreciable change in the outside temperatures, cats still went out so can't attribute it to outside conditions. No more fipronil-based products for us.

I had the same experience with 'Frontline Combo' !!!
AND also 'Stronghold'.

My cat had been on Frontline for years and suddenly got fleas - I had been putting it on her every month and the Manufacturers, when I e-mailed them, of course tried to blame it on me !
The house CANNOT infest the cat in the first instance as it is the CAT hat has to bring fleas into the house in the first place !!
My Vet said she hadn't heard of it before, so I told her I had to be right ! Same happened two yrs later with 'Stronghold' too .. . . . so NO ONE buy that either, lol !!!
I KNEW I was right - so thanks everyone for verifying it !! xx

My vet moved us from Advocate to Frontline a couple of years ago. Within a month we had the worst flea infestation I've ever had and it took a month to clear it (Indorex and back to Advicate).
Our vet agreed to refund us for the Frontline he had foisted on us.