Are flea collars any good?

[joey99]

Our cat is medium long haired. She seems to have got a very thick bib and a sort of mane round her neck in the last month or so - I am not sure if it is her winter coat or now she has grown up (she was 1 in Oct) She has fleas and frontline doesn't seem to be helping. She is frontlined every 4 weeks and we sprayed the house last week as we saw a flea. Tonight I was looking through her neck hair when i was stroking her and their is flea dirt there. I wonder if her coat is quite dense frontline might not be v effective? Would a flea collar be any good and can it be used along with frontline? Sorry haven't had a long haired cat before so don't know if this is anything to do with the fleas or not
Thanks

I've not tried a flea collar, but for some reason frontline appeared to stop working for our moggy. we switched to Advantage and, touch wood, no problems since.

I have just bought 6 new Frontlines and only used 1 so typical I will have to buy another brand. I'll have a read up on Advantage as haven't heard of that thanks

The Seresto ones (prescription only) are bloody marvellous the others are worse than useless.

Flea collars are just rubbish generally, the only good use for them is to put in your vacuum cleaner to zap any eggs that may hatch in there after you've hoovered them up. There is no proven resistance in fleas to frontline but having said that one of the options for you is to try a different product (advocate is very good and has the added benefit of treating for roundworms too), however it may be the application that's the issue as like you say, if she has a very dense coat it can be difficult to apply correctly (i.e. to the skin rather than the fur). You could try a tablet - Comfortis, but again it depends how amenable your cat is with regards to getting a tablet down

Depends on the cat, eh? Some cats will never tolerate a collar (Seniorboy and The Lodger - I'm looking at you pair.) If you have a cat who''ll wear one then I'd go with Lone's recommendation of the Seresto. She knows what she's talking about.

Actually ive just realised with 2 young kids a really good prescription only flea collar would probably mean the kids shouldn't cuddle the cat as she would be permanently covered in chemicals so might not be a good idea! Thanks for recommendations of other brands as i have only tried Frontline. So with advocate do i not have to Drontal worm her? I had no idea you could flea treat with a tablet. How on earth can a tablet work? (i am somebody with no understanding of fleas as that sounds crazy to me!)

Slightly off topic I just had a little look at the Seresto collar and saw that online chemists sells them prescription only. Has anybody had the nerve to get a prescription from their vet and then buy the product online? Judging from their Frontline price they are a lot cheaper than my vets but i wonder if the vets would be stroppy i wasn't buying the product from them?

Yikes, joey99. So many points that I think you need to talk to your vet - although you actually have a great vet on this thread and she may wish to comment again.

Frontline has lost effectiveness in many parts of the country by the way. Lord help us when the fleas also become immune to Advocate etc.

You will need to pay for a prescription from your vet so you will need to factor this in to your calculations, but yes we provide prescriptions on a regular basis for all kinds of things.
Back to the Seresto collar, my cats have been wearing them for 20 months they haven't lost one yet and not a single flea has been seen. Plus they repel ticks which is an issue with the posh arrogant boy.

Oh - and on your second post. I buy from my vet. I think that the cost of a prescription is about 10 to 12 pounds but I'd rather have my vet knowing precisely what I'm doing with my boy.

Righ now I know the other options all you more knowledgeable people use I will pop back to the vets and sort out another option. The tablet or the collar are sounding good as i really think maybe i am not getting it all on her skin as she is a wiggly kitten with a dense coat! My old cat just laid there while i applied it but i get a much shorter time to do it with Rosie even if she is sound asleep when i start parting her hair! Thanks a lot all

I paid £8 for a prescription off my vet so I could buy advocate online.

They didn't mind, he'd been seen in the previous 6 months (accident prone) and weighed so I requested it over the phone & picked it up when I was passing.

Advocate won't do all types of worms. Adult cats are more prone to tapeworm than roundworm. You need Profender for that, but it won't do fleas.

We need one product to do all!

I second using Comfortis tablets, even if your cat isn't keen on taking tablets it can be crushed and mixed with food. You know the cat has been treated, sometimes it's hard to make sure the entire contents of the phial of a spot on has gone on the skin.It won't become less effective if the pet gets wet and there are no chemicals externally to worry about if you have DCs handling it.