Flea Medicine

[kagen]

I'm fairly new to cats, so I need some opinions on flea medicine. I live in southeastern North Carolina, and fleas are horrible here. My cat is also indoor/outdoor.

With my dog, I found Frontline to be very disappointing. I use Trifexis now, which is for dogs only. I found online they have something called "Assurity," but it's $90 for 6 months! Ugh, why does flea control have to be so expensive! I just need some suggestions and opinions, so I hopefully don't waste my money trying different brands.

Thanks!

 

[yayi]

My cats are all indoor outdoor. I use Frontline Plus for Cats and never had a problem. 

 

 

[happybird]

I have read that fleas are gaining an immunity to Frontline. I tend to believe this because Frontline used to work great for my cats and dog 10 years ago, not so much now. It seems like we can get rid of almost all the fleas but still have a couple hardy ones who just won't die.

The article also said that Advantage works better for people living on the east coast of the US and Frontline on the west coast. Don't know if this is true, but I am currently testing it out. I live on the east coast and last month switched to Advantage. I think it is working. Usually with the Frontline, after a dose we were flea free for 2-3 weeks. Then I would start to see scratching and a little bit of flea dirt. The cats got their first dose of Advantage on the 10th of December and so far, so good. No dirt, no scratching.

I don't know if location is really a factor or if the crop of fleas (and their descendants) we have been dealing with were used to the fipronil in Frontline because we had been using it for so long. I think I will have to wait another month or two for sure results on this experiment.

 

[raintyger]

With Frontline you can buy the dog version and use a syringe (without needle) to administer it. Since the  dog version has larger doses, you'll save $. The difference between the dog and cat version is that the dog version has less of the ingredient that acts against pregnant fleas. We used .5ml per dose. We got a kit off eBay with a syringe, instructions, and small vial to pour the Frontline in.

 

[kagen]

Thanks for the replies!

I was considering Advantage before I made this post, and it's quite lately, I will be trying it first.