Do you give your pet Advantage to PREVENT fleas?

[zhuzhu]

My cats have never had problems with fleas. However our vet is suggesting that we give Advantage to all 3 indoor cats in the summer for fleas prevention.

I am not familiar with Advantage and am sure that none of the cats have fleas. Is it a good idea to give it to them just for "prevention"?

Thanks!

 

[*Danielle*]

Yep! It prevents them for a month and kills any that are on them.

 

[lulu]

Be very careful. The dog Advantage looks like the stuff for cats, but is toxic to cats.

 

[VRBeauty]

I love Advantage and swear by it. But... I have indoor-outdoor cats. Advantage is a poison, and even though they''ve worked out the dosing so it''s safe for pets, I''m not sure I''d use Advantage on a continuous basis, if at all, for strictly indoor cats.

It is possible for indoors-only pets to get flea infestations. It happened to one of my co-workers last year. She came in to work one morning looking totally miserable, because her indoor cat and apartment developed an instantaneous flea infestation -- or so it seemed. She had numerous flea bites and as she described it, the cat was covered and the fleas were evident throughout the apartment. She thought she might have "transported" some fleas in after visiting a friend with pets the previous weekend. I think it''s equally possible ( since the infestation was so sudden and large) that there were fleas somehow getting in from neighboring apartments, or that pre-existing flea eggs hatched when they turned on the building heat. We suggested that she do a thorough cleaning and set off a flea bomb, and I brought in some Advantage for her to use until she could get to her vet.

Personally though I think it''s overkill to continually dose an indoor cat as a preventative measure. I''d might get an ampule of Advantage for each cat so you have it on hand just in case. Then, I''d get a good flea comb and add a flea check to your regular grooming so you can see if any flea problems are developing. (Use the flea comb near the face/neck and near the rump -- places fleas like to hang out. If there are any fleas present, you''ll see either the fleas or flea dirt on the comb.) Then, you can use the Advantage only if you need it.

BTW I have used small amounts of dog advantage on my cats...

with no adverse effects that I know of. But no, I''m not recommending that! It''s much safer to stick to the manufacturer''s dosages.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

We use it in the warm weather months, because we have a split-level ranch and our windows on the first floor are at ground level. So theoretically fleas could get in through the screens if the windows are open....If I lived in a house with different windows then I would only dose them if I were sending them in for boarding for a length of time.

 

[Haven]

We give our dog flea and tick prevention stuff--it''s a little tube we squeeze onto her skin and then let soak in for two days.

We don''t give anything to our three cats, though. They live indoors only.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

We only give advantage once we see fleas. My female cat really hates the chemicals and she walks around with her eyes squinted for hours after we apply it. I do not want to put chemicals on my cats unless absolutely necessary.

 

[zhuzhu]

Thanks to you all for your replies. I have decided not to give it to them for preventative purpose, but will definitely keep checking them especially in the summer!

Wish everyone''s pets a safe, happy, and flea-free summer!

 

[radiantquest]

I use frontline on mine and it seems to work pretty well.

 

[LaraOnline]

That's really what the spot ons are great for. They help prevent flea infestations. If you wait for a spring 'flea-bomb' (all the eggs hatching at the same time when the weather warms up) you can have the unpleasant experience of fleas in the house.
It takes a while for spot ons to kill all the fleas in the environment of your pet. There's a variety of different medications, we tend to use Revolution brand at our house.

Spot ons are best used as an on-going 'medication', a bit like the birth control pill... and,like the birth control pill, when a new tube is due, it's due. The efficacy of the medication falls very quickly after the new tube is due.

 

[tlh]

We use Frontline Plus. Works!

 

[Mara]

I am not a fan of the flea treatments for pets as an ongoing thing... they are essentially a low form of poison. I know there are various trains of thoughts about it, but we do not give that to our dog unless it's for a spot treatment, aka in the early spring we do get fleas in our yard thanks to squirrels and cats coming in and hanging out in the bushes, then of course Portia chases them and comes in with fleas on her. So we'll spot treat her for that. But I don't give it to her continuously for 'prevention' anymore. I used to when she was younger but then read up a bit on it and just didn't feel comfortable. Esp since she is 90% an inside dog. Once the weather is hot enough (so about 7 months of the year), the heat kills the fleas and we don't have the issue anymore.

If you have not had a problem with fleas I would personally not give the stuff to your pet for 'prevention'. Yes it sucks to have to deal with seeing a few fleas and then dealing with it, but we are pretty good about catching that stuff and then give it when absolutely needed only. There are also going to be more organic methods of dealing with fleas too, but definitely not as effective as the chemical treatments.

 

[mrssalvo]

I do year round prevention for my dog. fleas and ticks are HORRIBLE in my part of the country. we treat our yard too. My dog ended up with 2 ticks so far with the prevention meds and my vet said that during the summer the fleas and ticks are becoming more resistant to the meds and I should up it to every 3 weeks or so. She had been on K9Advantax and we just switched her to another brand like Frontline. My dog goes in and out and I've got 3 kids and just don't want to deal with any fleas in the house. My daughter still ended up with a tick on her head which resulted in 3 swollen lymph nodes on her head and neck and thankfully no Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, the disease most ticks here carry. it's still strange to me that she got it b/c we live in a residential area with a fenced backyard and she hadn't been out in any wooded areas at all. I'd much rather treat my pet for prevention than my kid for an infection though.

 

[soocool]

I use Frontline Top Spot for my dog. The flea protection lasts 3 months and the tick protection only 1 month. I usually stop in the winter months (Jan- Mar) if it is very cold and then start up again in April. My dog spends a lot of time outside walking, running, and playing. We don''t have a lot of shady areas in our yard which, I read, seems to promote fleas, but we have a lot of ticks. A neighbor''s dog developed Lyme disease last year and they never give their dogs any flea and/or tick prevention. Other neighbors who don''t give the flea/tick prevention have had exterminators out often trying to rid their house of fleas (very costly).

But I don''t see why ( if your cats stay indoors) would need such protection unless you have other pets (i.e. dogs) that do go out and can bring in fleas and ticks and give it to them or if you ever kennel/board them. I used to have cats that always stayed indoors and never gave them any flea protection and they in their almost 20 years never had ticks (but they were never kenneled either).

 

[elrohwen]

Our dogs very rarely got fleas, so we stopped giving it on a preventative basis. One of the dogs was allergic to fleas and would chew on his itchy paws if he got just one flea, so if he had a reaction we''d pull out the Advantage and he''d be fine in a day.

 

[Amandine]

We use Advantix year round on my two dogs. I chose it due to the extra prevention for ticks and mosquitoes, which we have a big problem with. Also, both dogs are black and I know hunting for fleas on them would prove almost impossible...while they are indoor dogs, they do spend a lot of time in the yard, too. We also use doggie day care and visit the dog park, and they may contract the fleas through interaction with other dogs.

 

[iheartscience]

Date: 7/19/2009 1:14:34 PM
Author: MC
We only give advantage once we see fleas. My female cat really hates the chemicals and she walks around with her eyes squinted for hours after we apply it. I do not want to put chemicals on my cats unless absolutely necessary.

Ditto. My cats caught fleas once when I lived in a duplex type apartment and a new person moved in above me with dogs. I gave them Frontline Plus while I was living in that apartment and continued until I was in my new apartment for about a year.

The first time I gave it to my newest kitty she managed to lick it and started foaming at the mouth! I completely panicked, but I got it together and called the number on the box. Apparently foaming at the mouth is a normal reaction! So after that I stopped using it.

They hate it so much that as soon as my big boy kitty heard me open the container of it he would sprint away and hide. And it would give him bald spots wherever I put the medicine. So I wouldn't do it unless you have a flea problem!

 

[gemgirl]

I''m with Mara. I won''t use any flea preventives or flea treatments unless one of my dogs has a flea or two. Advantage, Frontline and the rest are all toxic insecticides and I''d rather not expose my dogs to toxins unless it''s absolutely necessary. My older dog had a few fleas one summer years ago and my younger dog has never had them. There are natural flea preventatives available in health food stores. Things with garlic in it will kill fleas and keep them away.