Farmall Cub

by **moparado** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 9:48 am

Just had one of my long-haired dogs get her shots, checkup and also groomed for the Summer. When i went to pick her up, the vet said they stopped counting at 30 ticks.

Now this is interesting as my dogs get the Frontline treatment religiously. Now that she's got a buzz cut, i can spot ticks easily but now the black flies are tormenting her as her thick long hair was her main defense against flies. The commercial fly repellants work but they're also toxic as indicated by the list of cautions on the label.

Anyone know of any natural non-toxic fly and/or tick repellants?

-Ken

by **grumpy** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 9:55 pm

Don't know what to tell ya but I live in the sticks and frontline has always worked great for me. First I've heard of this. Even my outside animals are tick and flea free.

I'll keep an eye on this post. Good luck. Grump

by **Tim Martin** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 10:39 pm

I have tried Frontline and it does not work around here. I would find ticks on my dogs all the time. I use regular old Hartz flea and tick collars and they do the job a lot better.

by **Cub-Bud** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 3:06 pm

Just bought a new brand called Promeris. I put it on the dogs today; fleas are really bad here this year. I'll keep you posted on the results.

by **moparado** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 9:29 pm

Thanks for the replies, me and my dogs appreciate it!
All i can say is Frontline as expensive as it is does not seem to work well on my long-haired dog. Best i can tell she's part collie, chow, retriever, etc. and has an extremely thick cottony matte under her long hairs. In addition to making ticks hard to find, i believe this dense matting did not allow Frontline to do its best job. On the other hand, Frontline seems to work somewhat better on my lab but i still find the occasional bloated ready to drop-off tick on her too!

As for Promeris, i picked some up at the vet and then did some Googlin on it. Appears some dogs have had bad reactions to it albeit the Premaris website claims most of these negative posts on the internet were traced to one e-mail address. I ended up exchanging it for Frontline, maybe it'll work better now that she's got a buzz cut...who knows! Since Promeris is relatively new, i'm gonna wait til next Spring to try it when the smoke settles a bit to try it.

I used the Hartz stuff on my dogs years ago and far as i can remember it worked alright. Maybe i'll give it a try again and its a lot cheaper!

Since i run my dogs in the woods just about everyday....what really needs to be done is to keep them #$% deers out of my woods.
Deer season all year round anyone?

Anyone have any home-brewed concoctions for fly repellants?
-Ken

by **ArtieT** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 9:09 am

Application is key with Frontline. You must get down to the skin when you apply it. On my dog I do a couple of spots along his spine starting right between his shoulder blades and moving down. Control here in ConnecTICKut (home of Lyme Disease) has been pretty good once we got the application porcedure worked out. Ask your vet about using a slightly higher dose because of the thick coat!

by **moparado** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 10:54 am

ArtieT wrote:Application is key with Frontline. You must get down to the skin when you apply it.

I think you're right in that the application has got to be the key thing!
Now that you mentioned this when i first started to use Frontline a few years ago on her, i did exactly that because her fur is so thick i couldn't find bare skin and seemed to have better results back then. The Hartz directions also say to apply their stuff along the spine as i remember.
I did ask my vet about applying Frontline along the spine instead of all in one area. He said not to do that. When i apply it in one area though per directions it doesn't seem to reach her skin because i can't find the skin because of all that thick matting (not kidding) and her coat is wet for a day or two. One thing the vet said that might work is to shave a small area between her shoulders for the application area. Maybe i'll try that.

-Ken

by **Jeff M** » Thu Aug 07, 2008 8:25 pm

We've had very good luck with Frontline on our beagle for over three years. However, it's easy to apply on him as you can get to the skin without a lot of fuss. I even can watch the mosquitos land on him momentarily, and then take off. It's expensive, but it does the job. Not one tick.

by **wrhayes** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 8:36 pm

My daughter had a problem with Frontline after about 3 years on her golden retreiver. It just quit working for fleas. It is good for ticks for about 30 days only. So far it is still working on the golden retreiver here.