Fleas and ticks are no fun- for anyone. Your furry family member is miserable and you’re cleaning your house from top to bottom daily to try and get a handle on things. There are so many kinds of flea and tick prevention out there (oral med, topical, and collars) and they can sometimes be overwhelming. So, today I’m going to try and make finding the right one for your pet a little easier.
Oral flea and tick prevention usually need a prescription or need to be bought through your vet. The reason for this is they are stronger than regular topically applied OTC ones. There are many different brands out there, but they usually do the same things. The only difference is that some may be better for the area where you live, or they have added protection against heartworms. Oral medications usually last 30 days and is given with food. They work by killing adult fleas and ticks AFTER they have bitten and ingested the medication from your pets’ bloodstream. Oral preventatives do not kill eggs and larvae. I would not recommend this type of flea/tick prevention if your pet is allergic to the flea bite- you need a prevention method that also repels!
Topical prevention options are the ones you see in the stores. These are a liquid that gets applied once a month to the back of your pet, from the base of the neck to the base of the tail. These require the pet to not get wet for at least 24hrs. And cats/dogs should not groom each other for the same 24hrs. It is recommended that this method be applied while the owners are home. And, if you have dogs and cats, there are very few you can use- because most are toxic to cats. Honestly, to be safe, I’d stay away from this method unless you ONLY have same-species pets to avoid any issues. Topical preventatives work in the same way as oral, however, they also repel fleas and ticks, as well as, kill flea eggs and larvae.
There is only one brand I am going to talk about for the collar section- this is because any other brand should be avoided due to toxicity. Seresto Collars. They last 8 months. These are probably the easiest and cheapest form of flea and tick prevention. They are also my favorite prevention method. They are effective and work well for dogs and cats and they do not enter the pets’ blood or nervous system. They repel fleas and ticks, kill adult fleas and ticks, and kills flea eggs and larvae.
If you’ve gotten this far- thank you for reading! I know this one was more straightforward than my previous blog posts. If you’d like for me to do a blog post of the best way to clear an infestation, please reach out and let me know!
Until next time,
-Yohama