What do you use for Flea control?

[Sweetpea]

Hi I was wondering what everyone uses for Flea control. I currently use Frontline Plus on Emma who is 4 years old. The breeder told me Lacey ( 9 weeks old) was sprayed with frontline and would be good for 4 weeks. Is there anything to use on puppies that's good? I'm a little worried my next door neighbour told me her dog has fleas I was wondering if I should do my yard with a spray since we only have a chain link fence between the yard? There are tons or cats running around the neighbourhood that people just let run . I really wish our city would do something about all the cats. I'm really sick of them spraying around the outside of my house and using my yard for a littler box. Is there anything I can do to help keep the cats out of my yard? I'm really scared my new puppy will get sick from all the cats.

[Shmee]

"There 'aint no bugs on me, there aint no bugs on me!! There may be bugs on some of you mugs, but there aint no bugs on me!!" (That was me singing the K-9 Advantix song). We use Advantix here on both my Jack's. After the 2nd day to the 4th of having it on them, they'll itch the applied area abit more than usual, but after that 4th day, they are fine and dandy AND bug free for the next 40days+.
We've used FrontlinePlus in the past and I get the same results from it (minus the itching), so you might want to stick with that. I caught a good deal on a large supply of Advantix so, cash is king in this case.
As far as the cats go? My jackrussells LOVE cats. In fact, when the kitties come over my fence to crap in my yard, my jack's will play the "1.3 second game". This game consists of me opening the door and from that point, the kitty in question will have 1.3seconds to leave the yard before Peety and Kaytee remind the Kitty who's yard it is. So far, the kitty's have made it perfectly clear that they want NOTHING to do with Peety or Kaytee. I dread the day that the Kitty loses the game and misses that all important 'big jump' to get over the fence. My guys repel boarders like noone's business and if you're a second to slow, you're on the playlist baby!
On the serious side however.. If the cats are that much of a problem, you can buy the humane traps and catch them one-by-one and then bring them in to be spayed or nuetered. Atleast you'll be reducing an exponent by having this done. The humane society in your area may even supply you with some of their own traps if you offer to do to this for them.

Keeping yards catfree,
-Shmee

[Ritz459]

I use Frontline plus on all of the dogs and it does its job. If fleas become a problem, spraying your yard could help.

I've found that for cats, dogs are the best deterrent. We've found that out the hard way, but we don't have any feral/stray/barn cats wandering into our yard even though our neighbors are swamped with them.

[Shmee]

Ya know, I know this site is titled, "The Global Paw" but I see a bias of dog "paw" vs cat "paw" here in a big way. Besides for being deathly allergic to the felines of the world, I have to admit, I hate... Errr I mean, I HIGHLY DISLIKE cats. I suppose it's that whole 'independance' thing that they exude. That, and my Jack's wouldnt understand the cross-species cohabitation if one were to live with us.
I truly would never wish harm on a kitty, but if I were given the option of knowing that I could save only one critter from a 10gazillion-foot spiraling fall of certain death and the choices were dog or cat? Well, let's just say I've heard cats can survive extremely high tumbles and leave it at that??

Learning to accept and express my inner cat,
-Shmee

[IceyBlueSibes]

I suppose it's that whole 'independance' thing that they exude. That, and my Jack's wouldnt understand the cross-species cohabitation if one were to live with us.

I'd love for you to come meet my own cats -- they're far from independent and love attention. I'd say they're more like dogs than cats.. my dogs help raise them if they're baby kittens. lol I only have one cat who is a "only on my time" type of cat, but I love her for it because it makes her unique out of the bunch. ANYWHO

I believe Revolution sells flea prevention for very young puppies. Ask you vet if they have a Revolution "puppy kit" and it's normally a very tiny bottle to apply on them. That's what I've always used for my puppies when they're that young.

I do have to say I'm hooked on the Adam's spray. They have a yard spray you can use to treat your yard, as well. I bought the yard spray at PetCo ($20). You can get the spray for the dogs at WalMart now, and I even use it for the furniture (particularly where the dogs sleep).

I don't prefer Frontline, only because any time I, or anyone else I know of has used it, they have no luck with keeping the fleas away (we get many stories from people at doggie day care asking for flea baths even though they've been treated --- when asked what they use they say Frontline). So I use Advantage, and have used Revolution too. I also tried the Adams topical applications they now have (they're very inexpensive) and they worked great for my guys. So we are sticking with the Adams brand for now unless we see otherwise

[Dangels]

I currently use K9 Advantix on my dogs, and Frontline on my kittys. I don't have any flea or tick problems with my dogs. I used to use Frontline on my dogs also, and it worked pretty well for keeping the fleas away, but I live out in the country in a somewhat wooded area, and there are a lot of ticks out here. The Frontline would keep the fleas away, but not the ticks on the dogs.... so I switched to K9 Advantix for the dogs, and it's working great!

[Ritz459]

Does the K9Advantix stuff repel biting flies as well? Blackie and Rose always have a horrible time of flies biting at their ears. I have some gel/spray stuff that I put on them but they hate it.

Side note - While cats aren't my favorite, I do like them. They are either super sweet, don't give a rip about you, or are as evil as hell. Pheobe is special because I swear she is bipolar and is all three at once. LOL

[Shmee]

Here's one minor downfall that I fergotted to mention when it comes to the Advantix and the Frontline... Yes they both work pretty much the same. (Agreeing w/Dangels here about Advantix might be a shade better) but the thing is, that the bugs will still jump on the dogs and once they get a whiff of the anti-flea ingrediant, they will jump OFF the dog and look for greener pastures. Here's the problem with that.. Sometimes "greener pastures" are my bed, my living room, my kitchen. I only find a few fleas or ticks around the house, and they usually seem sick, probably a direct result of the repellent. That's definitely a downfall, but pretty much the only one when it comes to keeping the fleas and ticks off.

Ticks I can deal with, but fleas 'skeeve' me to no end.

Closing down the flea circus,
-Shmee

[Punkygirl0101]

I use different products lol. On the cats they get mainly Frontline, but on the ferals that live outside I put Revolution on them cause it works better for the outdoor cats, and frontline works fine on the cats that don't go outside that often.

As for the dogs, I started using revolution on the dogs that tend to get more fleas for some reason (Peanut and Bjorn mainly), and then the dachshunds rarely get fleas so I use Frontline on them. During the winter we don't have fleas AT all so I don't even bother using flea products.

And I refuse to use any type of spray or powder for safety precautions!! Especially in the backyard because my dogs like to "graze" on grass. (As do my cats).

[Dangels]

Does the K9Advantix stuff repel biting flies as well? Blackie and Rose always have a horrible time of flies biting at their ears. I have some gel/spray stuff that I put on them but they hate it.

Side note - While cats aren't my favorite, I do like them. They are either super sweet, don't give a rip about you, or are as evil as hell. Pheobe is special because I swear she is bipolar and is all three at once. LOL

Neither the Frontline Plus nor the K9 Advantix seem to do much for the flys.... I buy a fly spray from my vet to keep the flys off of the dogs in the summertime.

Here's one minor downfall that I fergotted to mention when it comes to the Advantix and the Frontline... Yes they both work pretty much the same. (Agreeing w/Dangels here about Advantix might be a shade better) but the thing is, that the bugs will still jump on the dogs and once they get a whiff of the anti-flea ingrediant, they will jump OFF the dog and look for greener pastures. Here's the problem with that.. Sometimes "greener pastures" are my bed, my living room, my kitchen. I only find a few fleas or ticks around the house, and they usually seem sick, probably a direct result of the repellent. That's definitely a downfall, but pretty much the only one when it comes to keeping the fleas and ticks off.

Ticks I can deal with, but fleas 'skeeve' me to no end.

Closing down the flea circus,
-Shmee

Aha, i've never really had that happen with the little pests lol. That would really be a downfall lol.