Dog owners- flea & tick products?

rox825 · August 2014

This is semi-baby-related. I live in a suburban area but have a huge nature park behind my house and there are *tons* of deer around and therefore tons of deer ticks. We also take our dogs hiking sometimes in the park, so effective flea and especially tick prevention is a must. I've always used advantix and it's worked great, I've never found a flea or a tick on either dog and they don't have any reactions to it. But I'm a little nervous about possibly exposing the baby to the chemicals/toxins either directly or indirectly, it seems like it takes a couple of days for it to dry. I'm equally nervous about the possibility of a dog bringing a tick into the house and exposing the baby to lyme disease though. Does anyone have recs for safer products that will actually work to prevent ticks?

mb314 · August 2014

Particularly when the baby is young, you can easily keep him/her away from the dog for a few days when the Advantix is drying. DS is now almost 2 and loves our dog. It is impossible to keep the two of them separated. so what we do is put on the Advantix shortly after DS goes to bed so that there is at least 12 hours for it to wear off/seap in.

I'm not super strict about chemicals/things like that. If the product works, I would stick with it, unless there are specific warnings on the labels not to have kids around the dogs for a few days. I would rather have a dog that is flea and tick free (but maybe I should be more concerned than I am).

Love4Science · August 2014

We've had a dog for 5 years and up until this summer only flea-and-ticked her one other summer, mostly because I hate the thought of all those toxins on her and around the house.

We are currently using Parastar because that's what my vet recommended and will only use it through November (when everything freezes), then break it back out again in April. DH puts it on wearing rubber gloves, I don't touch the dog for 2 days, then we take her swimming. I was originally hesitant but the vet pointed out that the risk of ticks with Lyme Disease is very real in my part of the country (both of my parents have had it in the past year) and it isn't worth the risk of her bringing a tick in.

rox825 · August 2014

@mb314 Keeping the dogs flea/tick free is definitely a concern of mine too, I'm just trying to figure out how to balance that with the chemical exposure. There's 1 ingredient in advantix in particular that I read bad things about and short of trying to apply it on a nice day and keeping the dogs outside to dry, I can't think of how else I could separate them from the baby/eventual toddler!

@Love4Science We stop using it for the winter too. Lyme disease is prevalent where we live too and I don't want to take any risks.

krgriffin26 · August 2014

We've had our dogs on Trifexis for the past couple of years and haven't had any issues with fleas or ticks since changing. It is a bit expensive but it also is a heartworm medication so both meds are in one pill. We use it year round no matter the weather. Mostly because it is a heartworm med but also because we are in Texas and December can have a day where it's 80 degrees and I have seen snow in April. You never know what youre gonna get around here.

dbgwife · August 2014

We've used Advantix for quite some time and havnt had an issues with it! We lived in Virginia before moving back to San Diego so pest control, and flea and tick treatment for animals was a MUST! We just have always applied at night, and then by morning the kiddos are safe to pet and climb all over them!

FishyMom · August 2014

They have a heartwotk med that does it all these days, fleas and ticks included.. I have heard it is crazy expensive tho. I will probably just stick to what we do, chemical on the back stuff..

violetsmom22 · August 2014

We have 1 dog and 2 cats, flea/ tick prevention and control are a must. We usually put the advantix on at night so that way by morning it has usually dried enough. DD is almost 4 so now she's understanding that she can't play with them right away, but even when she was little she was good about not touching them. You could always try putting the dog(s) in a separate room while they are drying.

scarlet3egonias · August 2014

We give ours a heartworm/flea pill and love it. No mess, no chemicals all over my hands and God knows what else, etc.

runningmama14 · August 2014

Your friendly vet weighing in here

There is not a product out there that does fleas, ticks and heartworms (all in one product), that I'm aware of. I'm pretty sure I'd be aware too because that will be the holy grail of vet pharma.

Trifexis does heartworms and fleas, but offers no protection against ticks.

Advantix has permethrins in it, which I (personally) would do my best to keep far away from infants.

As far as topicals that kill ticks, Frontline Plus has a very safe label for kids, babies and pregnant women, so if you are going to use a topical, that's what I would use. Revolution is also a very safe topical, but it only protects against one species of ticks and that is not adequate for any region in the US. It's also kinda crummy at killing fleas. It "technically" does all three, but, like I said, the tick label is a joke.

If you are wanting to protect from fleas and ticks without any topical exposure, there are two products available that are oral. Nexgard is once monthly. It's what I use on my dogs. I live in a heavily wooded area with lots of fleas and ticks and haven't had an issues with Nexgard since I switched at the beginning of the year. The other is Bravecto. It's the same drug class as nexgard, but has a 3 month duration. It just came out in the last month or two and I have no personal experience with it, but it sounds like a useful product.

If using an oral flea/tick like Nexgard, then you just add on whatever non-topical heartworm prevention suits you and your pets best and you're set without worrying about what LO might be exposed to.

rox825 · August 2014

@runningmama14 Thank you! I knew there was a vet on this board but couldn't remember who :-)

Permethrins is the ingredient that I was reading bad stuff about. One of the dogs has her annual vet appt next month so I'll ask about Nexgard, thanks for the rec!!

carafern · August 2014

We used comfortis on our pup for the past year because we lived in flea-prone San Diego (and other over-the counter stuff stopped working).

dbgwife · August 2014

Frontline Frontline Frontline!!! Major brain fart!!!

rox825 · August 2014

Lots of frontline recs too, will have to ask about the ingredients in that one also!

runningmama14 · August 2014

rox825 said:
Lots of frontline recs too, will have to ask about the ingredients in that one also!

Frontline has fipronil and s-methoprene in it. Both are thought to be pretty safe for people, especially in the quantities you are likely to be exposed to from the residual of pet application.

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