Choosing The Best Flea Medicine For Your Dog

Submitted By: D. Thurmond, D.V.M.
Category: Articles · Dogs · Health & Wellness · Pet Diseases          Tags: flea medications, pet illnesses

Developments in topical flea products, now allow pet owners to choose from a wide range of flea medicines for dogs that are affordable and work as promised. These are a far cry from the flea dust, strong flea dips and other methods, used for years to protect canines from the discomfort and health risks posed by flea bites.

Frontline flea products offer both, a topical treatment and a spray that may be more cost effective for those with multiple dogs or cats. The spot on treatments are by far, the most popular as they are clean and neat to apply, while the sprays are often messy and the fumes can be harmful to owners.

If you live in a hot, humid climate, flea control is a year round pet necessity. These locations tend to have heavy flea populations, as well as ticks, heartworm and other nasty parasites that pose a danger to your pet’s health. Advantage flea medicine was one of the first topical products with residual killing power and offers pet owners a real solution to fleas. The newest addition to the Advantage line of pet products is Advantage Multi, which kills fleas and also protects your dog from roundworm, whipworm, hookworm and heartworm.

For killing ticks, Frontline Plus is a good choice. It is designed to target brown dog ticks, lone star ticks and American dog ticks. It kills any fleas present on the animal, as well as interrupts its life cycle. For dogs over 8 weeks of age, Frontline Plus helps control chewing lice and sarcoptic mange. For locales with high numbers of mosquitoes, K9 Advantix is the choice, offering flea, tick and mosquito protection.

Revolution is a prescription medicine, offering a wide range of protection for dogs, killing fleas and flea eggs and American dog ticks. Revolution also treats ear mites, controls sarcoptic mites, and is a heart preventive dog medication. It is considered safe for use on puppies over six weeks old and for pregnant or lactating dogs.

Capstar offers a single dose pill that kills all adult fleas present on your dog within hours. There is no long term flea killing medication in Capstar, but this one dose pet med can be followed 24 hours later with one of the spot on products that will break the flea life cycle. If your dog is boarded, shown or you’ve just brought him home from the shelter, Capstar will kill any fleas that may have traveled with him.

A recent addition to dog flea medications is Comfortis. Comfortis is designed as a monthly medication, administered with a tasty wafer. It is fast acting and begins killing fleas on your pet within 30 minutes, with protection that lasts for 30 days.

It’s best not to become overly fond of any one flea treatment for dogs. Fleas adapt quickly and in as little as one year can become, at least, partially immune to a specific flea medication. Advantage, Frontline Plus,K9 Advantix, Revolution and Comfortis have different flea killing ingredients. Changing brands once a year will keep fleas from developing immunity to any one flea medication.

The prices of flea killing pet medications often increase, when other parasites are also killed by the product. You may choose to provide wide ranging protection, or focus only on killing fleas. There are now many flea medicines for dogs that provide superior flea killing capability at reasonable costs. Some are available over the counter, while others are by prescription only. No matter which product you choose for your dog, you can find significant savings by purchasing online from a site dedicated to discount pet medications. By shopping at a veterinarian owned website, you can be sure to receive fresh, authentic dog flea medicines.

Choose from the latest dog flea medicineonline. Buy fresh, brand name flea medications directly from a veterinarian at Pet Scripts Direct.