After my last Vet visit, she gave me Frontline for Titan to apply monthly to prevent fleas and ticks. I've noticed after administering it properly, he has been scratching and bitting himself way more than normal. Has anyone else had this reaction to Frontline? Any suggestions as to what flea/tick prevention medication we should use if this is an adverse side effect?

Background: Titan is a 6 month old pup who loves to hike and go to the dog park.

I use revolution and have been very happy with it. If you live in an area with high tick pressure, the topicals will not be sufficient in early spring and mid-fall. Some members on here use rose geranium oil (search for how to use, you have to dilute it, then drops on there collar/harness). I use Preventic tick collar spring and another one starting Oct. 1 - earlier if I find a tick. If you have small kids that regularly snuggle with dog, preventic may not be best solution (or if you take certain medications - read the label.)

It may be the second ingredient that's causing this. I use Fiproguard because it's waterproof, and kills all types of ticks, Fiproguard is exactly the same as Frontline, no prescription needed, cheaper, the added ingredient is for flea eggs which is not included with the plain Fiprogaurd, but if your dog has no fleas, then no eggs. I would have went with revolution however 3 things that swayed me were only effective for american dog ticks, we have several types of ticks here and it was designed for cat's, so I was hesitant on the efficacy for dogs, and was unsure of being water proof. I do have a cat so the geranium oil was a no go for me. I have never seen a flea nor tick on my girl, and has never had a reaction to it.

I would go for advocate as that would have protection of heart worm and lungworm (really depending which part of world you living in, as in UK there is no heartworm but lungworm is an issue) The only draw back of that is they don't protect ticks

Grizzly&Charcoal wrote:

I would go for advocate as that would have protection of heart worm and lungworm (really depending which part of world you living in, as in UK there is no heartworm but lungworm is an issue) The only draw back of that is they don't protect ticks

From my research online and chatting with people locally, there really isn't a topical that protects well against ticks - many sources say nothing approaches the efficacy of flea control, thus it is recommended, in areas with high tick pressure, that a multi pronged approach be used. I use revolution (fleas, heartworm, 1 type of tick), preventic collar spring and fall, going over him carefully after hikes...if I find many than I am going to add the rose geranium oil to his collar.

We considered the preventic collar as well, we are fearful of ticks, my neighbor last week found hundreds on her 3 dogs(now this may be an exaggeration of hers), we have seen 2 in the two years we've had Miya, one when she was young and removed it and the other this year and hubby spotted it and killed it, it had no interest or maybe never had a chances to attach I don't know. Why my neighbor has a bad problem and we don't haven't a clue, the collar we didn't get because of our senior cat. When, and if she passes we will be getting the collar for back up like you do Amy. Curious Amy, Ami has super long hair compared to my girl, on revolution have you seen any fleas? And my second question Amy do you use a heartworm preventive like Heartguard as well as the Revolution?

Revolution is a heartworm protective as well as kills adult fleas, prevents flea eggs from hatching, also labeled for ear mites and sarcoptic mange as well as dog tick.  Also, revolution is waterproof after 2 hours - it is absorbed systemically and deposited in sebaceous glands that distribute the drug to the entire skin surface.

I believe revolution is slightly more expensive than the others but for me - coverage for sarcoptic mange was important.  The vector for this is fox - the year before we got Ami, we had repeated bouts of a fox on the pool deck, trying to chase off our cat (turns out, after searching this, the cat was not at risk - apparantly cats like to eat fox babies )  Then, a year before that, I had a dead fox in my compost pile (the most prevalent killer of foxes in our area is sarcoptic mange - they lose their coat, skin becomes leaky, they get dehydrated and they can't keep warm) and several years before that, we had a pair raise some kits in the foundation of the old part of the house (if you think siberian pups are cute, you should see fox kits!)  So for us, I believe coverage for sarcoptic mange is important.

Unfortunately, it is not labeled for prevention of internal parasites as some of the others are but there are a few studies showing efficacy against roundworm and hookworm ) the latter, if I remember correctly.  If I need to. it's easy enough to worm him - his last 6 pack of revolution actually came with a 2 dose pack of canex all-wormer.

Ami does not have any fleas - if you apply the stuff correctly, even with long hair it should not be an issue.  You part the hair over the shoulder blades and apply the stuff directly to the skin - takes only a second.

As for your neighbor having ticks and you not - does you keep chickens?  Or neighbors were having a terrible time with ticks, did not want to use chemicals on their dog so got guinea hens.  Their favorite food is ticks.  She suggested I get some - I think she is not aware of the siberian husky prey drive Plus, the guinea hens devour her hostas and daylillies.  You also appear to keep your grass quite short - that is one of the tick control practices.

I'm up in the middle of the night - damn asthma cough wakes me like clockwork at 3 AM last few nights.  Thought I'd give hubby a break and do my treatments in the kitchen and wait until I stop coughing...Glad when this episode passes.