Expensive flea treaments failing?
Clients are commenting more and more that their expensive flea preventions and treatments are not working like they expected.
Although there is EXTREMELY strong evidence to suggest resistence to these products is being seen, the drug companies are of course denying this until they are black and blue in the face. The main culprit is Merial, the maker of Frontline. They have been denying problems for a long time, and only recently admitted that a "lack of response" to their product is being seen in Australia and parts of the USA. We wish they had been honest and upfront with vets rather than combative over the past few years, a strategy that has cost them a large chunk of business I suspect.
I got sidetracked....we can't change resistence patterns, but we can change common mistakes as below.
5 reasons why your flea treatments "aren't as effective as they used to be"
1. You are not using them often enough
Due to cost, many people try and "stretch" out the time between uses. This allows the dormant stages in your carpet or in the yard time to hatch and eat your pets, and ultimately lay eggs to complete the cycle.
Use your flea treatments MONTHLY (every fortnight in tick season), and YEAR ROUND. YES. All year. If not, during Winter, the flea cycle slows down, but doesn't stop, treating during winter in Australia is the best protection for the spring onslaught of fleas.
2. You are not treating all animals in contact with your "problem" animal
All animals in the house need treating, otherwise they act as a reservior for reinfestation. Simple as that. Another problem is the cat next door that jumps the fence to leave a few flea eggs in your yard. Not an easy one to fix, but certainly means you continue to see fleas.
3. You are washing it off with a soap based shampoo
No point spending lots of your hard earned cash on expensive treatments, only to wash it off the next week with a cheap supermarket shampoo to save a dollar.
Remedy - use a soap free shampoo, the best is by Dermcare.
Also using the flea treatment COMFORTIS, which is a tablet means no chance of washing your treatment away. It is month long and terribly effective.
4. Your animal has access to a dark damp area like under a deck or house
Damp dark areas under a house or deck are just prime areas for reinfestation. Block access to these areas, you will save yourself hundreds of dollars in pest controller bills. It has been shown many times it is just about impossible to kill fleas in these environments.
5. You are splitting doses to reduce the cost, and thus under dosing.
Of course we all like to save money, some people split doses and apply it across all their animals. Although it sounds good, many times we see the product just not working well due to under dosing of some of these pets, making for loop hole and reinfestation risk. Ulltimately you end up with fleas again (or never get rid of them), and end up spending more money than you tired to save.
See our main site for further topics of interest
http://www.animaldoctors.com.au/
