flea prevention and breeder website

[Rosalyn Ancrum]

Hi everyone,

I was looking a breeder's website (not my breeder) but it stated that anyone who purchased a puppy from them would invalidate their health guarantee  warranty by giving their puppy nexguard, bravecto, comfortis  and any internal flea prevention.  I thought that was strange.  It stated due to reports regarding kidney and liver damage.  I haven't heard this before.  

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

DRC has had a fair amount of HW positive dogs over the years, and not just in the South. Most of them did spend a lot of time outside, though.
But to me, HW is not the problem, because Heartgard is very very safe and very effective (except for those Collies & related breeds). And it's available in several different forms, with other wormers, w/o them, chewable, unflavored, etc. 

I don;t even worry about other kinds of worms. They're nasty, but they's easily gotten rid of. I had a foster with tapeworm and it took one pill and one day to get rid of it. 
To me, the tough choices are the ones for flea/tick prevents. 

[Stacy]

I'm still jealous of your lack of ticks. After we went on vacation last summer and I saw how tiny those ticks were I realized I would never find them if they weren't appropriately protected. I never did find any on the girls, but every time we went outside they were crawling on me. I kind of wished I could have one of the girls pills. 

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Our vet's office keeps a running "first tick removed" thing up in their waiting room... I take that to mean they remove quite a few every year starting in early spring.

I was just discussing with DH the other day how we'd never find a tick on Riley with all her black hair and blue skin...

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Supposedly, there are ticks in my general area. I've just never seen one. 

[Stacy]

Since we're talking about this, I just wanted to throw out a reminder that a lot of these companies have rebates. I just submitted one for $20 back on 12 months of sentinel. I love it when we save a little bit of money! Also, if your vet neglects to give you the rebate form it's all available online.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I sent in the rebate form for $7 back on a 6 month supply of Sentinel, and I got a $7 Visa debit card. Since most places won't let you pay with two different forms of payment, (i.e. a $7 card and then make up the difference in cash), and I never seemed to have an exactly $7 purchase, I ended up throwing the card away with something like $1.32 on it, lol. Why can't they just give you a check? 

[Stacy]

They used to. Now they make it so much more complicated! Even worse, the one I got from the Simparica people last time specified that it could only be used at a vets office (I'm not sure how the card knows.) But I did hand it to them at the vet today and say there's $35 on this and they ran that first and then ran my regular card.

Better yet, why don't they just take that much off the purchase price of the meds instead of making you jump through hoops? Still, I'm not going to turn my nose up at savings. The girls can have a couple new toys for that.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

My vet took the rebate card and gave me a credit for whenever I go next.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

That's a great idea, wish mine did that.

[Leslie, Yogi & Maci Bear]

I just hate giving our dogs these flea & tick preventers. I also feared the Nexgard which we use, but our vet said if they haven’t had any trouble she wouldn’t worry. ( but I still do). I’ve used Frontline in the past, but I worry about all the residual oil that can’t soak in. ESP Yogi, his coat is SO dense, I can’t get it all on his skin. I worry what it will do to humans. 

If anyone has secrets to help give Frontline, I’d prefer to use it 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Okay, so this may shock you (and others), but I am not phobic about toxins, etc. and I have never washed my hands after applying Frontline, or avoided petting my dog or coming in contact, etc, and neither has anyone else in my family. Every one of us has had Frontline Plus in contact with our skin multiple times over the years, including children, and none of us has ever had so much as an irritation from it. And I am 67 years old and judging by all the people kvetching about their health problems on FB, I daresay I am in better health than most, as are my daughter and grandson. I know for sure we get sick less and take less medication. 
I used it on a purebred Miniature Poodle from show lines, and no dog has a thicker coat than that, lol. Try as best you can to part the fur and get the tip of the applicator down on the skin. One tip my vet gave me was to ignore the packaging instructions to put it all in one place between the dog's shoulder blades, and instead, to apply it in a line going down the back. That seems to help with absorption. 

[Stacy]

We are off to the vet today to do the new puppy thing and I'm going to ask what he thinks the safest heart worm/flea, tick meds are this year. I'm going to ask about that revolution all in one topical. He may still suggest Simparica, even thought the FDA warnings came out after my girls were put on it. They do fine with it, but I worry because it would be new to Willow. It is so difficult to figure out the right thing to do. I just want to keep her safe and healthy. I might just go with sentinel and frontline. But I'm so paranoid about tick diseases. I know that her coat will hide them so it has to be a very effective medication, but I don't want the medication to hurt her either. I'm not so afraid of fleas. I don't want them, but for most dogs and people they are more of an annoyance than a health risk (at least short term. I'm not talking about infestations.) Argh! What to do!