Has anyone had a problem with Frontline Plus?

[Ginny Nightingale]

Hi all! I have been using Frontline Plus for flea control forever and have not seen a flea for years. BUT, now both of my dogs have two or three fleas on their tummies every time I look!! I have been able to remove them by hand, but the next day there are a few on them again. I know my vet mentioned that, with Frontline, the fleas don't die until they bite the dog , but, since i never had any fleas around, I thought it would be fine. Now, i think I will switch to Advantix, but I just put the Frontline on last week. I am guessing i will have to wait three more weeks to apply Advantix. I am going to see my vet about this Monday, but i thought I'd see if anyone else has been dissatisfied with this product. I hate to see fleas on my babies!

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

This is exactly what we do with Gracie Doodle. We give her Comfortis once a month on the first of each month. On the 15th of each month we give her Sentinel. Our vet suggested we overlap the medications. Since we live where there are no ticks we are fine. If I take Gracie into the mountains or country or to her Doggie Ranch when we travel, I put the Frontline Plus on her for the tick protections. So far we have never had a problem. Prior to using Comfortis we were using Frontline Plus. The only time I have found a flea on her has been when I took her to a doggie park. We don't do dog parks so when we got home and I saw a flea or two on her tummy I knew it had come from the park. Again, the flea has to bite before it can die!

[Kelly Gallagher]

Funny you should bring this up today. I just took Maddy to the groomer this morning and she told me that Frontline changed and ingredient or are using something new and it's changing the effectiveness of the product. I'm going to look into this further on my own. She suggested using BioSpot? I've heard of it but don't know anything about it. I'm going to look into it though.

[Ginny Nightingale]

Thanks to all of you for the information. The fleas really multiplied within a few days of my first post and I ended up going to my vet who gave me Advantix to try for one month. I wanted to see if the dogs were OK with it and if the flea problem improved. So far, no reaction to the Advantix and NO FLEAS! They all disappeared within 24 hours. My dogs are comfortable again! I am not sure what happened with the Frontline, but it definitely didn't work!!

[Leslie C.]

Hi, Ginny. I have been living through a flea nightmare. My puppy had Frontline Plus on her and somehow fleas ended up in our house and my cat had no protection and she likely created a large part of the problem. Since I have been in the battle against the fleas since July, I have learned a great deal.
1. The company that makes Frontline only sells to vets and therefore only guarantees their product if it was purchased at the vets.
2. You need to have a 3 tiered approach to addressing this flea problem. The visible fleas you see on your pet is the least of your worries as the larger part of the problem is already in your home/ on your property. I would start vacuuming and tossing out the vacuum bag as soon as you are done . . . the 3 tier approach has you treating the animals to get the fleas immediately off your pet with a flea /tick shampoo (I will be using a product called De Flea which is more of a natural product which will make the fleas melt off the dogs - you put it on a dry coat). You also have to treat the house and you also have to treat the yard. Everything should have an insect growth regulator. Here is a link to an informative article: http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/resources/IntegratedFlea.shtml I also suggest reading information on the Frontline Plus website: http://frontline.us.merial.com/hlp_faq.asp By the way your vet is incorrect, the fleas do not need to bite your pet . . . fleas just need to come in contact with the pet's haircoat that is treated with a frontline product (info. states these fleas will die in 12 hours of contact). I think I have super fleas that are just laughing at the chemicals. I believe that I have also read studies that indicate the percentage of product effectiveness declines as the weeks in the month progress towards the end of the month. After 3 applications of this product, Frontline Plus, I have needed to switch to another product for my dog. We are now trying Vectra 3d on her (no reaction) and dying of fleas on the dog was observed. Oh one more thing I learned is that the fleas can survive an attempted flea bath or Dawn bath as I have seen them literally come back from a still state where they must have buried deep into the dog to a slowly stretching and moving state - ( I must have not left the stuff on long enough or wetting her down first gave the fleas too much notice. I wish you the best of luck in winning this battle early. ~Leslie & LiliBear

[Deena Womack]

We have used Frontline in the year that Cali has been with us and thankfully no issues with fleas. I hate to see them change the formula on something that works so well.

[Lori]

We were having major issues a few years ago and at that time our vet said that most of the major flea control products are losing their effectiveness as the fleas are becoming immune. Fortunately (??) moving the family of skunks out from under our house helped immensely with the flea issue - as in, they are gone! Our climate also plays a role though, as it is generally between 55-65 degrees, day/night/year-round.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

I am having a TERRIBLE tick problem. Of course my dogs are up to date with Frontline Plus and it doesn't seem to be working. I have had to pry 2 ticks off of Taquito (poor thing has scabs on him). Peri has been lucky. Maybe that thick fur deters them from digging in??? We also brush her more.
I need to switch to something else I think.

[Dan, Judi, & Timbow]

I've had the problem with Front line plus too. No ticks here, just a couple fleas here and there. I know that they're supposed to die when they bite him, so maybe I'm finding them before they bite. Either way, I don't want to pay so much for fleas to still be able to bite him! I've heard that Advantix doesn't do well with dogs (there was an old post about someone's dog that had a very bad reaction to it). Jane, has your vet said anything about what he would tell people to do? If they should switch?

[Adina P]

Frontline plus does not repel ticks...it only keeps them from latching on I believe or kills them within 24 hours of latching on or something like that ... it's supposed to prevent them from actually transmitting disease.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

I am going back to Advantix. Peri and Taquito have not had a reaction to it and it does repel ticks.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Jack's specialist actually recommended Advantix over Frontline, and we know how sensitive he is.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Excellent - good to know. Switching back!