Why I will no longer be using Frontline on my dogs...

[L.M.]

I had to share this.  I put Frontline on Seamus the other day.  He was sleepy so after I applied it, he lay down on my hard wood floors.  As he did so I remember thinking to myself, I hope it doesn't stain my walls (he tends to lean a bit on my walls when he lays).  Well, today, I noticed some kind of weird stain on my hard wood floor (luckily they are not new) in exactly the same spot where Seamus was sleeping the other day.  The Frontline ate entirely through the varnish on my hard wood floors!!!! ENTIRELY!  It stripped it down to the wood....I'm not exaggerating.  

Soooo I will be saving myself some money and will not be putting this chemical on my dogs anymore...if it does that to wood, what does it do to them?!  

Do people nowadays just not use these flea/tick preventatives?? I never used them on my pug years ago and she was fine.  My dogs get the Lyme vaccine and their hair is kept short, so I'm not super worried about fleas.....What are your thoughts on not using this stuff?  Especially after hearing this?  

[Jen, Lachlan, and Declan]

I have a box of Frontline for Lachlan "just in case", since he's in a puppy group and getting out into public every weekend, but I have to admit I'm TERRIFIED to put it on him. Reading this thread avidly for alternative ideas.

Years ago I can remember buying big tubs of boric acid powder to treat my carpets, which got rid of the fleas quite nicely. Does anyone still do that? (Not that it would do me a whole lot of good now, because I've managed to get rid of most of my carpet in the last year.)

[Sue, Lola, Pongo & Hubby]

oh, that's really scary. We give Lola Revolution (by Pfizer), and we haven't had any complaints. She tries to roll after applying it (it's in drops, and you apply on the skin along the length of the spine), so we have to stop that, but other than that little freak out, she seems fine with it. I'd love to NOT have to give her anything, but ticks and fleas really freak me out!!

[Lee Seidman]

We use Comfortis, neither Doodle has ever had a flea, never had a side effect, it is in pill form so it is not hazzardous to children or furrniture, downside is it not a tick preventative. 

No tick prevention has  not been a problem to us during in the past two years that we have been using Comfortis. When we went into the mountains we used preventick tick collars and they seemed to do the job as well.

Is anyone else using Comfortis  ???

[Carla, Lucca and Izzy]

I have been using Frontline Plus but we (the vet and I) have come to the conclusion that Izzy is possibly allergic to fleas and a monthly dose on her does nothing. I refuse to give her a dose every 3 weeks. Starting Aug 1st I am going to try Trifexis which is Comfortis plus Heartworm. I hemmed and hawed over this for months but this poor thing is so itchy I have to try something different. I never seem to see any fleas on her but it just takes one to make her feel horrible. Her entire back legs are raw and hairless from her biting. IF I don't like what it does I an always stop it.

[Jennifer and Jack]

I am thinking of getting that..

[Carla, Lucca and Izzy]

I'll let you know how it works

[Diana Erhart]

Charlie used Comfortis for about 2 years.  He was using Frontline Plus but I started noticing fleas on him.  He was at the top of the weight category and the vet didn't want to put him on a stronger dose or use it more often.  The Comfortis worked great.  The only reason we changed was that I found a tick on him one day.  The vet then switched him to something called Vectra 3 (it is a topical like Frontline).  

[Suzann, Rosey & Bandit]

Believe me I am about right there with you... For the past 3 months Bandit has had a very bad reaction to his Vectra and this month K9 Advantix wasn't as bad but he was definitely not normal...I don't know what to do...

[shelly]

How IS Buddy Bandit????

[Suzann, Rosey & Bandit]

he's doing pretty good.  He had one day where he wasn't feeling too good from the k9 advantix...but not near as bad as the reaction to the vectra...so we'll see what we do next month...

[Kaytlin and Cooper]

we dont use anything - I hate the thought of giving Cooper and my cats chemicals every month. Cooper doesnt roll around in grass much, but last summer she did get fleas and it was aweful. we said we would give her treatments this summer, and in the summer only, but we never have....

[shelly]

WOW! That is terrible!  Poor doodle, and poor YOU and your floors!  I don't use it at all.... I just figured, anything that I couldn't touch with bare hands couldn't be good for a dog's skin.  I do use a chemical free spray made from picaridin, lemon and eucalyptus or there are some other homemade ones you can make.... I will try and post the links.  Here's one:

http://walking.about.com/od/suncare/gr/cutteradvanced.htm