Heartworm Medication/Flea Medication

[Barbara Korber]

Gussie just joined us at 3 months.  Am about to start him on Heartgard.  Has anyone had any bad side effects from that?  What kind of flea/tick protection do you use?  Any bad side effects from any of them?  I just put m 12-1/2 year old golden retriever down after dealing with 9 years of epilepsy.  Many on the epilepsy online group are very skeptical of all the chemicals we use on our pups and concerned they may contribute to all the epilepsy, cancers, etc. we are seeing these days, so I guess I'm hypersensitive with my new boy.  (I'm also concerned about giving the leptospirosis vaccine - has anybody had any problems with that?)

[Helen & Kirby]

I tried trifexis, but Kirby got sick from it.  also, you can't give trifexis to certain herding breeds. 

Now I use Revolution and have had to ill side effects from it.  It's good for heartworm, flea, mites and scabies.

My sister uses Heartgard on her dogs and has never had a problem with it.

[Kylee]

My Vet keeps recommending Nexgard for flea/tick, it is like a Heartgard pill and is taken orally. Has anyone used it or heard of it? I am so frustrated with flea/tick treatments...I can't find one that I like.

[Melissa Bissell]

Our vet recommended Heartgard and K9 Advantix II.  We are on our first round of each and have had no problems.  We live in an area with a lot of mosquitos, fleas and ticks and have a deer highway right through our backyard, so we are taking no chances.  But that is our particular situation.  

[Barbara Korber]

What about the relatively new Seresto collar by Bayer (makers of Advantage)?  Has anyone used this?  Any problems?  It still seeps into their system gradually, and is good for 8 months I guess.

[Kylee]

I am using that now actually. I bunch of people I have talked to said it works really well...but we shall see. A guy I work with said his vet recommends it and everyone in their office is using it. We live in eastern PA and it has such a high tick population. I just don't like putting topical stuff on my doodle...not to mention she won't sit still. I just want to do what is best for her.

[Kylee]

I haven't had any problems so far with seresto. T

[Susan, Coby & Chloe]

We're going to a beach area next week so I picked up a single use flea application for our 5 mo. old ALD but while there a customer who was leaving said she always just applies lavender oil.  The vet ass't said they don't recommend it but wonder if anyone has ever heard of that alternative?