Flea & tick collar v. Frontline (or any other flea and tick brand)

[Kylee]

Hi everyone. I am sure at his topic has been discussed a lot but I was still hoping to get some help. Today I was talking with a K-9 cop who has had dogs for forever. He said that he prefers using a flea & tick collar to frontline or any other flea and tick preventative. He said every time he has used the collar he has never had fleas or ticks on any of his dogs. He also said the collar repels the fleas and ticks from even coming on the dog. Anybody ever have any experience with these collars? If so do you prefer them over frontline and what not? I don't love the idea if putting frontline on my doodle, but at the same time I want her to be safe and healthy. Thanks!!

[Jolene, Sassparilla & Josie]

My last experience albeit a very long time ago, the fleas would just walk up and over the collars? My last dog didn't have fleas (didn't need to do anything) it was wonderful. These two we tried K9 Advantix and they still had a flea problem, we'll try frontline next then move on. We just had our first tick and it scared me to death, we didn't find it for a week and when we did it was right by her eye! It will be interesting too see what works and doesn't.
In my opinion the collars are a waste of money but for some it may be enough to do the trick? Again our last dog over a fourteen year span she NEVER had a flea, guess they didn't like her blood??

[Emily, Jace, & Maggie Devers]

From what I've read online and just learned from vets and seasoned dog owners is that some collars don't work at all and just expose your dog to unnessecary chemicals and others are way too strong because in order for them to work they have to use a lot of chemicals because some of them wear off with use.. I use k9 advantix II on both of my guys and it works great. Back home when I was younger our farm dogs wore the collars and they worked for maybe a week. I personally don't like the collars.

[Gail and Bailey]

We use Frontline Plus and live in the woods (lots of deer) and Bailey has never gotten a tick or flea!  I like the idea that even if a tick should get on her and bite her...the tick will die!  If a tick gets on a dog with a flea collar, the tick gets a ride into your house where it will jump off (being repelled by the collar) and then you have a live tick in the house.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

We use Frontline Plus.  We used flea collars as well as flea powder years ago, but I don't really know how well they worked.  I know we had fleas!

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

Have never, ever had any luck with flea collars. And I, for one, hate to have to touch it everytime I pet my dog.
Have had great success with Advantix , when living in Texas and here in Ca. With Enzo we are using Trifexis, again with great success.

[Abigail *George & Juno*]

We use trifexis as well and love it. George does great on it and we will never use anything else. We figure we're already giving her a heartworm tablet every month might as well get the flea protection.

As for flea collars, I've never heard ANYONE recommend them.

[Kylee]

I wanted to look in to using that Trifexis. I was just wondering though what you use to prevent ticks?

[Gail and Bailey]

That is why some of us have to use Frontline Plus...because Trifexis does not protect against ticks!

If you live in a bad area for ticks you need something besides Trifexis.

[Kylee]

Thanks for the info! We live in PA so we def. need tick protection.

[Abigail *George & Juno*]

We live in Oklahoma. We spray for ticks, but still just brush her after being in wooded or tall grassy areas. We brush/comb her after those times anyways to get the tag-alongs out of her fur. Never had a problem. She gets combed daily so we would know.

Frontline plus isn't an option for us. I would rather do daily tick searches than worry about topical permethrin hanging around the house. I've also heard some studies proved that oral was substantially more effective at preventing flea infestations, but I don't remember who the source was and we are already on oral preventative so I didn't pay much attention. I can't stand by the validity of the claim but it might be worth looking into.

[Gail and Bailey]

Abigail.....when you say you spray for ticks do you mean you spray your yard?  What do you use?

[Abigail *George & Juno*]

It depends. We spread our pastures at my parents house with 0.2% bifenthrin. Though if she's going there she gets a "preventic" collar while we're there because she will be spending time outside anyways, and it can be used safely with triphexis. I prefer this on the rare occasion we will be spending time at my parents and don't want to continuously search for ticks.

The majority of the time we live in "town" but it is a gated subdivision. Our lawn service is all natural/organic and we hired him for that reason. We maintain a very large tropical aquarium complete with rare fish and coral and aren't willing to risk harming them. The fish are decently hardy, but the coral will die. We don't even use "normal" cleaning products. We do have some trails and every once in awhile she picks up a tick or two if I let her off leash. We've never had a problem with them though.