Flea Prevention

Flea control for dogs and cats has come a long way in the past ten years. At the Marin Pet Hospital, we currently favor flea preventative products such as Advantage and Frontline, which are topical liquids, and are safe for use on dogs and cats.  When placed directly on the pet’s skin, these flea preventatives travel on the lipid layer of the skin. The flea then comes into contact with the flea preventative which acts to soften the flea’s exoskeleton, leading to the flea’s death. In addition, when the pet sheds skin cells, these cells are medicated with the flea preventative, and fall where larval fleas find and ingest them, in turn killing the flea larva.

If you suspect your pet has a heavy flea load, not only should he be treated with his flea prevention once a  month, but you should be washing any bedding he sleeps upon weekly, as well as vacuuming any areas he likes to hang out in, weekly, to lessen the flea egg population as well. Be sure to vacuum baseboards and under furniture as well.

In the rare cases where a pet owner suspects the Advantage or Frontline to cause an allergic reaction, these products can be washed off with soap and water. This also means that these products are not entirely waterproof, and will lose efficacy on pets who like to swim. However, we still feel Advantage or Frontline are your best bet at this time for flea prevention.

Permethrin products should never be used on cats, as they are a neurotoxin. Permethrins can even be toxic to cats when placed on a dog inthe same household. Advantage and Frontline are NOT permethrin based products.

And lastly, one fun flea factoid: only 1% to 5% of a flea population are adult fleas. That means there are 95% to 99% of fleas in egg or larval form just lurking in the environment that you cannot even see.

Good luck in the battle against the flea!

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