# What is the best flea med for your poodle?



## BeBe67 (May 13, 2015)

What is the best flea med for your poodle? It is a really bad flea season down here in the deep south. Suggestions plz? I prefer a topical once a month. Have been reading about Seresto collars too. Has anyone used Sentry? or other all natural topicals? The poodles sleep with the kids and I want something safe. Had been using Advantix II but it is $$$ and I have 5 dogs and 3 cats to treat.


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## glorybeecosta (Nov 11, 2014)

I also use K9 Advantage II and it works


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## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

Depends on if your poodle has a ton of fleas already. We use Bravecto around here because Noelle is a flea magnet.


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## Mfmst (Jun 18, 2014)

That's what I use, too. Always a good idea to check with your vet on which ones are flea/tick proof in your area. A flea free home is priceless...


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## AngelAviary (Aug 12, 2014)

I use Frontline. Had always worked great for me. Keeps the ticks from attaching too! I cant even imagine trying to find a tick in a full poodle coat! ! ! Ticks are projected to be very bad this year up here in Michigan. We just found our first of the season, on DH not a pup!


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## RylieJames (Feb 3, 2016)

I use an oral treatment: Trifexis.

I chose an oral treatment for a few reasons:
1) Because I have cats, topical treatments are not a good option I don't want my cats to accidentally come in contact with the dog's flea treatment.
2) I don't have to worry about timing the application around baths or it accidentally getting washed away if my dogs jump in the pool/pond after application
3) No icky smell or fell to the fur from the topical treatments.

Also, what I like about Trifexis is that it treats for heart worm and ticks too. Thus, I only have to worry about one medicine each month.

One downside I have with Trifexis is that one of my dogs hates the taste. It is a pain to get him to take it each month. My other dog likes it and gets excited about getting a "treat" each month. So, I don't really think it is the medicine to blame--I just have one picky dog!

ETA: I live in the southeast and have been told that we have a really bad flea problem in the area, but I have not had any flea problems while keeping my dogs on Trifexis--thankfully!


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## Asta's Mom (Aug 20, 2014)

I am also in the deep south and use Bravecto for Asta, though it isn't cheap. I love that it is once every 3 months and takes care of ticks too.


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## Raven's Mom (Mar 18, 2014)

My vet LOVES the Seresto collar so I did use it one year but it was always in my way during training interfering with my training collar, so I switched back to Frontline. It did work very well and the price is not terrible for 8 months of protection. My mother uses Trifexes so I may try that next time because I have to bathes so often for Raven's allergies.


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## bigpoodleperson (Jul 14, 2009)

> Keeps the ticks from attaching too!


It actually doesn't. Ticks have to bite and attach for them to die with Frontline. It works to kill them, but too long for me. We had gone on a hike, and groomed Draco about 5 days later. The groomer found 5 ticks, dead and still attached. He had huge welts and infection around all the tick bites because they were still attached. I didn't notice them.


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## Beautiful Blue (Apr 24, 2017)

Here in the northern Plains it is suggested that we use Flea and Tick Prevention from mid April to mid October (I use Hartz Ultra Guard) and Heartgard Plus from July 1st to December 1st.


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## thekarens (Apr 16, 2017)

Like a others, we also use Bravecto. We're in Texas and kept getting fleas with Frontline, so we changed. Knock on wood we haven't had fleas since.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## JudyD (Feb 3, 2013)

I think Trifexis doesn't treat for ticks, only fleas, heartworm, and intestinal parasites. We have a real tick problem, so we use Bravecto for ticks and fleas and Heartgard for heartworms and intestinal parasites. Bravecto is expensive (we get it from Petmeds, which is a little cheaper than from our vet), but it lasts twelve weeks and has been very effective for the past two years.


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## janet6567 (Mar 11, 2014)

We had a flea problem about two years ago when the next door neighbors got a very BIG and very shaggy outdoor dog. We tried Advantix Plus and Frontline, had the yard treated professionally several times and were still getting fleas. My son recommended Nexgard. I asked my vet what he thought and he said he used it on his two dogs. Within 12 hours, we had no fleas! Fortunately the neighbors moved shortly after that and we have had no issues since.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

We used to use Iverhart and Advantix II and we also gave a winter holiday. On the recommendation of our vet we switched to year round treatment and put a Seresto collar on Peeves (since he doesn't show these days) and went with Bravecto for the poodles. All three dogs are also on monthly Interceptor. We made these changes in March and have been pest free with no adverse reactions.

I am responding to the idea of a dog being picky about the oral meds (which are all meant to be chewables). Lily and Peeves had stopped chewing the Iverhart years ago and I just gave it to them as you would a non-chewable pill. Javelin happily ate the Iverhart though. Now Lily and Javelin both seem happy to eat the Bravecto, but Lily eats the Interceptor and Javelin doesn't. Peeves ate the first couple of Interceptors, but was a little slow with it last week. Go figure. I just do what I have to to make sure each dog gets the correct dose of each thing. Lily would overdose on Interceptor if I tried to leave it to Javelin to eat his since she reappears after she eats hers and would happily steal his.


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## tbarr (Feb 26, 2017)

Bravecto is great! Neither of the girls has ever had fleas, and since it's an oral medication, it doesn't make a yellow stain on Rena's white hair like topic medications do.


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## Diana133 (Sep 29, 2017)

Before I was using Seresto flea collar, but I came to the conclusion that it is not worth it. My dog had to use two collars, it has to be taken off if I want to bath him etc. Now I just give him pills, and I'm perfectly happy with the result.


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## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

Bravecto. We had a serious flea problem and nothing worked until Bravecto. It gave Noelle the runs the first day, after that, no problems and no fleas.


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## Johanna (Jun 21, 2017)

I have always avoided using anything on my dogs' skin/coat - especially the whippets, IGs and greyhounds since they are very sensitive to poisons. Instead, I treat the environment with diatomaceous earth which is so safe that it is commonly fed to horses to kill intestinal parasites. I fed each of my horses 1/2 cup a day to keep them free of worms and to kill flies in the manure.

You have to purchase the food-safe type of DE, not the swimming pool variety. You sprinkle it very liberally inside and out. It works by dehydrating insects, but is safe for all mammels. DE is made from diatom shells (diatoms are tiny sea creatures). The shells abrade the soft parts of insects. It does not affect earthworms. I used it in my chicken coop when my chickens got mites. Worked great.

While we do not have fleas here (too high, cold, and dry), DE was a godsend when I lived in Florida and Texas. It's only down side is that it harms beneficial insects as well as pests.


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## JMC3 (Mar 27, 2016)

We use a 3 month chew called Bravecto, not sure I spelled it right. Works great. Neither of my dogs have ever had a flea. We have found a tick on Cooper a time or two but they were already dead.


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