I treat my maltese/shihtzu with a spot on treatment every month. I usually bath her for fleas first then completly dry and groom her, finally i put the treatment on the back of her neck. Doing it this way has always been successful, but i was in a hurry with the last treatment and i didn't bathe her first. I finally bathed her today and i found three small fleas on her?? FOUR days after treatment! Aren't these spot-ons supposed to work without needing to bath? Or is it time to switch brands?
2007-10-27 23:10:06 · 4 answers · asked by jukette 3 in Pets ➔ Dogs
depending on what brand you use, for example Frontline, you shouldn't wet your dog 2 days either side of applying it, you should read up on the packaging, i tend to swap mine occasionally too so the fleas can't build up an immunity to the treatments
2007-10-27 23:37:04 · answer #1 · answered by Leonie V 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
First of all, no spot-on can work if you bath first. The reason for this is that spot-ons need the natural oils of the skin to work - it's how they spread through the whole skin. When you bath an animal, you wash these oils off. You're not supposed to bath within 48 hours before or after applying a spot-on.
Second of all, there are many different types of spot-on - they're all different chemicals. You can be quite sure that NO flea treatment bought from a store will work however. Pet stores aren't licensed to sell the proper chemicals for flea treatment - anything you find in store is just going to be a basic pesticide that you can't expect to work.
Veterinary spot-ons do work - they're specially formulated to actually kill fleas and, unlike store-bought stuff, are appropriate for application to animals. So if you're not already on Frontline, Advantage, Revolution or Advocate, you need to be.
You will probably have to spray your house as well, since this is where most of the fleas are living. Again, get something from a vets, not a pet store.
Chalice
2007-10-28 20:00:45 · answer #2 · answered by Chalice 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Same thing happened to me. I guess time to switch.
I couldn't believe when I saw one small flea.
Here I spend all this money, and they are not cheap, and he still got one.
2007-10-28 06:13:23 · answer #3 · answered by Mom of 2 great boys 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
che??
2007-10-28 06:11:26 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋