I treat my dogs every month all year both w/Frontline %26 Heartgard! I live in Texas and we do not experience much of the winter months ~ recently a friend of mine asked, "why do you treat your dogs all year around w/Frontline?" She stated I only had to treat them during the summer months and basically I was medicating my dogs unnecessary. Whats right?
Note: I have talked w/2 different vets and gotten 2 different points of view;
1 said since my dogs have never had flea's or ticks that treating them during the summer months would be sufficient enough, and more cost efficient and I would not be treating them unnecessarily.
The other said, the reason my dogs don't have flea's or ticks is b/c I treat them monthly and need to continue regardless of the cost? I can see pro's and con's with both...
Cost is no object ~ I want to do what is not only the best but the healthiest for my boys...
Answers:
The healthiest way is to keep treating them during every month. Fleas will kick up in nice warm weather like in april or when it's just right. I live in College Station and anyone who doesn't treat their dogs year round have flea problems and in Texas it's really risky not to with the diseases being way to commonly spread like lyme disease. My neighbor's dog became ill and died from being bitten by a tick in the park across the street.
Fleas are something for sure that aren't wanted at home so why risk having to bug bomb the house because of not keeping the treatment on them. What treater has been the best for us is K-9 Advantix= fleas ticks and mosquitos. Personally treating my dogs helps keep them healthy and also lets them live that much happier. Especially with large dogs. We have 6 dogs. Two min pins, 3 german shepherds, and a lab mix and all get treatments for heartworms and fleas monthly. Truly the choice is up to you and either one you make will be the right one for you to do.
will not hurt to treat them year around...better safe than sorry
You use Frontline when you need it. If it is warm all year then use it all year. Use the ivermectin (heartguard) all year. The reason for that is two-fold. If the dog has picked up immature heartworms, the monthly ivermectin will kill them over time. It doesn't kill everything in one dose. It is an "over time" product. Plus heartguard has pyrantel in it to also keep any worms under control in the intestinal tract.
Every vet I have ever known in my life has said to treat your dog's year round with BOTH Heartguard and Frontline, especially if you live in states like Florida and Texas, which don't have a true winter season.
Heaertguard and Frontline are both safe medications for dogs, and keeps them from being infested with ticks, fleas.or even worse...heart worm. The treatment for heartworm is very tough on dogs, and that is why it is so important to keep your dog on Heartguard so they don't get the heart worm.
You live in Texas, which is pretty warm year round, so I would just continue to keep him on Flea prevention AND heartworm prevention year round. And I agree with the second vet, the reason your dog doesn't have a flea problem is because you have him on flea prevention. I live in Michigan, and it is much colder up here, and I keep my dog on Heargard and Frontline Plus year round. Even though it is colder in the winter months, she could still pick up fleas from her other dog friends who might not be on flea prevention. So I think it is worth it to just keep her on it all year round. And both Heartgard and Frontline are a very safe products, so you aren't doing any harm to your dog by keeping him on them.
continue with the year round heartguard that's for sure! as for the dog's. fleas often are not killed or go dorment until the second hard freeze of winter. in texas i'm not sure if you get a 2nd hard freeze. and often it warms up rather quickly afterwards. i'm in kansas and we usually don't see the real 2nd hard freeze sometimes until jan. and then only jan and feb are the only months you can skip by. sometimes not even then. it's up to you. you will find out if it works to stop when you see fleas on your pets and then you can purchase and start back applying the frontline and give a big i told you so to your friends. or if you prefer to play on the safe side just keep up what you are doing. fleas aren't like heartworms, at least as soon as you know they're there you can just go back to the preventative. with the heartworms once they're there you have to treat the dog for them before you can go back to the preventative. and good for you for taking such good care of them no matter what you decide on the frontline!
I live in MN And we give our dogs frontline as soon as it starts to get warm. So since, you sdon't really have much of a winter I think it would be smart to treat them year round. Better not to risk it.
I use to live in Texas and I remember the winters there (not much). But our vet always said because of the weather you should use every month! ticks are really bad in some areas of texas.
So I did not take any chances I used both all year long!
as a fellow texan and a vet tech, yes treat your dog year around. in other states you can get away with not treating in the winter because they actually have a winter unlike us. mosquitoes and such subside in the winter months but in texas they are a year around threat. also, you can ask 10 different vets and get 10 different answers. trust me i have tested this theory and it is true. there is a new product out called advantage muti that is a topical and is a heartworm preventative and parasite and flea preventative in one. its more cost effective than getting frontline and heartguard. we have had such good results with this product that my clinic offers a guarantee through us, not the manufacturer. but to answer your question, in texas, it is absolutely necessary to give it year around.
Well, I've always done it in a rather simple way.
Don't treat unless there's a reason to treat. If you see even 1 flea on your pet, then give them Frontline for that month.
Otherwise, I would definitely give Frontline to them during the ''flea season'', but there's no point of doing it year round unless fleas are a problem the entire year. (I used to live in TX, and it really depends on where you live, and how high the grass is allowed to get around your home, that figures into whether fleas are constant trouble or just seasonal).
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