Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Having about 15 Rat Terriers and living in a place where nothing dies off in the winter, flea control is pretty important to me. I get Frontline (not Frontline Plus) in the Great Dane size and then I give it to my dogs by their weight. It's sold in graduated doses for weight but basically it's in about 20 lb steps. I have dogs who are at the top of the lowest step and then a bunch who are at the bottom of the next 20 lb step. So I siphon off the dosage for dogs up to 20 lbs for the smaller ones and then I use that amount plus a tiny bit for the ones who are just over 20 lbs. The one time I got a bad reaction to Frontline was on one of my terriers who is in the just over 20 lb category and was given an over 20 lb dose by Frontline's reckoning.  When you do the math and use a syringe to draw off exact dosages, I've found that it works fine.  But overdosing on Frontline isn't nice at all. Al (the dog who reacted) got an immediate bath and had to be watched closely for a day or so. I don't have a vet that close by so I'm even more careful.

The other advantage of this is the fact that Frontline is sold for roughly the same whether it is in the packages for midgets or Great Danes. Since one vial of Great Dane does about five midgets, the savings are phenomenal.  I also don't do it every month as they say to, but about every two months in the summer, which is our tick season.  Because the dogs live in enclosed areas and seriously discourage entry to wild cats and dogs, they don't have much contact with extra fleas and ticks so they stay pretty clean (until the Dalmation decides to go for a run through the fields behind my house...but that's usually just mud).  So far so good and I've been working this way for about 5 years. Most people are amazed that with all these dogs there are no fleas and ticks, but it's worked for me.

Maryanne
in Cairo where the horses can get something from ticks (babesiosis  sp?) but so far people and dogs don't.

On Jun 16, 2005, at 3:32 AM, agilbxr@xxxxxxx wrote:

> <x-tad-bigger>It's unusual to have dogs react to the advantage or the front?line.? I've been a vet tech for 15 years, and the only reaction I've seen was a?little localized swelling on a cat with the?frontline.</x-tad-bigger>