Anything For Animals

posted by admin on Jun 29

So, what is the best Flea Product to use?

As with any flea control products or flea treatments, it depends on how you use them as to whether they appear to work, so comparing individual products is very hard. Don’t forget that fleas do not live on the pet itself, so the following product in the example below could have 2 very different results in the eyes of the untrained ‘flea’ owner:

House 1: You can use flea spray A on a pet in a house with no infestation or flea eggs present, and that will be it - no more fleas on that pet.

House 2: You can use the same flea spray A on a pet in a house with an infestation and/or flea eggs present, and soon enough that pet will ‘have’ fleas again.

But aren’t some products stronger than others?
There are flea treatments for pets that are ’stronger’ than others in terms of the chemicals present, and those from your vets normally contain stronger insecticides than those you might find in a pet store and even stronger than those in a supermarket.

However the reason the ones from the vets normally ‘work better’ is due to the information that the vet gives you.

A good vet, when confronted by a flea problem in a client, will not only recommend a treatment for the pet, but will usually not let you leave there without a product for the house too, therefore killing the flea cycle completely - clearing out your house and clearing your pet at the same time - they may well even sell you a wormer that you think is more money but it will actually benefit your pet long term.

Compare this to when you go into a supermarket for your pet supplies. There is no one trained there to help you choose the best flea control program, so you will usually pick up the one your friend recommended - even though they may have just been House 1 in the example above (and you may be house 2).

Or if not, you may select the cheapest one thinking they are all the same, just different brands (like bread or washing powders) and get home with just one step of the recommended flea control program - to just kill the fleas on your pet - the ones you can see!

Either way, it’s probably not going to work.

Why Won’t It Work?? 
I’d like to go back to friends recommendations above, as they are often based on no real evidence either, just what that friend saw. For example, what if that friend from House 1 found several fleas in their house the following month, they could take one of the 2 paths here:

Path A: Buy the same product they brought last time, but as the fleas are in the house now not just on the pet, this will appear not work. The friend will be confused and probably think that they didn’t use enough, so may respray the pet.

Path B: Buy a different product, as their usual one wasn’t available, but this will also not appear to work - as the owner hasn’t realised the fleas are in the home not just on the pet. They will therefore assume that this product doesn’t work but the last one did.

There are no actual facts involved in either of these recommendations, just a lack of knowledge about the flea cycle, and sadly it will not only be them who is wasting money experimenting in this way, they will be helping you to make the same mistakes.

So, the best products are…….
In conclusion, I can only say that the only products you should use for your pet to rid your home of fleas - and which should be all be applied at the same time - are the following:

• Any brand of insecticide household flea spraythat kills all flea eggs, flea larvae, flea pupae and adult fleas and lasts for at least a year.
• Any brand of insecticide cat or dog products, including flea shampoo, tablets, powder, drops or spray (only use the dog products on dogs NEVER CATS).
• Any brand of tapeworm and roundworm killers that contains enough to treat every pet you own - check the weights and 2 in 1’s are easier to administer.

If you can find a product brand that does all 3 stages above, it would be best to use all their products for the 3 stages above. You can rest assured then, that they are professionals and dedicate a lot of their funds to researching flea treatments, and that their products have been tested together, and so should give the best flea control.

Don’t cut corners here, as you may well waste all the money you spend if one stage is not used properly - see ‘How to get rid of fleas in your home’ for more details.

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