Directly extracted from Steven’s blog which was posted on 19 Feb 2007. Here is his recommendation, also my recommendation to all my puppies.
“Like many dog lovers, I want only the best for my dogs. Therefore, I read up a great deal to find out more all the time.
Recently, I saw an ad about a flea/tick control item, which I find a little misleading and would like to talk about this topic, so that pet lovers are not ill- informed. The ad indicated the negative effects of active ingredients in other products, but did not indicate the negative effects of their own active ingredients.
Sure, these ingredients are poisonous, and so are pesticides/insecticides that we use at home.
Flea/Tick control items are essentially pesticides/insecticides. All pesticides/insecticides are poisonous. Most households are exposed to the vapours when we spray them, the person spraying it sometimes get the pesticides/insecticides on his/her fingers/hands. So, the question is not whether “poisonous” ingredient is used, but are they used correctly? Are they safe enough to use?
How do we use this chemical safely? There are a few considerations; amount used, the way it is administered, eg: orally, applied on the skin, inhalation, etc…
Some of the popular flea/tick control items used in Singapore are Frontline, Frontline Plus, Accurate and Revolution (not in any order of preference). I have personally used all these four products and I find that some are more effective against fleas/ticks than others for my dogs. I believe that all these products are safe to use. Otherwise, they would have been recalled. See link – http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/factsheets/flea-tick-drops.htm
There is a also a link comparing some products:
http://marvistavet.com/html/flea_product_comparison.html
Information about Etofenprox, an active ingredient used in Accurate from National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection,Bilthoven, Netherlands
“In a 52-week study in dogs using dietary concentrations of 0, 100, 1000 or 10 000 ppm, the NOAEL was 1000 ppm (equal to 32 mg/kg bw/day) based on decreased red blood cell parameters, increased serum alkaline phosphatase and increased liver weight (with swellingof hepatocytes).”
Detailed info can be found in http://www.inchem.org/documents/jmpr/jmpmono/v93pr09.htm
More examples – morphine, steroids and sleeping pills are used in modern medicine today. When they are given in the right dosage, they are helpful. When abused, they are harmful.
Giving “poison” to our dogs is the lesser of the two evils. If they are not protected, they are likely to suffer pain and great discomfort from flea/tick infestation in our environment, especially if we bring them out frequently.
All products have their good and bad points. However, based on my personal experience, I will go for the following:
- If no allergy problem, all these products are ok.
- If the dog has some allergies and you are unable to single out the problem whether it is yeast, fungus, parasites, food or environment, then I would recommend using Revolution, because the product is active against ear mites and sarcoptic mange mites in dogs (so it can rule out these two possibilities), even though it costs twice as much.
However, if the dog is pregnant, then you should use Revolution.
The important thing to note is :
- make an informed choice
- choose what works best for your dogs
- do not fall into “scare” tactics used in the marketing of products.”
