I am sure you could get as many answers to this question as there are people on this list. While we were in FL I used Comfortis because the fleas there are immune to a lot of the topicals there. I also dusted the dogs' undersides with Dimetaceous Earth once or twice a week and dusted their beds/blankets with it. Here in MI we have lots of ticks as well as the fleas. After doing a lot of reading online and talking with our vet I went with plain Frontline. Our vet said he has found that it works better than Frontline 2 which is curious. I also still use the DE on them occasionally and dust their beds and blankets. I also comb our dogs for ticks when we come in from our evening walk. I will usually find a live tick on one or both dogs each night. UGH! I would rather catch it on them before it jumps off and gets on us! I have not found any attached ticks and never any fleas. I try to stay away from any products that have permethryn. Our vet also said it would be fine to split one Frontline applicator between our two boys. I was trying some organic products but freaked out by the number of ticks we are seeing and went back to the Frontline. I just hate putting this stuff on them but do not want bugs on them or in the house either! One night our Scout would not go in his crate and we couldn’t figure out why. On closer inspection there was a tick crawling on his bed and he didn't want to go in there with it! Sue
this is a posting I found: "Fleas and ticks do NOT have to bite your pet for FRONTLINE Brand Products to work. FRONTLINE Brand Products kill fleas and ticks if they simply come into contact with your pet's hair coat.(it must take a while though) That being said a comparison study of Frontline Plus versus K-9 Advantix and Advantage shows at 28 days K-9 Advantix lost about 50% of it's efficiency at killing fleas versus a 5% efficiency loss in Frontline Plus. In this study dogs were treated with one of three products (Frontline Plus, K-9 Advantix, or Advantage. The dogs were then exposed to 100 live unfed fleas on days 6, 13, 20 and 27. Flea counts were taken on the dogs on days 7, 14, 21 and 28. Frontline Plus maintained a flea killing efficiency of over 95% during the study period. K-9 Advantix dropped to 70% by day 14!!!! and to 50% by day 28!!! I have also heard countless horror stories of dogs being poisoned by K-9 Advantix. The permethrin (one of the 2 active ingredients in K-9 advantix) causes poisonings in cats and dogs who lick themselves. The permethin is also used in a lot of grocery store brand flea products like Hartz. Permethin is used by farmers to rid crops of insects. This is not something I would want to put on my pet!!! Sorry for the long post, but it is a topic near and dear to my heart as I have seen the horrors of permethin poisoning first hand. Use Frontline or Frontline Plus."
