Problems with Frontline Plus?

I had a phone conversation with Merial's (they make Frontline products) vet today to complain about Frontline not protecting against fleas. My dog has gotten fleas 3x during the five months we've been using Frontline Plus. Granted, she was pheasant hunting a lot (got sprayed by skunk :evil: ) this past Fall, but for what that stuff costs it should work!! Well, I found out how the stuff works. It permeates through their fur which takes about 24 hours. When fleas jump on, the product supposedly starts to kill them which is supposed to happen before they can lay their eggs, all of which is supposed to break the flea life cycle. But it takes 18 hours for the flea to die, so I FINALLY got this vet to admit that the flea can still bite during those 18 hours even if it does die before it lays its eggs (fleas have to feed before they can lay their eggs) AND she admitted that the fed flea can be shaken off/jump off before the 18 hour death knell tolls and survive to lay eggs. This stuff costs $17 a pop for one little vial if you buy 6 at a time and even more if you only buy 3 at a time. We used to use Advantix Plus and NEVER had a problem. The price is about the same. I don't mind the price so much if the stuff works, but this stuff seems like crap to me. They're giving me a refund and we'll be back on Advantix in about another week. I'm real curious to know if anybody else had a similar experience with Frontline Plus?

I had a similar problem with Frontline Plus but with the dogs loosing hair in patches and we checked the diet, blood tests, skin scrapping etc., with no conclusion so I decided to take my dogs off Frontline because I could not think it could be anything else. I use Advocate made by Bayer here it costs double what Frontline costs but it control fleas, heart worm, intestinal worms, demodectic mange, sarroptic mange, ear mites and lice. And weighing up the cost of taking the dog to the vet with skin problems caused by Frontline I thought Advocate the better option. They have been using it for 18 months (older dogs) with no problems. Vets tend to promote products and sometimes without checking whether they are good or not. I also think it depends on the breed we used Frontline on our smaller dogs and never had any side effects. Maybe they have changed the ingredients? Who knows.

[quote=lynnicks]I had a similar problem with Frontline Plus but with the dogs loosing hair in patches and we checked the diet, blood tests, skin scrapping etc., with no conclusion so I decided to take my dogs off Frontline because I could not think it could be anything else. I use Advocate made by Bayer here it costs double what Frontline costs but it control fleas, heart worm, intestinal worms, demodectic mange, sarroptic mange, ear mites and lice. And weighing up the cost of taking the dog to the vet with skin problems caused by Frontline I thought Advocate the better option. They have been using it for 18 months (older dogs) with no problems. Vets tend to promote products and sometimes without checking whether they are good or not. I also think it depends on the breed we used Frontline on our smaller dogs and never had any side effects. Maybe they have changed the ingredients? Who knows.[/quote] Even if it costs twice what Frontline costs it's still cheaper than having to buy Interceptor or Heartguard on top of the Advantix Plus or Frontline because Interceptor costs more than Frontline (I'm not sure about Heartguard's price - I assume it's competitive with Interceptor). There is also a generic Interceptor available. I can't think of the name, but if anyone is interested I will look it up for you - I have to remember the site where I read about it, maybe Petmeds. I just picked up a new prescription for Interceptor from the vet today but haven't filled it. I will call the vet tomorrow and see if I can get the Advocate you're talking about. I presume it's once-a-month? Thank you very much for the information. I'm not at all surprised you had a problem with Frontline. It just seemed to really not work at all, and she's a small dog (Jack Russell). Are your dogs' skin condition better now that you took them off the Frontline and put them on Advocate?

Yes it covers for a month and I think they must of changed something because prior to 18 months ago no problems at all with Frontline. We have a yearly injection for Heart Worm here but Im not keen on it. Plus the other worm tablets are 3 monthly from the dog being 6 months. I really like the Advocate because I have two dogs allegic to fleas so really dont need the dogs to get them. I bath them wait 5 days and put the advocate because for it to work properly it needs an oily coat. My vet had ideas of mange and other disorders carried to the dogs from their mother which luckily I knew was incorrect because one dog loosing fur was 2 years and any signs of that would of shown up way before plus it happened to them all no matter what age at the same time. Yes no signs of problems since and their coats are in good condition which is obviously me changing to a raw diet. I wont change back

I'm glad they're well again. I'm going to look into this raw diet information on this site.