NWR: Doggy owners! Flea and Heartworm Preventative

I use Sentinel for my heartworm preventative. However, I also use Frontline for the fleas and ticks. I think that combination works well. I have noticed that if I skip the Frontline and still use the Sentinel that he starts itching a little bit. But, as soon as I put him back on the Frontline the itching goes away.

We used Sentinel & Frontline for the first year - no problems. We moved and switched vets and they gave us Nexgard along whatever their flea/tick sister brand is - no problem there either.

I really need to start buying this stuff online. With a year supply of those meds, and his one year checkup/tests/shots, my heart stopped when I got the bill.

I always use frontline and Heartguard. I don't like using brands I've never heard of, I'll always pay more than chance it.

Frontline and Heartguard is the way to go. I never tried any other brands through.

I use Heartgard for heartworm and we just switched over from Frontline(topical) to Nexgard (pill). I am pleased with Nexgard. We go up north where ticks are horrible- this year we only pulled 2 ticks off her compared to the standard 10-12 ticks.

We used Trifexis for the first year with Mr. Pibb. We are starting him next month on Sentinel (heartworm) and Bravecto (flea and tick - pill form). My mom's two dogs were always on Sentinel and it's been over 13 years for them. So I have no issues with Sentinel. We just tried Trifexis with Pibb because it included flea protection and Sentinel does not. I didn't realize there was a tick preventative out there because my mother never used them for our dogs growing up! Since we take Pibb outside weekly on walks and want to socialize him at dog parks and events, we definitely want tick prevention. Bravecto is relatively new to the US but was used in Australia, I think, for longer. It is an every 3 months pill for flea and tick prevention.

ETA: A lot of people I know told me to do Frontline, as well, but, like you, I didn't want a topical medication. And someone else mentioned NexGard to me, but it is $60/year more than Bravecto and has a slightly lower rating on 1800PetMeds (I got Sentinel and Bravecto for one year through Drs. Foster and Smith for $249.62 after tax. I found a 10% off coupon for flea and tick medicine).

I use heartgard and then advantix, but I get why that doesn't work for you! I might switch to all oral meds, but advantix has worked so well for him and we have never had any problems with it getting on stuff.

Ticks are getting to be really bad though - I never had trouble with our dog growing up, but now when Kobe doesn't have any preventative on or even if I'm a week late reapplying he starts picking them up. Yuck.

I also get my dog a Lyme vaccine yearly - do you guys do this as well or am I being scammed into duplicate preventatives?

Elyse - I've never been asked about a Lyme vaccine from taking care of my mother's two dogs, or the year we have had Pibb. It's my understanding that Lyme disease is carried by ticks, so I would think the tick prevention covers that and it wouldn't be necessary. I could be wrong, though. I would ask your vet to go more into detail about why it is needed and why they recommend it to you, so you can make an informed decision.

Fiona has the lyme disease vaccine, so I don't worry too much about ticks really.

And upon further research I found the biggest difference between Sentinel and Trifexis:

Sentinel only kills flea eggs, and does not kill adult fleas. So your dog can still get fleas, but they can't reproduce all over the place if they jump off of your dog into the house, etc.

Trifexis can kill all life cycles. So this is why it costs twice as much. WAAAH.

I just really hate spending up to $200 for this stuff a year. She's worth it obviously, but it hits right in the wallet when I have two bald front tires too :'(

Pancakes - doing more research, I think it's a regional thing. Lyme is more common in the northeast. We lived in PA & NJ that must be why both vets recommended it.

I used to use Sentinel for heart worm preventive. I am using heartguard now because I got a bundle price from the vet with Frontline for flea and tick.

Gotcha. I'm in Northeast Ohio, but I've never heard of it.

Nicole - if that's the case, I would just stick on Trifexis. Or you can switch to Sentinel and Bravecto. But I wouldn't switch to just Sentinel, because of the flea thing you mentioned. Trifexis will run you about $215/year, Sentinel and Bravecto will run you 250/year, or I just looked up Comfortis (just for fleas pill) and Sentinel would be about $300/year. Sentinel usually has rebates of $10-20 and I just found Bravecto has a rebate of $35 for a year supply on their website. I have to look into that.

ETA: These are pricings for a 60 pound dog. Not sure how much your baby is.

Elyse, Lyme varies depending on where you live. When I lived in Massachusetts I had to have it, in Florida I do not.

Edit: whoever said the tick medication would cover it, it doesn't. Though you have tick medication on there is always still the chance of your pet being bit it just means they get sick after and can't lay eggs. If a Lyme disease infested tick bites you're shit out of luck unless you have the shot.

Thanks Heather. We went through all of this last year, but he had to get so many shots as a puppy, my brain is blurring what was mandatory vs. optional.

Technically Lyme is "optional" but if you live in New England or the north in general you really should just get it. I'd rather be safe than sorry.

I use both Sentinel and Vectra. Sentinel for heartworm and Vectra because we have a lot of ticks in NJ so this is very important. FH is in pest control and STRONGLY opposed to Frontline because of it's ingredients (horrible pesticides that should never be used on pets.) He prefers Advantix or the Vectra I get from my vet (Advantix made my pup super itchy).

Don't be worried or concerned about Lyme alone. Dog ticks (the bigger ones) carry a lot of diseases as well and if they get too many can make your dog anemic.

Don't be worried or concerned about Lyme alone. Dog ticks (the bigger ones) carry a lot of diseases as well and if they get too many can make your dog anemic.