Does Frontline Work?

This is more of a rant about a certain Flea Preventative that has worked for over 10 years that simply doesn't work anymore. And regardless of what the various vets have stated, I will say that, at least in my case, frontline does not work. The flea medication is Frontline and this is my story....

I have used Frontline for nearly 15 years now. My last dog used it for her entire life. It worked very well. All I had to do was simply apply it once a month and she didn't get fleas. She passed away 6 years ago and about 6 months later, I added Ziggy to the family...I continued using Frontline.

The first 2 years, it continued to not be a problem. In fact, Ziggy never had fleas with frontline. We went to the dog park and I ran him through the woods daily. I will reiterate this....Ziggy never had fleas.

Then something weird happened....

In the spring of 2005, I applied Frontline (just like I always do)....suddenly, I started noticing that I was getting flea bites in the house. It didn't take long before my wife and I had an infestation on our hands.

I gave Ziggy a bath, killing most of the fleas on him and bombed the house. I then reapplyed another application of Frontline. Days later, they came back.

Worse still, Ziggy was wearing holes in his body trying to relieve the itching. His skin started to scale and flake off. He was losing hair under his chin. His backside was getting raw. I decided to take him to my vet.

Below is the conversation that I had with her (imagine my frustration)...

Doctor, I have done everything that is humanly possible to get rid of the fleas.

"Did you bomb the house? You need to bomb the house and treat the yard for frontline to work..."

".....but it never worked that way before....all I had to do was treat my dog..."

"Fronline works..you just need to get rid of the fleas in the surrounding areas"

"You don't understand....I have been using frontline for years...it never was a problem before..."

"you need to use it more often..."

I have to admit I was pretty frustrated. Here was a vet deadset on NOT even listening to me. Her advice was to sell me more frontline and make me use it more often....

Meanwhile, Ziggy's condition was worsening. What I was told was the flakiness of his skin (which was yeast) was really a secondary infection...the cause? You guessed it...flea allergy.

I called my local pest company, had them re-treat the yard AND the house, and washed my dog, once again treating him with frontline. 2 weeks later, the fleas were back.

The next week I went to a new vet in the hopes that they could give me some alternative advice. They did. They told me that they were getting reports that Frontline wasn't working as well as before. The fleas had basically grown tolerant of the preventative. In defense of frontline, she did tell me that it did work on some animals but there was a growing segment of the pet population that were looking for a different flea preventative alternative like a natural flea and tick control for dogs.

She recommended both Sentinal and the program which are pill based alternative for killing fleas. I put Ziggy on Sentinal and haven't looked back...his hair grew back and he literally returned to his fun loving self.

This is really more of a rant because it seems like the vets who push frontline will tell you that the drug is not the problem....it is the owner. It isn't. Fleas are developing an immunity to Frontline.

Moral of the story- Frontline could work but if it doesn't, you should try other flea preventatives...