Tick Time Bomb

Dear Dog Lady,

What is the best flea and tick medicine for dogs?

Rick, Corsicana, TX

Rick, yick, none are the "best." Advantix or Frontline, pick your poison. Dog Lady cringes when she puts on rubber gloves and administers a flea and tick killer between her angel’s hairy shoulder blades. Frontline Plus, manufactured in France by Merial, is the most widely used topical medicine to debug dogs. You get it from your veterinarian and administer every month during flea and tick season. When Dog Lady recently confessed to her vet that she hated using the stuff because it comes with all sorts of warnings about toxicity to human skin, the doctor could only shrug and say, “But it works.” Indeed. Frontline sits in the dog’s hair follicles and seeps into the skin to zap the fleas and ticks before they nest. You can only take a leap of faith and hope the potent poison causes no long-range harm to your pet.

Posted by Dog Lady at August 19, 2005 12:12 PM