Month: March 2019

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The Newest Flea Technology

New Flea and Tick Products that Work!

Anybody who has heard me talk flea products or read my recommendations for the past ten years or longer is aware that I have been reluctant to depart from my traditional recommendations of Advantage and Frontline simply because there has not been anything in the way of flea products that rival them in both safety and efficacy. Admittedly, for several years now they haven’t been near as effective as they once were. Fleas are quick to make the adjustment to new poisons and these were no exception. However the tradeoff for many of the newer products since that time has been in the area of safety. Many newer products have worked reasonably well, and that’s all they have had to do in recent years to outdo Advantage and Frontline — just a reasonable job — but really nothing has rivaled those two weapons as far as safety is concerned.

Well, after all that time, it seems we have a new class of product that is looking attractive. Isoxazolines are showing significant promise and I attended a presentation at a recent conference on the product Bravecto (fluralaner). Bravecto is available in both a cat version and a dog version. The dog version is an oral chewable tablet that is to be given to dogs at 12 week intervals. The cat version is a topical spot-on type of treatment that is to be applied once every 12 weeks.  (For certain tick applications this interval can be shortened to once every 8 weeks) The report that I heard was very impressive. 

The study was done here in Florida where the fleas have seen and done it all. Nothing works very well here, yet the results were nothing short of remarkable. The researchers went into a number of households where there was no existing flea control and, after performing their flea counts for study purposes, treated all of the dogs and cats in the household. They then followed up with visits to the homes where they repeatedly did flea counts to monitor the flea population and by the end of the 3-month period the flea population had been eliminated within the household. Counts were at zero! All animals were flea-free with only a single treatment. They did not do any environmental treatments, nothing else. Although the results are amazing we must keep in mind that this product is still pretty new and the fleas haven’t yet had the opportunity to adjust, but the implications of the study are pretty impressive for the near future.

If you combined their methods with a reasonable environmental treatment program, this study suggests that you should be able to maintain an effective control program by treating only once every 3 months. Not only that, but if you maintain a closed population, no pets going outdoors, it is not unreasonable to presume that you could discontinue treating after only a few treatments and still maintain control. 

There are a number of other isoxazoline products on the market. The identifying suffix on the generic name is the –laner ending on the product name. So far the other brand names that I can site are Simparica, Credelio, and Nexgard. I don’t have any details on those products but they are all probably worth a look. That’s the good news.

Now the not-so-good. As with any drug or insecticidal product there is always a downside. These products are too new yet for a lot of data to be available, but there may be some possible increase in seizure activity and/or some neurologic symptoms that could be seen in some patients. Now lots of these products are already out there and the numbers at this point are still not impressive but in all likelihood there is some substance to the reports. We really should not be surprised. Seizure and neurologic issues are not rare with insecticidal products in general. Another issue which I feel is probably of greater concern, is the possible interaction with ivermectin in collies, shelties, and other breeds that carry the ABCB1 genetic variant which predisposes these individuals to various drug sensitivities, including ivermectin. Combining isoxazolines with ivermectin in these breeds is a bad idea, and there are suggestions from some ophthalmologists that it may be a good idea to avoid isoxazolines altogether in these individuals due to some possible reports of vision impairment. The jury is still out on this. I would probably play it safe and avoid these insecticides if I owned an abnormally sensitive dog. Here is one of those potential issues where the product is not the problem, but rather it’s the patient.

As I have said so many times before, no product is 100% safe. If it were, it wouldn’t do anything. But for the most part I think for the vast majority of individuals these products are relatively safe and worthy of consideration in the battle against fleas. Remember, fleas offer a much more concrete, widespread, across-the-board threat to your pet’s health than do these insecticides. There are a lot of folks out there who still consider fleas to be a “natural” part of owning pets and for those people any effort at flea control beyond the fantasy world of garlic and brewer’s yeast is considered “dangerous.”  While they live in denial in their fairytale world, their miserable, bald, scabby, scratching pets (not to mention having a house full of fleas) are perfectly acceptable to them in a world where we have the means to eliminate that suffering. I’m sorry but I don’t agree. Give these new products some serious consideration, but watch closely for any possible signs of trouble.

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Pet Vehicle Restraints


Here is a great holiday gift idea for your pet. It’s not fattening, it’s not unhealthy, and it’s not some kind of toxic treat made in Asia that will end up killing your pet six months down the road. How about a gift that might save your pet’s life? 

You never think twice about strapping your child or grandchild into a car seat for his or her protection while on the road. Not only do we accept it, we expect it – in fact, we require it. However the same people who are loathe to the idea of allowing a toddler to crawl around in the front seat of a moving car think it’s cute to have a dog jumping around on the seat, riding with its head hanging out a partially open window, or bouncing around on their lap while they drive. Can you identify with that? I’m here to tell you that it’s time to rethink pets in vehicles. 

Somehow restraint of a pet has become some kind of an anathema to a lot of otherwise savvy people. It is considered to be some kind of punishment or torture by a lot of pet owners out there and, as a result of owner ignorance, every day unrestricted pets get poisoned, get hit by motor vehicles, attacked by other animals, or injured as passengers in automobile accidents. Use a little common sense and save your pet the pain and suffering that can result from your own negligence. Restraint is caring. Restraint shows love and concern. Restraint saves lives.

I work in an emergency hospital environment. I have seen the injuries that a low speed accident can cause. I don’t see the pets from the higher speed accidents. Those victims don’t make it to the hospital because they are dead. Plain and simple.

All of the statistics that apply to unrestrained children riding in vehicles are equally applicable to our pets. Don’t tell me that it’s cruel or inhumane or give me any other absurd claptrap, because any other viewpoint is flat out wrong! There is no argument concerning pets riding unrestrained in motor vehicles that is not equally applicable to kids. It’s why children are required by law to ride in child restraint car seats. It’s why airlines require pets to be placed in solid carriers when they ride in the hold of an airplane. The whole concept involves the protection provided by close quarters, and in the case of a pet, by the relatively forgiving plastic of a crate. If the pet should unexpectedly become airborne within the cargo hold, the carrier and pet fly around as a unit with the carrier serving to protect the contents. Not only that, but a pet carrier can be secured in such a way as to hopefully prevent it from becoming a projectile. 

Similarly, when riding inside a motor vehicle, probably the most secure device for your pet is to place him/her inside a well-secured airline type pet carrier. Anytime, but especially for long trips, this would seem to be the most logical choice. The carrier should be just large enough for the pet to curl up and lie down and should just allow room to stand up and turn around. Remember: snug is the word. We’re not after comfort; we’re looking for protection. This is the method that I have always recommended to my “Cruising with Pets” seminar attendees for carrying their pets aboard a sailboat while underway: pet inside pet carrier; pet carrier wedged in strategically or somehow strapped down. If there is a sudden roll or a quick stop or a surge of some sort, your pet is jolted within the close-quarters plastic of the carrier and not thrown across the room, across the car, or into the dashboard or the windshield – a blow that is much safer and friendlier than the alternatives.

If a travel carrier is too uncool for your liking, you might opt for something a little more fashionable in the way of improving your pet’s chances in a crash. This also might be more convenient and more appealing for short trips in town. How about a pet seat belt restraint system? There are a number of different vehicle pet harnesses on the market that are able to integrate with your vehicle’s seat belts. In the safety department these type restraints are a far cry from a sky kennel, but they may help to keep your pet from flying through the windshield or into the dash, or from launching off in some other direction that could prove lethal. They also will hopefully keep your pet out of the driver’s lap and stop it from dangerously hanging out the window (even though it’s cute, it’s still unhealthy) while underway and will even stop it from bouncing all over inside the car. Any kind of belt type restraint should be incorporated into a body harness of some sort and never attached to a neck collar. You can envision a person being hanged by the neck until dead dropping through the trap door of a gallows in order to understand why.

After the harness type restraint, one notch lower in the safety department is the doggy car seat. Here we are maybe just a smidgeon better than no restraint at all. Many of these do not even include a harness system, which makes them useless from a protection standpoint. But for relatively small dogs, a doggy car seat with an integral harness system might be an acceptable form of restraint to keep the pet in one spot and, again, safely away from driving the driver to distraction.

I don’t often favor treating our pets like children. They are not the same. But the need for safety restraints is something that they do have in common. There are still people out there with that primitive “it’s safer if you are thrown clear of the vehicle in an accident” mentality. We know that without proper restraint it is probable that you will be thrown somewhere, but usually it will be into the windshield or some portion of the vehicle interior, and usually it won’t happen safely. The same applies to your unrestrained pet. So if you really love your pet and care about its safety and well-being, think about how you want to save its life now, before the unthinkable happens.

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Will Neutering/Spaying Make My Pet Get Fat?

A common question asked by many pet owners concerns the resulting weight gain that is often seen after a pet is neutered or spayed. Can it be avoided? How can you deal with this situation? Does a fear of having a fat cat or dog justify not neutering your pet?

There is one basic cause of weight gain in anybody – me, you, our pets, everybody – excess caloric intake.

Veterinarians have a basic fear of offending clients and thereby have a tendency to avoid the topic or beat around the bush when discussing weight gain. If you think your pet is too fat, chances are that s/he is. Most pets are. It’s not because s/he has been neutered. It’s because s/he eats too much – plain and simple.

When a pet is spayed or castrated, its metabolism changes. Like a neutered farm animal s/he becomes more efficient with his or her metabolic processes, so that a diet that was adequate in calories prior to surgery suddenly becomes excessive. The result is an increase in body weight – i.e. fat dog or cat.

The solution to the problem is to anticipate this probable weight gain and adjust the diet accordingly. I warn my clients prior to surgery to cut down on the amount of food after surgery and to consider moving to a lower calorie diet. Both changes together will go a long way toward minimizing any weight gain after the neutering procedure.

This is one more justification for neutering your pet at a relatively young age – well prior to maturity. While the pet is growing and maturing its nutritional needs are constantly changing and its food intake is adjusting to compensate for these changes. If you have your pet neutered during this growth phase, changes in its caloric needs due to the surgery will be absorbed and incorporated into its ongoing metabolic changes and will make the adjustments in diet easier to deal with. Be proactive.

The changes in requirements are a little more difficult to deal with in the adult pet, but the method is the same. Here you don’t have the pet’s growth changes helping you with your efforts so it will take a little more time and effort. Reduce the amount of food fed, reduce the caloric content of the food, feed a diet that is less palatable, and gradually increase the exercise activity. You’ll get there. Remember, there is only one cause for excessive weight gain. It’s not your pet’s fault. You are in control of the situation. Deal with it. Health and longevity are your main concern. There is no magic bullet. It can be a long slow process but if you are willing to do what it takes, you and your pet can get there.