Advocate

Hi, I just wondered if anyone's had experience of their dog having an allergic skin reaction to Advocate topical flea and worm treatment? My Japanese Chin has suffered with skin problems nearly all her life, and is now on Apoquel tablets for the itching. I've tried food elimination, special shampoos and creams, all to no avail.

Last month I missed her Advocate treatment, and noticed the other day that her skin is almost completely clear. I wonder now if this could have been the cause of her allergic reaction all along?

anything is possible! Ive flea treated my boy once when i got him 'cause your supposed to' and havent ever done it since and the only fleas he has had were curtousy of a local hedgehog and dispatched out the back door with a quick flick

i am all for avoiding unecessary chemicals

It's quite possible that Advocate is the cause of the problem because although I've never used it for my dogs I've read reports on other forums of dogs reacting to it. I'm lucky in that where I live we have no fleas and very few ticks so its only in the summer I use Frontline for both my dogs and cat and the rest of the time for internal parasites my vet prescribes Pratel.

Hi Miranda,

I've been using Frontline for years and I've never had an issue, but it is perfectly possible that your Chin does. What's her coat like? Is it short enough that you can monitor it easily for fleas and their eggs? If so it might be a good idea to stop the Advocate and try natural repellants. Citronella collars are said to be quite good, and fleas have a hatred of all things citrus, so if you rub orange peels all around anywhere she sleeps-- be sure to break the skin and let all those natural oils out-- that should repel them. You can also leave orange and grapefruit peels sitting out on your radiators while the heat is on. It'll diffuse the scent through the house (so even if the fleas don't particularly care, you'll have a nice orangy scent in your house).

I used Advantage 2 and it worked great. I tried Biospot, didn't work, he got fleas. Advantage 2 is too expensive for my 90 lb dog so we switched to Frontline, made him itch a ton. I rinsed it off immediately. We then switched to Sentry Fiproguard, it didn't work, he got fleas. So I tried Sentry Fiproguard Max. And I've stuck by it since.

I dislike the chemicals, too. Unfortunately we live in a wooded, warm, and flea infested area. The young guy loves going deep into the woods. I use only diatomateous earth and rosemary and garlic on the old girl. No chemicals on the oldies. If she picks up a flea, which is extremely rare, I give her a flea collar. Nigredo is allergic to rosemary and the earth white powder makes his deep blue black glossy coat look totally terrible.

I heard of a product in the UK called Billy No Mates, I never got to try it, but I heard it works well in lieu of chemicals.

Thanks for your replies. I'm going to make a vet appt soon, and have one more Advocate treatment applied, to see if it is actually the culprit with her skin problems. I'll need to speak to the vet about alternative flea and worm control, if so.

I looked up Billy No Mates and here's the ingredient list:

Ingredients:

Mint
Seaweed
Fenugreek
Neem
Lemon Balm

Looks tasty! But I'm not sure if it will be good for a dog with an aversion to rosemary. One thing you could try is Brewer's Yeast-- you can get it in powdered form from most health food shops. A lot of people love it on popcorn and it does have a very nice, mild-Marmite taste that most animals really like, but apparently fleas and mosquitoes hate the smell of it in your blood. This won't do anything for them breeding in your carpets, though... You can get Frontline in a spray form that will do the trick, or it certainly did for us, with just one go.

Yes, the Billy No Mates I was going to try for the old dog. She has no allergies. Brewers yeast is great, too.