Flea prevention

Over the course of the summer we have had quite a few dogs and cats in with fleas (at my grooming salon). A lot of the customers have been using Frontline as a preventative measure and their dog still has fleas. Obviously, I recommend treating the house too, and a lot have, but the pets still get fleas.

I am of the mindset that if it aint broke, don't fix it and I don't use any preventative flea treatments on my dogs and cats. I am pretty convinced that fleas are becoming immune to some of the common brands of spot on. None of my dogs have ever had fleas ( I reckon their natural diet helps) so if I had been using this stuff every few weeks I would have been putting chemicals into my dog's bloodstream for no reason.

What do you guys think? To prevent or treat?

Interesting.
I had a conversation with the vet about this not so long ago. He likes Frontline, because he feels its safe and effective. However he said for all the dogs that come into the surgery he sees very few with fleas. His advice was if I didn't like using Frontline then just to forget it.
Once a month I leave them in day boarding and one of the questions they ask is about flea treatments, so I've been using Program tablets, but of course they do nothing to help with ticks.

We don't routinely treat for fleas and they don't seem to pick them up.

I dont use preventative methods for fleas and my dogs have never had them. Actually, I tell a lie as I think i've used Spot On twice, but that was purely to ward off ticks.

I agree with you there, I have had two dogs before my little one, they NEVER had fleas, I also had a cat at the same time and the only time he had fleas was when we ' bought / rescued' him from a market stall, cleaned him up and he never suffered with them again, the only reason I do use spot on is because I am worried she may pick up ticks with all the running about she does among the grass etc.

Ticks are not a major problem in this area. I had to remove one from my cat this year, but that's the only one ever!