Flea preventatives?

Ok, so its getting warmer, which tbh is the only time I treat for fleas, but this year so far Diesel has been in the river a lot, and this past week has been in there everyday, so I'm thinking that frontline wouldn't be great for him so what I'm wondering is, what flea preventatives would be good for a dog who gets very wet regulary, at the moment they have flea collars on, but they look tacky, I've heard of 4fleas tablets, but as you can get them from pet shops I'm not sure whether they would work does anyone know if they do? Also does anyone have anything to recommend for the home, that would be safe to use in a house that has rabbits and chinchillas living in it, I can move them out of rooms, but I'm not sure about all of them out of the flat...

I've also found a few websites, but does anyone know of anywhere cheaper then the vets to get anything that they would recommend for this situation?

These are the three that I know of, but don't have any recommaditions of them or anything, and will also have to look around them more, as I haven't yet, really until I have some idea what to look for,

http://www.bestpet.co.uk/
http://www.vet-medic.com/
http://www.petdrugsonline.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ho0

Most flea treatment only requires the dog to stay dry for a day or so I think.
Personally I always use vet stuff, I figure that if I'm going to put chemicals on my dog then I want to be sure they're going to be effective - lots of the OTC stuff from petshops is too low a dose or use active ingredients that may no longer be that effective as fleas have become resistant.
Also worth considering lungworm now that it's in the UK - speak to your vet (and maybe other local vets) to see how rife it is in the area. There have been several cases in the South East/Surrey area, including my mum's pup, so I personally use Advocate as their flea treatment as two doses will treat for lungworm too. It may not be something you have to worry about in your area but IMO always worth asking your vet.

Thanks, I've just looked for Advocate on one of the sites, pet drugs online and found it, so I might order that if its only for a day or two, they have it, but its prescription required, so I might speak to the vets, see if I can order it through them, they also have drontal, and panacur rabbit for cheaper too, so I might just use this site if I can do to get my things, mind you if I get Advocate I don't need drontal as well do I , I've never used that one before, only frontline.

You will need to use a wormer too because although Advocate covers many of the worms, it doesn't cover all. Though some would argue that the only ones it doesn't treat for are the ones that you'd see visible signs for, e.g. tapeworm. My vet recommends worming with Drontal (Plus, I think) every 6 months, alongside the regular Advocate treatment, so that's what I do.
My vets do free appointments for flea & worm prescriptions so I just have to make sure I've been in within the last 3-6 months and they are happy for me to pop in when I need a new box, you can get it cheaper online but do remember that vets can charge prescription charges which often eat up any savings you do make online. I think VetUK do a good price for the Advocate though.

I've also found this deal on petdrugs, no prescription needed for 12 months cover, flea and worming tablets £37.72, no prescrition needed, it wouldn't do lungworm, so I'll speak to the vet, although I don't think I've heard of it round here I'll check, thankfully Honey and Diesel don't think that slugs make good eating either, but I'll just double check when I ring up about the cat.

http://new.petdrugsonline.co.uk/site.aspx?i=pr182723

I will need to get a couple of extra worming tabs though.

I always go via the vets for flea stuff because we learnt from bitter, itchy experience with the cats when I was growing up that the over the counter stuff is pants (my ankles are like chicken drumsticks for fleas - about the only thing in the world they could be seen as alluring towards).

I never treat my dogs, I hate putting chemicals on them, so I spray the house and the car every six months (but I do not have any other animals).

They are fed raw and given plenty of garlic and not had any fleas at all.

Swimming very regularly also drowns the little ******s!

I'm using csj's 'billy no mates' on mine this year for fleas, having switched from advocate. Billy no mates is 100% natural, and works from the inside out, heard good recommendations about this product xx

Recently I have just used garlic, in their food, not had any need for flea treatments

i use advocate as one of my dogs has a flea allergy and thats what the vet reccommended. ive also just bought a device that attaches like your dog tags to the collar and it transmits a noise which fleas ticks and mozzies dont like dont know if it will work but def a idea for people who dont like the ideaof chemicals