Should I give Bravecto and Advantage Multi year-round or seasonally?

Hi there! Both are quite safe and effective in my experience. Bravecto covers fleas and ticks, while Advantage Multi covers heartworms, intestinal parasites, and fleas. You could use either one (or both) depending on what you need in your area.

Vet’s typically recommend year round flea/tick prevention as even in the winter fleas are seen during unseasonably warm weeks. As warmer days are likely in the coming month of March I would start now. In general, the oral flea /tick preventatives such as monthly Nexgard, Simparica or every 12 weeks Bravecto chews are more effective than topical products such as Frontline without the risk of skin sensitivity. When you run out of your current product, before the warmer spring months arrive, definitely inquire with your vet about the oral flea/tick products. Great job for being so proactive of an owner in protecting Snowball!

I would wait another week before adding another flea medication. Also, you need to treat your home environment. If you use a pest control service, tell them you are having a flea problem and they can adjust their treatment. Use a premise spray that also contains an IGR, insect growth regulator. This will keep eggs and larvae from maturing into adults and helps break the life cycle. Also, vacuum EVERY DAY, throwing out the bag or emptying the canister every time into an outside receptacle and spraying the contents with insecticide to kill the fleas you’ve vacuumed up. Treat your yard as well, since fleas are opportunistic and will hop a ride into your home on your pant leg without you knowing it. Concentrate on areas under bushes, in the shade. Fleas are less likely to be located in open sunny areas where it gets hot. If chemicals are a problem for you, you can use borax in your home. Sprinkle it into rugs, into corners and under furniture, use a broom to work it into the fibers and let it sit for hours, days even. It won't hurt you or your cat to have it present. Then vacuum it up, reapply as needed. Food grade diatomaceous earth can be gotten from a health food store and worked into the rugs and corners in the same way as borax. These treatments aren't as fast and effective as chemical insecticides but they can help. You might want to consider boarding your pet for the day at your vet, to give you the opportunity to flea bomb your house without having to worry about your pet being exposed. They can bathe your pet and give a dose of Capstar while you treat your home. Be patient, you may have to repeat these steps multiple times 10-14 days apart to help break the flea life cycle.

Bravecto last for three months, but I prefer using a monthly topical treatment personally. That's because it can be reapplied after two weeks at the earliest if needed, while you would need to wait longer to give your pet Bravecto again.

Hi and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Fleas can be frustrating to eradicate even when using a quality product like Bravecto. You may wish to consider a product like Capstar or even a topical flea medication in addition to the Bravecto. Products like Frontline Gold, Vectra and Advantix tend to work well. The flea life cycle sometimes necessitates that you also treat your household and even your yard to fully eradicate the infestation. Regular laundering of pet bedding can help but you may still end up needing to have an exterminators help. Finally, make sure all pets in the household are treated with a safe, quality flea preventative as often house cats that have not been treated can harbor fleas. Good luck!

Hello, and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Great question - I am also in MN so get this question a lot :-) I absolutely recommend tick prevention until it is consistently frozen day and night, and we are past the intermittent fall warm-ups. Ticks are amazingly hardy, and they actually pick up in the fall, so definitely keep Teddy's prevention current to avoid the Lyme disease risk. I generally recommend people continue that into December. You can probably get away with skipping Jan/Feb if it stays predictably cold, but ticks were back again last March so we want to stay ahead of them. However - fleas are something they could pick up year round if they are exposed to another affected animal, and mice tend to find their way inside more in the fall/winter and could pass fleas along. So, if you feel Teddy's risk level is low, I think overall the risk is lowest in Jan/Feb, but the safest option would still be to continue year-round. Hope this helps!

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Thankfully, you have a few options here. I recommend you consider using a product called Capstar which is to kill a lot of fleas at once to complement a flea preventative product like Advantage. You can go ahead and give another dose of Advantage now as well. I would not give up on Advantage just yet. Continue to use it for now as this flea may be was a one time occurrence and the Advantage was still being effective. Another option is switching to Bravecto now though again Advantage may still be effective so it may be best to exhaust its use. Good luck and have a great day!