Does my dog need Frontline Gold flea & tick protection in winter?

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!

If you live along the Front Range then fleas are a problem from spring until the first freeze or so. If you live higher up in the mountains or the Western Slope the fleas are not as prevalent. Fleas can and will get in your house so it doesn't really matter if the dog spend a lot of time outside or not. Fleas are opportunists. I used to live in Colorado and used a monthly flea/tick prevention all year round but I took my dogs everywhere with me. If I had a dog that spent most of their time indoors, not hiking, not around many other dogs, then I would probably do the flea/tick prevention at least from April through October.

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!

Yes, I would recommend putting her on a flea prevention at the very least - you may not need tick coverage if she doesn't go into wooded areas or tall grass, but almost all pets are exposed to fleas simply be going for a daily walk. The best products currently available are oral medications such as Comfortis/Trifexis, Nexgard, and Bravecto - you can get these from your vet.

So fleas can be a year round issue because they will naturally stay in warm areas (so the cold weather won't kill them). So if you have fleas in the house or if Honey hangs out with a lot of other dogs, goes to dog parks, or gets groomed....she could still get fleas. I recommend to have this conversation with your regular local vet who knows the flea cycles in your area best. Also, you will want to know specifically about heartworms and your location. I hope this helps.

It is dependent on where you live - in some apartment buildings or yards there are many fleas in the environment, and a flea can easily get inside and cause an infestation. Dogs can also bring fleas indoors, even when they are on preventatives, so if you have any other pets that go outside I would definitely start a preventative for Jackson. Otherwise you can talk to your vet about starting a preventative now or monitoring for symptoms of fleas.

You can just go and buy tick and flea treatment for your dog. Make sure it is the right size for his weight. You should think about heart worm treatment also. This will require a heart worm test to make sure he does not have heart worm and then the vet can prescribe the heart worm prevention. Here are some reputable flea and tick medications: Spot-ons: Advantage, Advantix Advantage Multi (Advocate in the UK) Frontline (ticks as well) Bravecto spot on (ticks as well) - for cats, in tablet form for dogs Nexgard Revolution (stronghold in the UK) Tablets: comfortis (will only kill fleas once) Collar: Seresto (ticks as well)