fleas, treatment and Oliver

My 6.5 yr-old American Shorthair cat, Oliver, is having problems with fleas, and I feel in a bind about his treatment. 

I was late ordering new Frontline Plus. Because fleas are clearly bothering him -- he often snaps around to get into his hind quarters, but can't quite reach. I found fleas (brown) and fleas eggs (white) when I flea-combed him.

Because my Frontline Plus hadn't arrived yet, and he was having a bad time, I went to a pet store. They didn't have Frontline or Frontline Plus, so I bought a tube of Hartz UltraGuard Pro and administered it on Dec 15th. 

But it hasn't seemed to do a thing for him, and the fleas are still in there, four days later. Frontline Plus usually kills them in a day or two. 

Now I've received my order of Frontline Plus, but I don't know if it's safe to apply on him since the Ultragard was given only four days ago.

Does anyone know if it's safe? The active ingredient in Hartz Ultraguard Pro is Etofenprox (40%) and (S)-Methopreen (3.6%) and "Other ingredients," presumably inert.

In Frontline Plus, Fipronil (9.8%) and (S)-Methoprene (11.8%) and Inert Ingredients.

Is it safe to give Oliver Frontline Plus only 4-5 days after I administered the Hartz UltraGuard Pro?

Thank you,

David, in Oregon.

I don't know about those 2 specifically but I've had a similar problem with revolution and advocate plus (the revolution didn't work). I was advised to wait at least 2 weeks to be safe but 3 would be better. It's frustrating when this happens I know (and why I've been using comfortis ever since). If I remember correctly I think I ended up flea bathing them for the first time in their life just to be rid of a few of them in the meantime. Maybe check with your vet though, most are happy to answer something simple like that over the phone and they'll have more of an idea of those particular poisons being used in conjunction with each other (or can look it up if they don't know).

To update: I called Frontline's customer support number, and was impressed by the technician who answered. She said I could apply Frontline+ 5 days after the Ultraguard, as long as the Ultragard wasn't still in a liquid state on my cat's coat/skin. Apparently that's only when they can interact.

So I applied the Frontline+ 5 days after the Ultraguard. Usually it works, but this time it's only partially working, and my cat Oliver is still having problems.

I guess I need to clean my place, and carpeting, as thoroughly as possible.

Unless someone has suggestions for a flea treatment that doens't have resistance in Oregon....

Thanks,

David

Gliese581c said:

 
To update: I called Frontline's customer support number, and was impressed by the technician who answered. She said I could apply Frontline+ 5 days after the Ultraguard, as long as the Ultragard wasn't still in a liquid state on my cat's coat/skin. Apparently that's only when they can interact.

So I applied the Frontline+ 5 days after the Ultraguard. Usually it works, but this time it's only partially working, and my cat Oliver is still having problems.

I guess I need to clean my place, and carpeting, as thoroughly as possible.

Unless someone has suggestions for a flea treatment that doens't have resistance in Oregon....

Thanks,

David

Click to expand...

I've had similar problems where I live in Australia. Frontline plus, revolution, advocate (advantage II) none of them got rid of the fleas. If you want to knock dead whatever is on your cat, Capstar is great. Starts working in about 15 minutes. Then long term I highly recommend Comfortis tablets. It's hot and humid where I live and my vet has mine on a 3 weekly schedule but in general you only need to dose once a month. It's the only thing that finally got rid of the flea issue in my home but it took about 3 months before we were totally free of the problem (and a lot of vacuuming, I threw a chopped up flea collar in my vacuum to kill anything I sucked up).