Home > Home > Home & Garden > Health & Wellness > Frontline Plus, K9 Advantix and Advantage… Which Is The Best Flea & Tick Preventative?

Frontline Plus, K9 Advantix and Advantage… Which Is The Best Flea & Tick Preventative?

Flea and tick preventatives that I have used Wondering about the differences between all of the flea & tick preventatives that are available these days?

I have firsthand experience using 3 of them:

  • Frontline Plus
  • K9 Advantix
  • Advantage

I review each of them below…

 

Frontline 

(for fleas, ticks)

The Claims:
Offers the long-lasting, most complete flea and tick control available, killing 100% of fleas on your pet within 12 hours and 100% of ticks on your pet within 48 hours.

Best of all, research confirms that Frontline works for an entire month to help keep your pet flea-free.

 

My Opinion:

I used Frontline Plus on my dogs for years… until my vet made the decision to switch to K9 Advantix.

We never saw a flea or a tick on our dogs the entire time we were using Frontline Plus.

Watch the latest Frontline Plus commercial!

 

 

 

K9 Advantix

(for fleas, ticks, mosquitoes)The Claims:
For the topical prevention and treatment of fleas, mosquitoes and ticks including deer ticks (the major carrier of Lyme disease), American dog ticks, Brown dog ticks and lone star ticks. K9 Advantix kills and repels fleas, ticks and mosquitoes.

My Opinion:
What makes K9 Advantix so different is it has permethrin in it. Permethrin will kill and repel just about anything. (It’s the same chemical they use to fog dog kennels and horse barns to kill fleas, ticks, flies and practically everything else.) However, we live in an area where ticks are problem, and our dogs have actually had a couple of ticks (either attached or embedded under their skin) while on this product. It does appear that the ticks were shriveled up and dead by the time we spotted them.

Watch the latest K9 Advantix commercial!

 

 

 

Advantage

(for fleas)The Claims:

Stops fleas from biting in three to five minutes, and starts killing fleas withing an hour. Within 12 hours of initial application, 98-100% of all existing fleas on pets are dead.

My Opinion:
I used Advantage on my dogs for a short time, but it didn’t make sense not to protect them against ticks and mosquitoes as well, so I switched to K9 Advantix instead. If money is an issue, and/or you’ve only got a really bad flea problem that you’re trying to combat fast, then you might want to try Advantage first.

Watch the latest Advantage commercial!

 

 

 

So Which Is The Best?… My Overall Summary

I think we’re going to go back to Frontline Plus.

While I like that K9 Advantix also repels fleas and (especially) ticks… I don’t think it repels them a full 30 days. Frontline Plus seemed to be more effective on my dogs during the entire 30-day period. And since we use Heartgard (to prevent heartworms from mosquito bites), we don’t actually need the mosquito preventative that Advantix has.

I’ll post an update if we notice any other differences.

Another great product worth considering if you have a flea problem is Frontline Spray. It comes highly recommended by a veterinarian that I listen to on weekend radio. According to veterinarian Carey Carver who appears regularly on Pet Talk with Harrison Forbes, (on on 99.7 WTN), Frontline Spray can be used by itself weekly or even daily, if necessary. Or, you could also use with any of the other preventative measures, including the Advantix col
lar (which only works for ticks, but it works well). Veterinarians often use it to treat a flea problem on-the-spot in the vet’s office.

More about Frontline Spray.

 

No Fleas?… Reasons To Still Use A Preventative!

We’ve been very fortunate. We have never had a problem with fleas on any of our dogs.

Each year our vet verifies this for us: STILL NO FLEAS!

Therefore, we use a flea & tick preventative for 2 reasons:

1. Mostly, to prevent fleas from the neighbors’ dogs from jumping onto our dogs; and

2. To keep ticks off the dogs in the summer months (…because we live in an area where ticks are quite prevalent).

Here is a veterinarian’s take on heartworm preventatives… Part I and Part II.

And finally, here are some tips on how to apply a flea & tick preventative.

Lynnette

I like to help people find unique ways to do things in order to save time & money -- so I frequently write about "outside the box" ideas that most wouldn't think of. As a lifelong dog owner, I often share my best tips for living with and training dogs. I worked in Higher Ed several years until switching gears to pursue things I was more passionate about. I've worked at a vet, in a photo lab, and at a zoo -- to name a few. I enjoy the outdoors via bicycle, motorcycle, Jeep, or RV. You can always find me at the corner of Good News & Fun Times as publisher of The Fun Times Guide (32 fun websites).

More Posts - Website - Twitter - Facebook

Filed Under: Health & Wellness, Home & Garden Tagged With: , ,
  • http://www.trumedcanada.com/ Tamara

    K9 Advantix offers 5-way protection. The one that repels and kills ticks, fleas and mosquitoes also repels biting flies and kills chewing lice, providing protection from more pests than other topical products. Advantix is a highly effective parasiticide against the most common and important external parasites. Repels ticks, sand flies, mosquitoes and stable flies before they can bite and suck blood reduces the risk of parasite-transmitted diseases and the stress for the pet has been developed specifically for dogs. Dogs (only over 7 weeks of age or older) K9 Advantix is a convenient, topical product which when applied monthly will keep pesky parasites at bay. A wide variety of the common ticks are repelled and killed by Advantix: brown dog tick, Lone Star tick, American dog tick, and deer tick. These ticks can carry many detrimental diseases like: Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Babesiosis, Tularemia, and Ehrlichiosis. The ticks are repelled and killed and do not have a chance to bite, thus protecting your dog from the diseases.for further information you can visit our web site http://www.trumedcanada.com/OTC/K9.Advantix.aspx

  • Hawaii

    i was interested in your opinion of the mosquito protection, possibly forgoing the use of Heartgard.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_WT3ON7N26KYHBZS65HX7IK7RHE trish

    My dogs never had fleas until I moved into the house I am now in, 4 yrs. ago and they’ve had them ever since. The carpet and floors were all new so I assume they came from the yard which was not fenced at the time. I had the dogs, the house, and the yard all treated twice last year and of course they were back this year with a vengance. I had them on Program and Capstar then switched them to Frontline Plus after speaking to my vet. They have had 2 doses now and it has never gotten rid of even a signigicant amount of the fleas on either dog. They are just miserable. I googled the most recommended topical flea med by vets and it looks like K9 Advantage won out by quite a margin. I hate to waste 2 doses of Frontline, it was buy 3 get one free, but it sounds like I need to switch to Advantage to give them some relief. The carpets are being cleaned today and then the house is being sprayed and defogged tomorrow. The exterminator said it was too hot to spray the back yard, so I guess we’ll do that if it ever cools off. If it sounds like I’m doing anything wrong please let me know. I’m sick and tired of spending $$$ and having miserable dogs. Thanks for everyone’s opinions. They were very helpful!

  • Cc Cecile

    Thanks for all the good information. My experience with frontline plus was good, until one day I found a few fleas on my dogs. I have 2 tiny toy poodles, 4lbs and 6lbs. I figured they probably got them when I took them to a neighbourhood dog park the day before, and obviously after roughly 24hours, they fleas were still alive on my dogs. I had to give them 2 flea baths to get rid of the feas all. I just hate it and cannot stand it for a minute once I found them. Now I’m thinking about switching to Advantix only because it claims to REPEL fleas and ticks. But my concern is, some people as well as you, are saying Advantix is not keeping it up to entire 30days. So, will it be good if I apply it on my dogs every, let’s say, 20 to 25 days?

    • http://thefuntimesguide.com/ FunTimesGuide

      Cc Cecile – Due to the potency of the ingredients in flea and tick products, I personally wouldn’t do anything OTHER than what the instructions say on the box. But I would also ask a veterinarian – for their professional opinion – and would probably do what they recommend. That’s just me…

  • Adragonam

    My dog Major used to have seizures if applied either advantage or Frontline

  • Jm

    Several years ago, Advantage (for Cats) made my cat VERY dazed, confused and basically in a state of shock – it was very upsetting to me that I had foisted an unhealthy product upon her. The support people said that it was from the “alcohol” in the product but it took at least 3 days for her to get back to normal.

    Then I switched to Frontline and I didn’t seem to have any similar reaction. However, recent animal deaths and tens of thousands of negative reports have prompted the EPA to mandate stronger warning labels. BE CAREFUL WITH ALL OF THESE PRODUCTS!

  • Becky69boo

    Frontline didnt work for any of my pets.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kim-Martinez/1076358829 Kim Martinez

    Thanks

  • Sidroj7

    I have been using Frontline Plus on my cat and my dog for the past three months (correctly, I might add) and the fleas are still running rampant on both.  My vet suggested Advantage for the cat and Advantix for the dog.  She says that people have been complaining that Frontline is not working as well as it used to work.  I’m almost sold!  On my way to Petco for Advantage…

  • Staffiez

    I don’t rate the treatment mentioned as I believe the flea can build up a tolerance to the ingredients. I bath our dogs once a month using Aloe Vera conditioner. Also I water down some Aloe Vera conditioner to use as a spray to use a few times a week………. So far, No Fleas, (our dogs are 12, 7 & 4 years old)