There are two main flea and tick treatments: topical and oral.  The simplest form is the oral medicine as you only have to feed your pet a tablet, but it requires you to continue to use the medication once a month.   Meanwhile the topical treatment, although requiring more effort as you have to apply it to your pet’s skin, will only have to be used until the fleas and ticks have gone.

The way the oral flea and tick treatment works is by preventing the development of the flea’s eggs and larvae, breaking the life cycle and stopping more fleas from being bred on your pet.  It does nothing to the adult fleas, however, for which another product will have to be used.  If you are looking for fast relief, Capstar has a product which will kill adult fleas within thirty minutes, and this will last for twenty four hours.  The only problem with this form of treatment is that you have to keep giving the tablets to your pet every month, but it will keep the fleas away.

The alternative option, topical flea and tick treatment, requires you to rub the formula into your pet’s skin (you may have to pull back the fur to do this, or keep massaging until it gets through to the skin) where the infestation is worse.  For dogs with ticks this will probably be the shoulder areas.  Again, the key here is that the life cycle is broken.  The topical formulas contain an IGR (Insect Growth Regulator), preventing any more eggs being laid by the adult females and stopping the formation of larvae.  Soon the fleas will die out.  If you choose this form of flea and tick treatment, a good one for dogs is K9 Advantix as it is water proof, so will continue to work after a swim or a bath.

Both of the options are good for the removal of fleas and ticks, but although it requires a little more effort at first, it is generally considered that the topical method is the best.  It directly attacks the fleas and reapplication is not required once the fleas and ticks have been eradicated.  Also, whichever method you choose, remember that you must also make sure that your pet’s environment is made hostile to the further development of fleas so that they do not come back.  For more information on how to do this, see the section on “holistic flea treatment”.