December 31st, 2007 
Posted in A couple months back we decided to switch Bubba’s flea medicine from Frontline to ProMeris. Frontline has been on the market for 11 years now, and that has given fleas plenty of time to build an immunity. Our vet said it’s a new replacement for Frontline that’s only available through vets. That means you can’t pick it up at any online retailer or pet store even with a vet prescription. It’s cheaper than Frontline and new to the market, so we wanted to see how it worked. There are two active ingredients in this new flea & tick treatment. Metaflumizone is used to treat fleas while Amitraz treats ticks.
The results were amazing. Being an Olde English Bulldogge, Bubba is prone to a lot of skin infections. He’s dealt with demodectic mange and yeast infections for 14 months of his 16 month life time. As soon as we put him on the ProMeris his skin cleared up completely. (minus this new bacterial infection caused by a scratch from another animal)
We were able to take him off the Ivermectin doses he was receiving 2-3 times a week, and we haven’t had any problems with mange or year infections since changing the meds. He’s also got a severe flea allergy. Normally around other dogs he picks up flea dander that can cause him to run a high fever and break out all over. This has only happened once in the last 2 months opposed to almost every other week as before.
When Bubba went to the vet this morning we found out some interesting news. Dr. Ross informed us that results were just released from a new study proving that ProMeris treats more than just fleas and ticks. 97% of dogs tested with either sarcoptic or demodectic mange saw less outbreaks and overall improvement in the health of their skin. The results of this study have proven what hubby and I were already thinking. The ProMeris has drastically improved Bubba’s skin condition. Our vet visits have been cut in half.
This gives dog owners a new option. Instead of having to treat severe mange of either type with nasty chemical dips, they can now use ProMeris to treat fleas, ticks, and mange at the same time!
UPDATE:
10/25/08- It has been a little over a year since we started using Promeris on Bubba, and our results have definitely been great. Our vet wanted to see if any of his skin allergies or mange have cleared up on their own, so he did a trial, taking Bubba off the Promeris for 1 month. You can read the update of what happened when we did that on my post, Life Without Promeris. The short version is that his skin erupted with postules and a bacteria infection.
I’ve read that dogs that have problems with the skin should be bathed in shampoo that contains oatmeal. Has your vet recommended any type of shampoo? I also read that adding a little garlic to the dog’s meals will help keep fleas away and I was wondering if there was any truth to it.
Liz, it is true that using an oatmeal based shampoo helps. It soothes the skin, but depending on the severity of the skin problems it doesn’t always work by itself.
We use oatmeal shampoo once a week, and before we were also having to use a sulfur shampoo every other week. Since switching to ProMeris we’ve completely dropped the sulfur shampoo and mange medications.
I’ve also read about adding fresh garlic to a meal will help keep fleas away, but I haven’t been able to prove this yet. I’m afraid to add anything extra to the food with a dog that’s so prone to allergies.
I use frontline plus on fatdog. It keeps the mosquitos off along with the fleas and ticks.
I am assuming it works. Never had a flea or tick on the dog and she is like 2 1/2.
But then when she is outside its not for long. She doesnt like cold, rain, too hot, etc etc LOL.
Will have to see if that is a good one for fatdog
Will be asking the vet when I go back in late Jan. I want the mosquito protection. They get pretty bad around my moms and a few other places we visit.
OH……one thing i do not like about it……she is a black dog……where I apply the frontline she has a darker streak of black down her back (??? idk how ???)
So we only use it for about 6-9 months a year
I’ve been adding garlic powder (not the salt) to my dogs’ food for quite a while now. I had heard it was a good natural de-wormer as well as a repellant against mosquitos and fleas. I don’t have a worm problem with my dogs, and I can only assume that it helps as far as the fleas. However. garlic in the food alone will not do the trick. I’m in TX and the fleas are killing dogs around here (more the lack of people caring for their dogs properly-but that’s another story). I’ve been struggling through 2 seasons now and the next one is coming up. This year I plan on starting early so the critters won’t have as good a chance to get settled in. Anyone who knows the lifecycle of the flea knows the difficulty in keeping them away. I refuse to expose my animals to chemicals if I can at all help it, so garlic will remain a regular part of their diet (in good measure of course) along with other natural products to deal with flea problem. Incidentally, I’ve always wondered how this one streak of some liquid down a dog’s back can get rid of fleas. Well, I learned that the chemicals penetrate the animal’s skin and enter into the bloodstream. That’s how they get to the fleas-by being ingested with the animal’s blood, which now contains this chemical. And what does this chemical do to the dog……???????