Sentinel vs. First Shield
I took Baxter to the vet today (Banfield) and requested a prescription for Sentinel to purchase online since they didn't carry it. I have browsed through the forums and a good number of members have had positive results with Sentinel. However, the vet told me that Sentinel is considered "old school" and that newer and better preventatives have come out since then. He gave us First Shield because it covered all flea life stages and ticks. He also gave us Worm Shield. We live in central Texas and will take Baxter camping when he's older.
Baxter will be 12 weeks soon and is currently 7lbs. His parents were pretty small. I was thinking of putting him on Sentinel and possibly a graded dose of Brewer's Yeast since he's not 10 lbs. yet. Would this be too much? I'll have Capstar/Comfortis for actual flea days. For Sentinel users, what did you use for tick prevention?
Thoughts? Your opinions/recommendations will be much appreciated. Thanks!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on
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Hi Baxter's mom!
Stick with Sentinel, it is much safer comparing to the spot on products. Last year EPA finally received enough consumer complains to crack down on manufacturers. The best way to prevent ticks is mowing the lawn and avoid tall grassy area, check him for ticks and remove them properly. I had a foster with a full blown tick on her neck once and she got very sick, weak legs, no appetite, it was not fun.
First Shield Trio is actually Banfield's exclusive branded "Vectra 3D" - distributed under "Summit Vetpharm LLC", Hartz is the assignee of the pattern and both companies are under Sumitomo - now all own by CEVA. My advise is to wait until the EPA forces the manufacturers to straighten out their products, avoid all topicals, at least for now.
PS: Only use Capstar or Comfortis when you indeed have an infestation and as a last resort.
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Permalink Reply by Melissa and Franklin! on
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If you are using comfortis I'd say don't waste your money on sentinel. You are better off buying interceptor for half the price (if not more) and using comfortis as your flea protection OR using frontline which has a flea and tick component. I work at a vet and have never heard of First Shield. We only recommend sentinal for indoor only animals that aren't exposed to fleas because it does not kill the fleas it essentially only makes them infertile. If you have other animals who are bringing in fleas or you take your dog out a lot sentinal will do nothing for you. Also, capstar doesn't take care of the flea problem either, it kills the adults but doesn't address the root of the issue. Best bet would be to pick a heartworm product like interceptor or hearguard and use something like comfortis for flea only or frontline for flea and tick protection.
Also, not sure how commited you are to Banfield, but if it were me I'd high tail it out of there ASAP. They have a very black and white method of treating animals (i.e. treat EVERY ear infection the same way, or EVERY eye problem the same way), where veterinary medicine is really somewhat of an art that oftentimes requires some creativity and insight to find the causes and best treatments for your pets issues. And Banfield being associated with a corporate pet supply store often pushes products that are not necessarily the best thing (i.e. First Shield).
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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Hi! I'm not familiar with First Shield. I don't know how important tick protection is in Texas. Here in PA, ticks are a big problem and my dogs are in the woods more days than not spring through late fall. I understand Sam's point about spot-ons, but the risk here for ticks is too great for me to not use them.
Dog ticks are big enough to see, but you would never see a nymph stage of a deer tick, even engorged, on a Corgi. Checking for ticks is virtually worthless because some ticks are so tiny. Heck, most of the time I can't even get down to the skin on my Corgis. Here's a link with some pictures of deer ticks:
http://www.oes.org/html/how_2_identify_different_ticks.html
Most of Texas is low to no-risk for Lyme, but there are other tick-borne diseases.
The other thing to consider is what other pets you have. We have an indoor-only cat. Cats tend to be much more sensitive to medications than dogs, so my goal is to not have any live fleas enter the house, ever. Hence the K9 Advantix.We've used it for years and our dogs haven't reacted. Again, I realize there are risks but since I live across the street from the woods, keeping my dogs out of the woods is just not an option.
Good luck with your decision! There is much conflicting advice out there.
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Beth, I was under the impression you could not use Advantix if there was a cat in the house because it is toxic to cats? Just curious because I thought I was stuck using Frontline forever since I have cats, and there really was no other tick prevention but Frontline or Advantix on the market. I like to alternate my flea medicine every once in a while to kill the random fleas that aren't killed by the Frontline. Any info would be great. Thanks
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Permalink Reply by Jane on
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It says on their website not to use it on cats due to the permethrin I believe, which is toxic to them. I'm not sure what the risk of transfer is once it's applied though. My cat hates the dogs for the most part but I still don't risk it. :/
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Advantix should not be ingested by cats. Actually the drug in it is ok for cats but at much, much lower concentrations than what is in Advantix, according to my vet. The concentration found in spot-on medications, though, is very toxic to cats.
But the thing is, it can only be transferred while it is wet. The product labeling (and my vet) say to keep the cat away from the dog immediately after application if the cat is prone to grooming the dog.
Even though my cat does not groom my dogs, she does play with them sometimes by attacking them (fun for the cat, not for the dogs) and puts her paws on them. Therefore, I use an abundance of caution and lock the cat upstairs for an hour or so when I apply the stuff, then just monitor them for a short while thereafter.
Once the medication is dispersed, it's no longer concentrated enough to be a risk.
I've been using it for years with no problems, but I don't use any spot-on for my cat and so there is zero chance of confusing the two medications. If my cat cuddled with my dogs I might be a bit more concerned.
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