Frontline: A one-spot topical skin treatment that lasts for up to one month for ticks and three months for fleas.  Not only does Frontline protect against fleas and ticks but it is also “waterproof”.  In other words, it will stay in the skin even if your pet swims or is bathed.   

Advantix:*Dogs Only* A once-a-month topical skin treatment that repels and kills mosquitoes, fleas, and ticks.  It is also waterproof but to a slightly lesser extent than Frontline.  It does have the benefit over Frontline in that it repels mosquitoes.

Revolution: This topical medication prevents the mosquito-borne heartworm disease, fleas, and skin/ear mites in both dogs and cats.  It is a great choice if ticks are NOT a problem.  If ticks are a problem, Frontline and Advantix are better choices.

Preventic Collars: *Dogs Only* This collar protects dogs against ticks for up to three months.  The collar should be fitted somewhat snuggly to allow the medication in the collar to be absorbed by the skin.  This should NOT be used in conjunction with another topical tick product and it will lose its efficacy if it gets wet.  It is important to make sure your pet does not ingest this collar.

Advantage:  This one-spot topical skin treatment is great if just fleas are the problem.  It will stay in the skin for up to one month.

Capstar: This is an oral tablet for dogs, puppies, cats, and kittens 4 weeks of age and older and 2 pounds of body weight or greater.  A single dose of Capstar should kill all the adult fleas on your pet. 

Heartworm Prevention

Heartworm is potentially fatal in dogs.  It is acquired when mosquitoes carrying the young stage of the heartworm organism, bite and inject the larvae into the dog’s bloodstream.  Once in the dog, the larvae eventually implant in the blood vessels of the lungs and heart and develop into adult worms.  If left untreated, the subsequent inflammation and clogging of the vessels and heart chambers will eventually kill the dog.  Treatment for this disease is potentially dangerous and expensive.  However, prevention is much more affordable and easy.

It’s important for owners to realize that cats are also at risk of heartworm.  The disease is potentially more dangerous in cats because it only takes a couple of adult worms to lead to a fatal illness.  There is no safe and effective treatment for heartworm in cats, but there is an affordable and easy way to prevent it. 

We recommend using one of the following:

Tri-Heart Plus: These are pork flavored chewable tablets that protect your dog against heartworms, roundworms, and hookworms.  Tri-Heart plus should be given once per month according to the proper weight range and should be given year-round. 

Heartgard Plus: These are beef chews that protect your dog against heartworms and the two parasites that are harmful to people; roundworms, and hookworms.  These flavorful chews are given once per month according to the proper weight range and should be given year-round.

Heartgard: These are beef chews that protect cats against heartworms and hookworms.  These flavorful chews are given once per month according to the proper weight range and should be given year-round.

Interceptor: These are flavor tablets that protect your dog or cat against heartworms and three common intestinal worms.   Tabs are given once per month according to the proper weight range and should be given year-round. 

Revolution: This topical one-spot skin medication prevents heartworm in both cats and dogs.  It is applied once per month year-round.  It also prevents fleas and skin/ear mites.

Heartworm/Lyme/Ehrlichia/Anaplasmosis "4Dx" Testing: We recommend performing this simple blood test on dogs once per year to screen for potentially fatal heartworm disease and for three tick-borne diseases.  Thus, not only can we now identify heartworms before they have a chance to clog heart chambers and vessels, we can now routinely test for all three diseases that ticks transfer to dogs here in the Northeastern United States.  No medication or vaccine is 100% protective, so if a pathogen should "slip through" it's early identification will maximize the likelihood of a safe treatment.

Dogs, cats, and exotics can harbor a number of intestinal parasites.  The most commonly affected animals are puppies and kittens under 6 months of age.  Adult pets can contract intestinal parasites through fleas and ingestion of contaminated feces, prey, or water.  There are several intestinal parasites that can be transmitted from pets to humans through human/pet contact.  Since humans are not the normal host for these parasites, they can cause numerous problems in our system including blindness and skin disease.  Children and immunocompromised individuals are at the highest risk of contracting these intestinal parasites.  The best way to prevent intestinal parasites is to check stool samples on a regular basis and “deworm” if necessary.  We recommend checking at least two stool samples on puppies and kittens under 6 months of age, then once a year after that.  We also prophylactically deworm puppies and kittens multiple times to be in compliance with the Companion Animal Parasite Council’s guidelines (www.capcvet.org).  Exotic species (birds, reptiles, rabbits, ferrets, rodents, etc) are no exception.  Fecal checks should be done at least yearly on these individuals as well.