# Alternatives to Stronghold for Dogs



## InfoSeeker (9 Dec 2010)

I give our dog a dose of stronghold approximately every 6 weeks.

He goes ballistic when this is applied and am wondering if anyone knows of an alternative?


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## joanmul (9 Dec 2010)

What's Stronghold for?


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## InfoSeeker (9 Dec 2010)

Stronghold kills fleas, worms and other parasites


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## Concert (10 Dec 2010)

Use it all the time for two Samoyeds with no problems.  Think it's the best for the job so I'd persevere if I were you.  Why does your dog have a problem with it ?


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## InfoSeeker (10 Dec 2010)

He rolls around in a manic fashion for about 30 minutes when it is applied & we have to let him out as he would destroy the house. He is an extremely placid golden retriever who returns after 30mins looking like a chocolate brown retriever covered in mud!!!

Then he takes to the bed for a day and is not interested in anything so if there was an alternative then I would try it out, i.e. does everyone who has a dog use stronghold????


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## Sue Ellen (10 Dec 2010)

InfoSeeker said:


> does everyone who has a dog use stronghold????



We used to use Frontline but vet switched us to Advocate which according to her is a lot better.

I saw a very frightening item on the Animal Welfare programme recently where a poor woman in America mixed up the two tubes and put the one for the dog on the cat.  Because cats wash their coats so often her cat licked the spot-on solution and became extremely ill.  They did not expect it to live and it took days of intensive care to help it through.


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## InfoSeeker (10 Dec 2010)

Thanks for that Sue Ellen, I will ask our vet re what he thinks of Advocate.

Presume you have to buy this through your vet which is what we currently do with stronghold?

Anything would be better as an alternative given our retriever's reaction to it.


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## Sue Ellen (11 Dec 2010)

InfoSeeker said:


> Presume you have to buy this through your vet which is what we currently do with stronghold?



One of our local chemist shops stock the Frontline one but don't appear to stock Stronghold or Advocate.  I think the Advocate attacks the ticks which I think she said the Frontline didn't do successfully.

Our dog doesn't appear to mind either too much but he has a thick hairy coat so in making sure that we split the hair and apply the lotion to the skin he probably doesn't pay too much attention to it.  If you have something like a labrador where they don't have too much hair it may be causing a bad reaction and stinging them.

Nothing much on Google about Stronghold but  article does mention giving them garlic capsules because the fleas hate the smell of garlic.  I regularly give our dog cod liver oil to keep his joints supple.


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## Perplexed (12 Dec 2010)

A natural solution is if you let your dog swim regularly in the sea.
Mine has never had fleas or tics despite hardly ever having Frontline/Stronghold.


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## Sue Ellen (12 Dec 2010)

Perplexed said:


> A natural solution is if you let your dog swim regularly in the sea.
> Mine has never had fleas or tics despite hardly ever having Frontline/Stronghold.



In Donegal whilst on holidays our dog swims in the sea twice maybe three times a day and he got a tic last summer while we were there.  Why would sea water have any effect on fleas/tics?


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