Mark1154 wrote:
We've been using Frontline for a long time on our dog. I was wondering
if anyone knew whether there was a flea/tick collar that did the same
job and was as safe as the Frontline. That obviously is a more
inexpensive way to treat a pet.


Here is a great article on those flea killers you think are safe:

http://www.homevet.com/petcare/docum...leachemfin.pdf

All pesticides pose some degree of health
risk to humans and animals. Despite advertising
claims to the contrary, both over-the-counter
and veterinarian-prescribed flea killing
topical treatments are pesticides that
enter our dogs’ internal organs (livers, kidneys),
move into their intestinal tracts, and
are eventually eliminated in their feces and
urine. Not only that, but the humans and
other household animals who closely interact
with dogs who have been treated with
these chemicals can be affected by the toxins.
What happens to the health of all exposed
individuals during this systemic absorption
and filtration process varies from
animal to animal, but the laboratory and field
trial results clearly indicate toxicity on the
chronic and acute levels.
Until recently, foggers, flea collars,powders,
sprays, shampoos, and dips
containing organophosphates (chlorpyrifos,
malathion, diazinon), pyrethrins, synthetic
pyrethroids, and carbamates, were the
cutting-edge solutions to our flea problems.
They were effective, but unfortunately, they
also caused disease and sometimes death.
Given enough time, most pesticides
eventually cause enough human and animal
injuries that they are identified as hazards
and are removed from the market.
While the newest flea products – socalled
“spot-on” liquids that are applied
monthly to a dog’s skin – are being marketed
aggressively by the manufacturers and
veterinarians and represented as safe
alternatives to their predecessors, the fact
is, they are simply newer. All the “active”
ingredients in these spot-on preparations –
imidacloprid, fipronil, permethrin,
methoprene, and pyriproxyfen – have been
linked to serious health effects in laboratory
animals (see chart, page 20).
“The public must recognize that any decision
to use a pesticide, or to otherwise be
exposed to pesticides, is a decision made in
ignorance,” says Eliot Spitzer, Attorney
General of the New York Environmental
Protection Bureau. “We do not know the
identity of the chemicals to which we areexposed. We cannot make
informed individual
decisions on the acceptability of those
exposures, a basic element in the maintenance
and protection of our own health.”
Spitzer adds, “The requirements for marketing
a new product fall considerably short of
providing safety for our animal and human
families.”