Types of Flea Treatments: Which Works Best?

Fleas are an unpleasant thing to experience, for both your animals and you. There’s nothing worse than seeing your cat or dog start to scratch and knowing that you may have to de-flea your pets and your home. To avoid this completely, it’s far better for your household and your pet’s health to keep on top of regular flea treatments and prevent them from cropping up in the first place.

There’s now a wide range of flea treatments on the market with a range of types, applications, and methods for how they prevent or kill fleas. Not every treatment will be right for your pet, so let’s take a look at the most popular types of flea treatments and why.

Topical treatments

Topical treatments refer to any medication that you apply to your dog’s skin, these include the popular spot-on treatments, flea sprays, collars, shampoos and even powders.

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Spot-on

Spot-on topical flea treatments are the most popular choice when it comes to flea treatments these days and that’s because they work. They come in a small pipette container that can be easily squeezed onto the back of your cat or dog’s neck.

It’s important to carefully read application instructions for every product, with most spot-on treatments needing to be applied at the back of the neck, between the shoulder blades and at the bottom of your pet’s head. Once applied, the product works its magic by being absorbed into the skin, glands, killing any existing fleas and repelling any others from finding their way onto your pet. Spot-on treatments are a reliable way to keep your pet safe as they sink into the skin and don’t rest on your pet’s fur; if your pet gets wet or needs a wash the flea treatment will stay effective.

Itch Pet offers a monthly subscription service for cat and dog owners that delivers flea, tick and worming treatments direct to your door to keep your pets and home flea-free all year round. Rather than having to remember to treat your pets for fleas each month, you’ll get a monthly supply through your letterbox so it’s impossible to forget.

Flea spray

Flea sprays are another affordable option that are easy to apply, you simply spray your pet’s fur and they can stay effective at killing and repelling fleas for long periods of time. Flea sprays may be easy to apply but they’re not the best for pets, particularly dogs, that get wet quite often as you will need to keep reapplying.

Flea shampoo

Flea shampoos are great for washing away fleas and eggs once you have applied another treatment and for killing any remaining fleas left in the fur or on the skin. Despite their effective ingredients, it’s not recommended to rely on flea shampoos for killing and repelling fleas long term.

Related: The 5 Best Dog Shampoo Opinion 2021

Oral treatments

Oral treatments are any flea medicine that your dog or cat takes through their mouth, so can be added into food or fed directly to kill and prevent fleas from occurring.

Flea tablets

If you’re worried about using topical treatments, for example, if your dog has sensitive skin or you struggle to keep them still to apply it correctly, you can try oral treatments like flea tablets. There are various flea, tick and worming tablets available that you can hide in their food or sneak in their mouth with a treat.