# comfortis (spinosad)



## lucky lodge (Jan 12, 2012)

comfortis (spinosad) is a new flea tablet for dogs product in australia put i think it used to be sold

in america ..has anyone used it before or heard of it or know anything about it. my friend has a old english sheep dog that she wonts to breed from

but she worried it may make him infertal she has rang the manufature but thay dont know

any help would be much appreciated


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## Davie (Jan 12, 2012)

I have used Confortis as a flea control for many years here in the US without any problems at any problems. There are no breeding adverse warnings that I can find on the package. I'm not a breeder so I can't say without a doubt that there would be a problem--I just don't see anything listed on the package I have.


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## Marty (Jan 13, 2012)

This is the very first thing I have ever used that totally works perfectly. I cannot say enough good things about it. I don't know however anything about causing infertility.


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## drmatthewtaylor (Jan 13, 2012)

I have used Comfortis and it does work. But, like most things its not perfect and needs to be used correctly.

It does a fantastic job of killing adult fleas, so good in fact that people get the false sense of belief that ALL of the fleas are gone almost immediately. Adult fleas that an owner would see on the animal represent only 5% of the fleas that are in the environment and as most of those 95% are not adults (the only life cycle that Comfortis kills) then the product needs to be used for at least 3 months consecutively to rid the entire house of fleas.

As a preventive, used monthly, all year around, it works very nicely; but frankly so do most of the products.

Dr Taylor


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## lucky lodge (Jan 13, 2012)

dr taylor have you heard of any infertility concerns by breeders

thanks jenny


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## drmatthewtaylor (Jan 13, 2012)

I know of no problem with infertility. In general it is simply too costly for drug companies to do research on certain segments of the animal population and pregnant bitches or breeding males are among them.

There is a Vet who believes the mode of action 'could' cause problems in male dogs, but this theory has never been proven to my knowledge.

Dr Taylor


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## kaykay (Jan 13, 2012)

I tried it and it did nothing. I do not know what to do with my dog Noah. Suddenly he is immune to every flea med on the market. My other dog is fine. Im at my wits end. I called the vet last week and they pretty much said they had no idea where to go from here.

The last one that worked was Advamntix but now its not working anymore either. Hes a rough coated border collie so I even shaved a spot to apply the meds to be sure it went in the skin. Hes still itching. We have treated the entire house, washed everything etc.


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## drmatthewtaylor (Jan 13, 2012)

kaykay said:


> I tried it and it did nothing. I do not know what to do with my dog Noah. Suddenly he is immune to every flea med on the market. My other dog is fine. Im at my wits end. I called the vet last week and they pretty much said they had no idea where to go from here.
> 
> The last one that worked was Advamntix but now its not working anymore either. Hes a rough coated border collie so I even shaved a spot to apply the meds to be sure it went in the skin. Hes still itching. We have treated the entire house, washed everything etc.


I'm a little disappointed with your Vet as your situation is quite common and has a solution. That solution is neither cheap nor easy and will not happen quickly (90-120 days).

1)Fleas do not prefer one animal to another, they are equal opportunity, ALL of your animals have fleas. This includes not only house pets, but also any garage or porch animals or barn animals if any portion of the barn is heated. If not EVERY animal is treated correctly then fleas will persist.

2)a]Fleas do not make animals itch. b]Flea allergies do make animals itch. c]Allergies can lead to bacterial skin infections. An animal with a skin infection, caused by an allergic reaction, caused by fleas; MUST have all 3 conditions treated to achieve success.

3)Animals do not become immune or resistant to medications, rather bacteria and parasites that infect and infest them build up resistance. Clearly that wouldn't happen to just one animal in a population and flea resistance is quite uncommon, especially resistance to multiple medications. FAR more frequent is owners lack of understanding leading to incorrect administration of flea products. The most common errors are; applying at greater than 1 month intervals, not applying to ALL animals in a population, not applying for a minimum of 3 months, allowing the medication to be 'resucked' back into the tube during application, treating with multiple medications that limit each others usefulness and getting the animal wet 48 hours before or after application.

In my experience, owners treating the environment typically fails as they rarely (frankly I never seen it done right) do it correctly. Mind you I don't think owners are stupid or lazy, rather correctly treating a house is not intuitively obvious and takes considerable effort. Even if owners do treat the house correctly once they typically do not repeat the treatments at 2 week intervals for a minimum of 3 treatments. Unfortunately, treating the house simply becomes a waste of time and effort that would have been better served in using the newer topicals or pills correctly.

Dr Taylor


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## Sterling (Jan 13, 2012)

I use a product from Buck Mountain called Parasite Dust....it has diatom earth in it.

http://www.buckmountainbotanicals.net/treatments/parasitedust.html


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## Debby - LB (Jan 13, 2012)

I think one of the biggest problems with Comfortis is vomiting, mostly mild but it can be severe to the point of a twisted stomach. A lot of dogs do fine on it and it has been a wonderful product for many pet owners. Comfortis is something I myself will NEVER use again. *Comfortis is my reason for NEVER, EVER jumping in to use a NEW product, no matter how good it sounds.* When it had been out for several months back in early '08 my vet recommended it so I tried it on my Baby Girl. She ended up as a case study by Elanco and was part of the group that caused the leaflets to have Extra Warnings added to them...in the box the tablets come in the leaflets now say POST APPROVAL EXPERIENCE June 2009. 

My Baby Girl had some symptoms that we initially did not associate with the new flea medicine, until the 3rd month when she started having SEVERE seizures. It was horrible and after the third one she was completely deaf. She was never the same after that. 

The company knew all the symptoms my dog had were possible by combining this product with Ivermectin but in their case studies (the best I can remember they were done on beagles) the problems only came up when Ivermectin was dosed at way higher than recommended amounts. The vocalization, trembling, excess salivation, seizures, incoordination, excessive dilation of pupils, blindness, disorientation was NOT listed as a side effect when it was first put on the market.

 READ leaflets VERY carefully because your pet could be one of very few to have the listed rare severe reactions. Baby was a Boston Bull Terrier and although they did not pinpoint a breed that had the most problems, there were a lot of terriers and boxers that had the worst symptoms. After this I will never take any medicine myself or give my pets any medicine that has been out in use less than 5 to 7 years.


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## kaykay (Jan 13, 2012)

Doc I don't know what to do. I went to the vet office 2 weeks ago and told them the current advantix is wearing off at 3 weeks. Asked if I could give the drops 1 week early. She said no. I asked if he needed a bigger dose and she said no hes on the large dog dose. She advised to shave the spot to be sure the med is going to the skin so I did. Made sure I got it on the skin and soaked in.

Today he is still itching although its better than it was a couple days ago. They also have me give him benadryl when the itching is really bad.

Just at my wits end with it. I have owned dogs all my life and just never had this much trouble. Its odd to me that Sadie never has issues and they get the same drops, same day etc


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## drmatthewtaylor (Jan 13, 2012)

kaykay said:


> Doc I don't know what to do. I went to the vet office 2 weeks ago and told them the current advantix is wearing off at 3 weeks. Asked if I could give the drops 1 week early. She said no. I asked if he needed a bigger dose and she said no hes on the large dog dose. She advised to shave the spot to be sure the med is going to the skin so I did. Made sure I got it on the skin and soaked in.
> 
> Today he is still itching although its better than it was a couple days ago. They also have me give him benadryl when the itching is really bad.
> 
> Just at my wits end with it. I have owned dogs all my life and just never had this much trouble. Its odd to me that Sadie never has issues and they get the same drops, same day etc


Not real impressed by that Vet care.

Didn't treat the skin infection, barely treated the allergy with a weak antihistamine, and flea products can be given @ 3 week intervals.

You need a 2nd opinion.

Dr Taylor


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## kaykay (Jan 13, 2012)

Thanks so much. I thought it was odd too and honestly I all but begged for help as I hate seeing him so miserable. I will try someone else on Monday.


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## Sonya (Jan 14, 2012)

edited because I was going to comment on my experience with Comfortis, but it was actually Trifexis that I tried, sorry. Disregard this post.


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## Debby - LB (Jan 16, 2012)

Kay since one of the side effects of Advantix is itching I dont' think I'd use it on that particular dog at all. If you have fleas and/or see evidence of them on the dog then it's probably flea dermatitis but could be caused by a number of things including it's food.


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## drmatthewtaylor (Jan 16, 2012)

Debby said:


> Kay since one of the side effects of Advantix is itching I dont' think I'd use it on that particular dog at all. If you have fleas and/or see evidence of them on the dog then it's probably flea dermatitis but could be caused by a number of things including it's food.


You make a good point, but I'd like to clean it up for you a little (if you don't mind).

Kay's dog likely has an allergy and it is impossible to differentiate which allergy (flea, food, or seasonal) it has based on description alone and although there are tests for allergies for various reasons they usually aren't helpful at all especially early on. So we must use a system of trial and error with stress on system and not error. What I mean is that if we have an allergic dog and we see fleas then we must assume a flea allergy first. Its like fixing a car that's out of gas, I don't know why it won't run, but I have to fill the tank first just to rule that out.

Food allergies are a diagnosis of rule out not rule in, meaning we must look at other things first before we even think about trying a food trial and a food trial is a very specific life changing endeavor (not just changing the food).

Dr Taylor


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## kaykay (Jan 16, 2012)

He has been on the same dog food all his life. But I guess Purina could have changed something? We never had this issue with him until the last 2 years. Im going to give him the once over today while hubby is here. I am not easily seeing fleas, but his coat is so thick its hard to find them.


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## drmatthewtaylor (Jan 16, 2012)

kaykay said:


> He has been on the same dog food all his life. But I guess Purina could have changed something? We never had this issue with him until the last 2 years. Im going to give him the once over today while hubby is here. I am not easily seeing fleas, but his coat is so thick its hard to find them.


As dogs age, allergies tend to get worse.

Dogs do develop later in life food allergies, but please don't change the food as it is more complicated than that.

Dr Taylor


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## bev66 (Jan 17, 2012)

We raise miniature australian shepherds and I have been using Comfortis for several years on my breeding dogs with no problems.. I do however skip the dose on my females if they are close to welping or nursing pups.. Vomiting is a problem with a couple of my dogs but my vet recommended I break the pill up and give half in morning and half at night this has stopped the stomach problems completely.. I have tried several products on the market for fleas iin the past and Comfortis is the easiest most effective to use...


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