Thank you for your posts. Please see below for Bayer’s stance on the splitting of our products:

Bayer does not recommend the splitting of tubes as this practice is considered off-label. The reason it is important to use a full ampoule of the correct size product on each respective animal is to ensure full surface area coverage of the flea active.

In instances where a minimal dose is applied, e.g. putting a drop from a dog tube on a cat, breakdown in flea control could result due to underdosing of the product.

It is also important to remember that the cat and dog products in the Bayer range can vary in formulation. Therefore we could never recommend splitting tubes between animals.

Kind Regards,
Scout and the team at Dog Diaries

Thank you for your post.

We advise that you please contact one of our technical consultants on the Customer Information Line (toll free) 1800 678 368 Monday to Friday 9am -4pm for further assistance with your enquiry.

Kind Regards,
Scout and the teat at Dog Diaries

Thank you for your post.

The washing instructions are as follows:

Ensure that your dog does not come into contact with any water for 24 hours after Advantage application ie, no swimming or running in the rain. Wait a minimum of 7 days before bathing the dog after application, as this may remove the product from the coat before it is able to distribute evenly. Ensure that you always use a soap-free shampoo, as a shampoo containing detergent or soap will strip the product from the coat and render it ineffective. Do not wash more frequently than every fortnight. Flea or tick washes, rinses or shampoos have the same effect as soap-containing shampoos, they are extremely stripping and remove Advantage out of the fatty layer of the dogs’ skin. We recommend two excellent soap-free shampoos made by a company called Dermcare-Vet, they are Natural Shampoo and Aloveen, oatmeal and aloe vera shampoo.

Just letting you know that new washing instructions are currently being complied and should appear on the label in the near future.

Kind Regards,
Scout and the team at Dog Diaries

I didn’t get my dog wet in the 24hrs as I’d had him bathed only 72hrs before applying it, nor did I use any shampoo but within 2 weeks of applying it, there were fleas on my dog. I found Advantage worked very well, the first couple of times … however it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference now. My dog has fleas again, although I had the whole house & yard sprayed/treated at the same time although there were no animals in the property prior to my moving here.
Because there are ground fleas in Hervey Bay, I don’t take him out of the yard, as I see no point in having my whole place treated, only to introduce fleas from outside. There is a kitten next door, but it doesn’t come into our yard.
I am used to applying flea treatments over the last 5 years since moving to Qld.
I’d be interested to hear your comments as I really only want one pet, not a Cav & a flea circus.
Thanks
a slightly frustrated …
Wendy & Cully ….

To increase your understanding of the product, and fleas in general, please read the information below.

Advantage rapidly kills fleas on your pet, but does not repel them. If fleas were repelled, they would not die and will look for another host – i.e. you and your family. Advantage will stop reinfesting fleas from biting in less than 5 minutes and will kill them within one hour of contact.

10 adult fleas can create 250,000 fleas in one month, so if you are seeing a large number of fleas – this is normal. Unfortunately, the existing fleas need to go through their lifecycle and hatch out. This can take between 6 – 8 weeks. As you are aware, the fleas will jump directly onto your pet. These fleas will be affected by the Advantage within 3 – 5 minutes and will die as fast as 20 minutes. Advantage affects the fleas’ nervous system and the first thing that happens to a flea is that they cannot use their mouth parts to bite. So even though these fleas are on your pet, they are not biting. Once a flea is affected by the product – they will die. A flea will not jump off the pet and then recover.

It will still take a minimum of 6 – 8 weeks to break the lifecycle. Washing in a flea shampoo or any shampoo containing soap, will potentially strip the product out of the pet’s skin and coat. After washing your pet, Advantage can be applied as soon as the coat is 100% dry, which will take a few hours to occur. The washing instructions below are extremely important.

Ensure that your pet does not come into contact with any water for 24 hours after application ie, no swimming or running in the rain. Wait a minimum of 7 days before bathing again after application, as this may remove the product from the coat before it is able to distribute evenly. Ensure that you always use a soap-free shampoo, as a shampoo containing detergent or soap will strip the product from the coat and render it ineffective. Do not wash more frequently than every fortnight.

Flea or tick washes, rinses or shampoos have the same effect as soap-containing shampoos, they are extremely stripping and remove Advantage out of the fatty layer of the pets’ skin. We recommend two excellent soap-free shampoos made by a company called Dermcare-Vet, they are Natural Shampoo and Aloveen, oatmeal and aloe vera shampoo.

Less than 5% of fleas in a population will be found on pets at any one time. The other 95% are found in the environment as eggs, larvae or pupae. When this lifecycle has completed, the juvenile fleas will hatch out from the pupae and jump on to your pet. Advantage will rapidly break down the lifecycle by killing fleas before they can lay eggs and killing the larvae in the pet’s surroundings. However, the pupal stage in the environment is resistant to every chemical known to man, and no product is able to penetrate these cocoon stages. Therefore patience is required as all the immature stages hatch out, jump onto your pet and are killed by Advantage. Until all the pupal stages have hatched, you will continue to see fleas.

Advantage will affect a flea’s nervous system and you can tell it is working if the fleas are slow and don’t jump away immediately. Healthy, unaffected fleas are very difficult to catch and are almost impossible to remove from you pet’s coat.

There are a number of other issues that need to be addressed….

1. Are all the pets in your household treated with Advantage?
In order to break down the flea lifecycle all pets in the environment need to be treated. An untreated pet will bring fleas into the environment, which will breed, lay eggs and therefore hatch more fleas. With this in mind, if your pet goes outside your home environment they have the potential to pick up fleas as they are going into an environment you cannot control.

2. Are you using the correct size for your pets weight?
Small Dogs = 0 – 4kg Medium Dogs = 4kg – 10kg Large Dogs = 10kg – 25kg X-Large Dogs = 25kg – 50kg
Small Cats = 0 – 4kg Large Cats = 4kg – 8kg

3. Are you applying it correctly?
The entire tube needs to be applied directly to the skin when you part your pets fur. The X-Large dog treatment needs to be applied in three separate spots – between the shoulder blades, at the base of the tail and one spot in between as per the label directions. Smaller treatments only need application in the one spot between the shoulder blades.

4. Use Advantage all year round.
It is recommended that you treat your pet with Advantage every month. If you have a break (for example over winter) this will enable the parts of the flea lifecycle that you cannot see (eggs, larvae and pupae) to build up. When summer arrives, there will be a big infestation of fleas into your environment.

Remember to have a look at the fleas on your pet – if they are slow this means the Advantage is working. You can also do “the white sheet test”. If your pet has fleas on it at bed time, put a white sheet over its bedding. In the morning, check the white sheet for any dead fleas.

We would really like to help you solve your flea problem.

Again, Advantage does not repel fleas from jumping onto your pet, but once they are on the animal they are rapidly killed. The entire flea lifecycle is broken, the fleas are unable to breed and therefore the product treats fleas on your pet as well as prevents the lifecycle from continuing.

However it is very important to understand that if your pet goes outside – even briefly, where neighboring dogs, cats, wild rodents and possums may frequent the area, there will be a constant source of fleas in the environment from neighboring animals shedding flea eggs. Unless your animal is placed in quarantine away from all environmental contaminants, it is impossible to achieve the ideal situation of a flea-free environment. This situation does not exist. If you have just begun Advantage treatment and you are not seeing an immediate response, this is normal. The entire flea lifecycle takes a minimum of 6-8 weeks, therefore an excellent degree of control over fleas will take a minimum of 6-8 weeks. You have to be patient unfortunately, and the situation will probably get worse before it gets better, with temperature and humidity increasing as we approach summer, with many thousands of immature fleas hatching out every day.

We request that you please be patient as you will see the results over time.

Kind Regards,
Scout and the team at Dog Diaries