Dear Ilonka,

Thank you for your enquiry to Bayer Animal Health.

Bayer Animal spot-on products for flea control; Advantage, Advocate and Advantix will all be affected by daily swimming, if your dog swims maximum 4 times per week then these products will not be affected assuming that your dog does not become wet for 24 hours following application.

Kiltix tick collar will also be affected by daily swimming, the collar must be removed prior to swimming and replaced when the dog is 100% dry. It will then take about 24 hours for the powder from the collar to spread over the dog’s coat again.

Kind Regards,
Scout and the team at Dog Diaries

Thank you for your enquiry regarding Advantix. I strongly encourage you to read the information below so you can better understand why you are still finding fleas on your dog, and may continue to do so over the next several weeks. Please always treat your dog with the correct dose of Advantix according to her body weight and follow the package instructions provided in the box.

Advantix® rapidly kills fleas on your pet, but it does not repel them. If fleas were repelled, they would not die and look for another host – i.e. you and your family. Advantix will stop reinfesting fleas from biting in less than 5 minutes and will kill them within one hour of contact, as fast as 20 minutes.

Less than 1% of fleas in a population will be found on pets at any one time. The other 99% 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. Advantix® will rapidly break down the lifecycle by killing fleas before they can lay eggs and killing the larvae in the pet’s surroundings.

To determine whether Advantix® is working, examine as many live fleas as you can find. Advantix® 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.

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

1. Are all the dogs in your household treated Advantix? And all the cats 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 lay eggs and therefore hatch more fleas. With this in mind, if your pets go for walks outside your home environment they have the potential to pick up fleas as they go into an environment you cannot control.

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

3. Are you applying it correctly?
The entire tube needs to be applied directly to the skin when you part your pet’s fur. The X-Large Dog size needs to be applied in three spots – between the shoulder blades, at the base of the tail and one spot in between.

4. Do you use Advantix all year round?
It is recommended that you treat your pets with Advantix every month. If you have a break (for example over winter) this will enable 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 product is working. You can also do “the white sheet test”. If your pets have fleas on them at bed time, put a white sheet over its bedding and have a look in the morning to check for dead fleas.

Washing your dog can reduce the efficacy of Advantix. Too frequent washing, and washing with a shampoo containing soap will strip the flea and tick treatment off your dog. Therefore we recommend only using a soap-free pet shampoo – please check the labeling of your pet shampoo to see if you are currently using a soap-free product. If the label does not say it is soap-free you will need to purchase an alternative shampoo. Please wait 7 days after product application before bathing your dog. Any flea control shampoo will strip the product out of the coat. Do not bath your dog more frequently than every fortnight. You can wash your dog before application, and apply the product when the dogs is 100% dry.

If you have any further queries, please contact us on the Customer Information Line (toll free) 1800 678 368 Monday to Friday 9am -4pm.

Thank you again for your feedback.

Kind Regards,
Scout and the team at Dog Diaries

We recently purchased Advantix for our 5 year old minature poodle Matrix, as well as having our house sprayed / bombed for flees, it is quite and expense and it did not work at all, after two months of application Matrix still had very small fleas. We used it as instructed on packet. We would like to receive your comments to this.

Narelle, Keith and Matrix Horner

If washing your dog before Advantix application, ensure that your dog is 100% dry prior to application. Please wait the minimum period of time between washing and treatment, when the dog is 100% dry. Therefore in hot environmental conditions it may only take a few hours before the dog is dry and Advantix can be applied.

Ensure that your dog does not come into contact with any water for 24 hours after application ie, no swimming or running in the rain. If your dog swims daily, this will affect the efficacy of the product. In this case you will need to apply Advantage 2 weeks after every Advantix application. However if your dog swims up to 4 times a week, Advantix monthly is all that is necessary. Wait a minimum of 7 days before bathing her 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 Advantix 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.

Kind regards, Dog Diaries