Kirkland Flea & Tick

[calico]

Anyone use this? We picked up a 6 month supply for $20 this weekend. We have a little while to go before Kai's monthly maintenance, so I though I'd see if anyone had any thoughts about this product.

The other reviews I've found are polarized- either it's perfectly fine or people are yelling and screaming that b/c of the price, it's crap. I know that the latter is not necessarily true and that most Kirkland brand things are actually pretty good quality.

[welder'swife]

Ooh, I'm interested to hear about this too.

[janegold]

We've been using it for the last month and so far no fleas or ticks. But our dog has never had a flea problem before and we live in the city so ticks aren't really an issue either.

The one thing I will say is that it has left her coat VERY greasy at the application sites. I think some of the problem was that my husband didn't apply it carefully but I expected the greasiness to go away after a few good brushings and it took several weeks for it to finally clear up. We had always used oral stuff in the past, so I can't say how the greasiness compares to other topical brands.

[kellbell191]

I would not use it. The reason we use Frontline is because it has so far been shown to be as safe as these products can be. People aren't upset and judging the Kirkland brand for being cheap, they're judging it because the ingredients are not the same as Frontline. The ingredients are the same as Biospot, which has a lot of safety concerns and complaints. Obviously that means a lot of people have concerns over how safe it is.
Given how incredibly serious a bad reaction to unsafe topical flea and tick treatment can be (seizures for example) I'm not going to switch just to save $20. The health of my dogs is worth more than $20 per month to me.

[kellbell191]

And looking into it further, apparently its active ingredients kill adult fleas only, not eggs and larvae.

Sometimes you really do get what you pay for.

[calico]

Jun 12, 2012 14:05:02 GMT -5 kellbell191 said:

And looking into it further, apparently its active ingredients kill adult fleas only, not eggs and larvae.

Sometimes you really do get what you pay for.

It has the same IGR as Frontline Plus, so it does kill eggs and larvae. The ingredients do look similar to Bio-Spot, which I had never heard of until this little experiment, but it also shares ingredients with Frontline Plus and K9 Advantix II.

Honestly, pesticides are pesticides. I don't know of one that has never made an animal sick. We all take a chance every month when we apply any of the brands to our pets. I discounted a lot of the negative reviews b/c many just made blanket claims (I don't trust cheap brands) and had little to no supporting evidence.

[kellbell191]

These are the ingredients for Kirkland:
30.0% Etofenprox -CAS 80844-04-01
5.0% Piperonyl Butoxide Technical - CAS 51-06-6
(butylcarbity (6-propyliperonyl either) and related components
3.6% (S)-Methoprene CAS 65733-16-6
61.4% Other ingredients

Etofenprox is a pyrethroid, same family as phenothrin, which is in the Hartz products that have caused so many deaths. And as I mentioned before, same type of pesticide used in biospot, sargent and a lot of the other products that have a high number of reported toxicity cases. The primary ingredient in frontline plus is Fipronil, which is in a different family of pesticides and has fewer reported toxicity issues. Not to mention, Etofenprox has proven incredibly dangerous and often fatal for cats, so you can't use it if you have cats in the house. Methoprene is in both and does kill larvae, so I stand corrected on that.

Sharing ingredients is not having the same ingredients and small variations can make a huge difference in your pets' health and well being. I am all for taking car of pets as cost effectively as possible, but this still doesn't strike me as a worthwhile way to save money. It seems like you've made up your mind to use it regardless and disregard people's concerns as unfounded, but when you actually look into the chemical make up of each they're comparable, not the same, and that does not mean they're equally safe.

[Deleted]

I bought this too and used it 1 month and couldn't get past how GREASY it left his coat at application site; I have a short haired dog so it's very obvious and annoying. Switched back to Frontline.

[calico]

Jun 13, 2012 10:32:04 GMT -5 kellbell191 said:

These are the ingredients for Kirkland:
30.0% Etofenprox -CAS 80844-04-01
5.0% Piperonyl Butoxide Technical - CAS 51-06-6
(butylcarbity (6-propyliperonyl either) and related components
3.6% (S)-Methoprene CAS 65733-16-6
61.4% Other ingredients

Etofenprox is a pyrethroid, .......

I don't understand why you're getting all prickly about this. I simply said that pesticides are pesticides. There are plenty of reports of animals getting sick from ALL brands that are out on the market, including Frontline. I don't know if you're aware, but K9 Advantix II also uses a pyrethroid as it's main ingredient. You still seem to fail to accept that putting ANY chemical on your pet means that you are taking a chance that the pet will have a reaction to the chemical. It's not just flea preventatives that are not Frontline. These are the choices that we make as pet parents. I know that some of the people who come on here don't do their research, but I do; while the chemistry lesson is nice, it's unnecessary. Perhaps I should have specified that I wanted to hear reviews from users of the product. My fault.

I'm aware that one of the ingredients is toxic to cats, since that info is plastered all over the packaging. I'm not just switching just b/c it's cheaper, but also b/c of the mosquito repellant aspect. So it was either this stuff or K9 Advantix II.

You are so freakin stuck on Frontline- do you work for the manufacturer or something?

[kellbell191]

I'm really unclear as to why you asked a question on here if your only purpose was to fight and disagree with anyone who didn't hold the same opinion as you. You specifically asked if anyone had thoughts on the product, not reviews, and I did my best to explain why people had concerns as you specifically said you didn't know why people had a problem with it. In your original post you claimed to disapprove of people making a judgment on a product based on blanket statements because of price alone. Then you made the blanket statement that it is probably fine b.c. its kirkland (I love kirkland, but lets not ignore the recalls). Then you made the blanket statement that all pesticides are bad. Then you made the assumption that because they share ingredients with products considered safer it must be ok. Based on those statements you didn't seem to know about the exact make up of the products and how they were different (I didn't until a regular explained to me a few weeks back). I, apparently wrongly, assumed that you would want to know, just as I had wanted to know. I also specifically stated in my response that Frontline is "as safe as these things can be", which clearly implies that I know pesticides have risks.

My responses were based on concern for the safety of your pet, period. This is an ongoing discussion among a lot of the regulars here, which of the new flea and tick products are safe, and there are still a lot of us who use no pesticides or holistic alternatives (I use frontline and vetri). It does get annoying when I take the time to respond to someone, based on the question asked, and get snarked and dismissed for no reason other than I disagreed with them and tried to explain why. I think if you look into it and talk to a lot of people who have done research on these products that most people will agree Frontline is still considered the safest and that there isn't a clear sense these alternatives are as safe yet. There are also a lot of people who will tell you that no pesticide is safe, but that didn't seem to be your question.

It's the same Nest adage, we can only answer the question you ask and only respond to the information given. If you only wanted reviews and didn't care about "any thoughts" then don't ask for "any thoughts". Your statements that "pesticides are pesticides" and "the ingredients are similar" implied that you weren't fully aware of the differences between the products. Like I said, I am grateful someone told me because I wanted to know, and I assumed you would want to know something that could seriously affect the health of your dog. Regardless, it seems that other people were interested in this thread as well so maybe someone else will get something out of it.

[worthyfox]

We bought it. After the first month, we found three fleas on our pup. We've since switched back.

[osulori]

Ditto Kellbell 100%. And no, I don't work for Frontline either but like Kellbell, I have been around for and participated in the many discussions that have gone on among the regulars with regards to various forms of flea/tick preventative, what they contain, and the effect that certain pesticides may have on my dogs (because while yes, "pesticides are pesticides" that doesn't mean that they will all have the same effect). I do love all things Costco/Kirkland, but since my dogs don't have reactions to Frontline and there are different ingredients in the Kirkland brand flea/tick meds, I'm going to stick with Frontline until there's more evidence out there on its (Kirkland's) safety and effectiveness.

[janegold]

Blushnbasful - so Frontline doesn't leave your dog's fur so greasy? I really don't know if I can go through another month with her looking like a (very enormous, white) sewer rat. Did you try returning the Kirkland to CostCo? I wonder if they will give me a refund...

[janegold]

Thanks fivedogs!

[shebasmom]

Supposedly this has been removed from the stores. It has not been effective in flea control and can make your dog or cat sick. Death can occur. This info came from a Costco employee. And I had the distinct displeasure of having a sick flea infested dog and flea infested house as a result of using this stuff.

[sebd12]

We like advantix II so far. Frontline didn't work for us at all. I would see no bugs fro 2 weeks and then they would be covered. Plus, frontline only kills, doesn't repel.
K9 Advantix II kills and repels, but one of our dogs acts a little woozy with the full monthly dose of permethrins. I buy the XL dog box, put them in a new opaque plastic bottle, and give them a proper half dose based on their weight and the manufacturer's dosing recc's every two weeks. Buying the larger doses is cheaper in the long run, so that's the only way we save money on it. Since I divide out to dose anyway it made sense. So far, the every two weeks half does seems to be working fine. I still am not completely sure if it reduces the efficacy to do half doses twice as often but the fleas I saw are gone and no ticks have been spotted.

Disclaimer: Obviously this is against package labels and should only be attempted if you are handy with an oral syringe.

It's helped our permethrin-sensitive dog not react as severly. Bio-spot was terrible for him.

[polarbearfans]

I wouldn't trust anything that can be bought over the counter

[polarbearfans]

I only use revolution, but I have cats and not dogs. Cats are very likely to ingest these dangerous chemicals. I would consider over the counter with the advice of our vet but I would always phone consult before starting a new treatment if it wasn't suggested as an on going treatment.