Does your dog simply lick off any flea medicine immediately after applying it? It’s not uncommon for dogs to lick off foreign liquids that coat their body — whether it’s water, flea medicine, or practically any other liquid. Unless it’s given time to soak into their coat/skin, however, the medicine isn’t going to prove effective at killing and preventing fleas. Thankfully, Merck Animal Health has a solution to this problem: a new FDA-approved chewable flea treatment product for dogs called BRAVECTO.
What Is BRAVECTO?
BRAVECTO is the first chewable flea tablet for dogs to receive approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, raising the bar for other companies to follow. While this alone is reason enough for many owners to switch over to this revolutionary new product, there’s another noteworthy feature worth mentioning: BRAVECTO offers a full 12 weeks of protection against fleas and ticks, which is much longer than competing canine flea treatment products on the market. Most oral and spot flea treatment products are effective for 1 month, at which point they drastically lose their ability to ward off fleas and ticks. Merck’s new product, however, offers 3 months of protection from a single application.
According to a press release sent out by Merck, BRAVECTO’s active ingredient is furalaner, a new ectoparasiticide belonging to the isoxazoline group. The company claims this ingredient is highly effective at killing fleas, black-legged ticks, dog ticks, and the Lone Star tick. Like most other flea and tick treatment products on the market, BRAVECTO is available in several different sizes based on the dog’s weight.
“The approval of BRAVECTO is truly a reflection of our 70-year history of innovation, research and commitment to helping shape the future of animal health, as well as our dedication to bringing novel products to market that meet the evolving needs of pet owners, customers and the industry,” said KJ Varma, senior vice president of research and development at Merck.
Should I Use BRAVECTO?
Being that it’s such a new product, I haven’t been able to personally test BRAVECTO on my dogs, so I can’t make any definitive statements regarding its effectiveness. With that said, reports suggest that it’s an incredibly powerful product with very few cases of adverse reactions. If FrontLine, Advantage or similar products are no longer effectively protecting your dog from fleas, try switching to BRAVECTO.
Would you be interesting in giving BRACECTO a shot? Let us know what you think about this new product in the comments section below!