Tick and Flea Treatment: What Works and What It Costs

South Africa has a heavy tick burden and a year-round flea season in most of the country. That makes preventatives one of the few pet expenses that genuinely saves money — a year of prevention costs less than one bout of biliary.

The options, honestly

• Chewable tablets (monthly or three-monthly). The most reliable option for ticks in this country. Cannot wash off, cannot rub off on the couch, and they work regardless of swimming. Usually the most expensive per month and worth it.
• Spot-on treatments. Effective if applied properly to the skin and not the coat, and if the dog is not bathed or swimming constantly. Cheaper. Quality varies enormously between supermarket and vet-grade products.
• Collars. Some modern ones are genuinely good for months; cheap ones are close to useless and can cause skin reactions. Not ideal for dogs that swim or wrestle.
• Dips and rinses. Cheap, useful for heavy infestations and multi-dog households, but they need repeating and offer poor day-to-day protection between applications.

Roughly what you will pay

Expect somewhere around R100 to R300 a month for a medium dog on a vet-grade chewable, less for a small dog, more for a giant breed. Spot-ons commonly land in the R80 to R200 per application range. Buying a three-month product usually works out cheaper per month than three singles.

The three mistakes

1. Dosing by old weight. A growing puppy outgrows its dose band every few weeks. Underdosing is the most common reason a product "stopped working".
2. Treating the dog and not the house. Adult fleas on the animal are a small share of the population — the rest is eggs and larvae in bedding, carpet and floor cracks. Wash bedding hot, vacuum thoroughly and throw the bag out, and keep treating for at least three months.
3. Treating one animal. Every dog and cat in the home has to be on prevention or they simply reinfest each other. Use cat-specific products on cats — some dog spot-ons are lethal to cats.

What about the yard

Short grass, no long-grass edges against walls, and sunlight on the areas dogs lie in do most of the work. Ticks wait on grass tips and cannot survive long in dry sunny spaces. In heavy infestations a yard treatment helps, but it is a supplement to on-animal prevention, never a replacement.