Capstar For Dogs
If your dog has fleas then this can be a highly unpleasant experience for them that damages their health in more ways that you might think. Not only is it of course uncomfortable for a dog to experience fleas, but at the same time you should expect it to affect their mood and behavior, to affect the quality of their skin and fur, to cause them other upset, to make them more vulnerable to other illness and more. Fleas after all are parasites living on the skin that suck blood and that place a constant strain on the dog – how would you feel?
To this end, keeping your pooch flea free should be an important priority for dog owners and you need to make sure that you do everything in your power to cure the issue as soon as it arises. To this end, Capstar is a great product that can help you in the battle against fleas. But what is it?
Many dog owners haven’t heard of Capstar, but it is nevertheless an effective treatment for dogs. Capstar is unique from many flea treatments in that it isn’t topical. That is to say that you don’t put the substance behind your dog’s ears or on the scruff of their neck, but rather you feed it to them in pill form. The pill is safe for all dogs as long as they are over four weeks old and weigh over two pounds. In fact Capstar can also be helpful for cats. Even if your dog or cat is nursing it is safe. Make sure though that you choose the correct substance.
Compared to other flea control methods however, Capstar is particularly quick acting. If you give your dog a dosage of Capstar then in the best case scenario you can expect it to begin killing adult fleas as soon as 30 minutes afterward. This can start to provide relief to your dog and help them to feel healthy as soon as possible. Capstar has also been suggested as a treatment for maggot infestations, though you shouldn’t try this without consulting a vet first.
Capstar contains the ingredient ‘nitenpyram’. This is a chemical ‘neonicotinoid’, which means that it is able to block the ability of messages to be transmitted through the nervous system of insects leading to death. It’s perfectly safe to mammals however and that means that it is safe for them to consume. The substance is then transferred to the fleas through the blood and this in turn causes them to start dying off. Within 4-6 hours of Capstar administration around 90% of fleas are normally killed off. However there is still a high chance of reinfestation and that’s why it’s so important that you look after your dog’s general health too – at all times but particularly following treatment for fleas.
It is also important to note that no substance on the market can kill ‘pupae’. These are the fleas in their crystallized ‘egg’ form from which they hatch. You need to comb your dog’s hair and give them a good bath with an anti-flea shampoo in order to physically remove these, and you need to provide follow up treatment for a while.
We moved to a new house which had dogs before, and our dog then got these fleas. We used capstar for dogs. It worked well so I can recommend capstar.