Fleas and ticks and worms oh my!

It's funny how things happen. I meant to ask one of my friends who is more up on various drugs than I am if there were any new drugs out for flea and tick prevention on dogs and cats. I had had read on various mailing lists that fleas and ticks were becoming resistant to the brands of flea and tick preventatives that are available. Last night I saw on television a commercial for ProMeris, a new flea and tick preventative. ProMeris uses metaflumizone (a compound that fleas have not become resistant to [yet]) to kill fleas and Amitraz (not a new compound, but previously only available as a collar or dip) to kill ticks.

And talk about timing, I saw on a mailing list today that there's now a new drug for worming livestock because worms have become resistant to the three major classes of wormers normally used. Good thing we have scientists who are researching new chemicals to kill worms, fleas and ticks.

You have to wonder what the long-lasting effect of all these chemicals is going to be. It seems a much more viable approach to work with the underlying health of the animal, to make it more resistant to worms and parasites than to douse it with chemical after chemical after chemical. Parasites are not going to go away, no matter how many new chemicals are developed.