Best wormer & flea treatment for dogs?

wuno

You are correct that Cats definitely need Frontline monthly - unless they are exclusively house cats. This thread started with a question about a dog.

Your vet will know about tick issues in your area. They may suggest using Frontline more frequently than every two months and I would think that reasonable - particularly since you obviously have a big one! You may also consider keeping a bottle of Frontline spray in the cubpoard. If you do see a tick, give it a quick blast and it will have dropped off by the next day. That is what I do for my terrier who spends most of his life down the various fox holes and badger sets around my house - and we have a lot of deer around. To be honest, I probably leave it more than every two months between Frontlining because I'm fairly disorganised, but don't tell my clients!

There are other products that protect against ticks and each has its own pros and cons. I'm gradually being persuaded by someone else on this forum to think again about Prac-tic for dogs that get wet a lot. If your dog goes swimming or needs hosing off a lot, make sure you mention that to your vet, since this is a known issue with Frontline that it can get washed off.

Of course, if you can, you should buy 6 packs, since it will be far less expensive that two 3 packs.

For our annual dog preventative medicine plan, we would give a 6 pack of Frontline Combo and 4 Wormers at the time of booster vaccination of a dog. For a 40 kg dog, the all-in cost would be £90, to include the cost of vaccination, health check, and another free veterinary consultation during the year, if needed. This is how we compete with the online suppliers because I bet if you add up the cost for your dog of the flea/tick and wormer online, and add £30 for a booster vaccination (which is what we charge for a dog), you wouldn't find it much cheaper than our annual plan price.

Hopefully, when your vet has spent their time advising you, they won't be too disappointed when you ask for a prescription and walk out the door!

chocolatepennyfarthing

Are vets happy to supply prescriptions normally? do you pay for them?

snowman2_2

It is a legal requirement (at least until October) for all vets to provide a free of charge prescription for any prescription medication. Now, if your pet needs a check up first, they can charge for their time for the check-up and there are legal limits as to how recently a pet needs to be examined but the prescription is currently free. Whether all vets are "happy" is another matter. I don't like losing the business so happy is the wrong word. Saying that, I don't get asked to write many prescriptions, 90% are for items I don't stock.

Bromley86

Thanks guys.

We've not had any flea issues to date, so I'm happy to take the easy route and go for the non-prescription standard Frontline Spot-on. If we went for a prescription one, it'd likely be the Prac-tic one as ours is in and out of the local lake/streams whenever she can.

Likewise, the easy option of Drontal. I'm going to assume that the Drontal Plus Flavour one tastes like chicken , but we've not had problems getting her to eat pills in the past so that's just a bonus.

BTW, anyone in a similar situation might be interested to know that Pet Dispensary are having a 4 for 3 on Drontal Plus Flavour and Drontal Plus XL. That means it's actually cheaper not to buy their special offer flea/worm pack but rather to buy the items separately.

EDIT: VET UK would have been cheaper if not for that offer.

snowman2_2

We are running a permanent buy 3 get 1 free on Milbemax and buy 9 tubes get 3 free on Prac-tic. The Milbemax offer has been running for 3 years or more, the Prac-tic offer since it came out. These are a regular user offer available from participating vets.

Bromley86

Thanks. It's too late for this year as I've just ordered everything, but I will ask our vet when we go in to get her fixed on Friday.

widgetuk

Just to throw an alternative treatment in here to the commercially available 'toxic' treatments most people think of when buying flea/tick treatments... For the last year I've been using a Skudo Flea and Tick Repeller on my dogs. These are ultrasonic devices, pain free, no side effects, no chemicals or poisons, nothing to keep re-applying. Such attach to the pet collar (dog or cat) and it lasts for a year. When I was using Frontline my dogs usually had at least one tick per year, but so far, touch wood, nothing! No ticks or fleas Very happy. Search on Google UK for "skudo flea and tick repeller" and see what I mean!! They're only about £12 for 1 year cover, and are safe for puppies and kittens too.

foreign_correspondent

I wonder what this stuff is like - some people speak highly of it, but I would be interested to know if it is supported by any evidence?
http://www.csjk9.com/ProductCart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=57&idcategory=3

I have never used it but wonder if anyone else has tried it or has any opinions?

I have to say, I rarely de-flea my dog (far less than the recommended intervals) and have rarely had fleas (never on this dog, once on the last one!) - I used to use a flea collar, and though that was why we rarely had them, but since I stopped bothering I havent had any either... now wonder why we havent had more problems with them...?

Are they really as common as the flea treatment makers would like us to believe?

I have never had a tick on a dog either!

frankie55

FC over 70 ticks found on my puppy last year when she went for her first grooming session!!!. She'd had had her head and body in a tick nest which we think was in our garden. Several of the dogs that live near me had numerous ticks last year and there is a report of the first one this year. We think the reason is that Hedgehogs wander around all or gardens, and that there are Foxes and Badgers in the area and some Roe Deer have been sighted.
There are several fields around the area where sheep are stored before going to the great mint sauce lake, and sheep are notorious for carrying ticks. Frontline was totally inefective and I changed to Advantix POM for the tick
season. I've had dogs for 30 years and last year was my first encounter with a tick which is a vile repulsive creature, I now have a 'tick lasso' which whips them out in no time, but the little burgers can and do run away. We went through the whole life cycle from tiny teeny dots to nymphs and full size ticks about the size of a finger nail uurrrrgggghhhhhh

frankie55

By the way we didn't have any Fleas !! except I spotted one on the cat's paw in September so the whole house got treat and nothing seen since. The cat HATES being Fronlined and I have to sneak up on him when he is asleep.
How cruel