Bit confused about spot on cat wormer / flea treatments

mum26

Hope someone has some good advice

My cat's worm and flea treatments are due soon, I usually buy these from our vet but it was getting very expensive as he has spot on treatments (he has defeated every nurse and the vet at the surgery who tried to get tablets in him!). His last ones were profender and advantage I think. The vet nurse did suggest it would be cheaper buying these online but are there any comparable non prescription products that are good?

The reason he was having both products was that he is quite a successful hunter in the summer (although he is out far far less in the cold months - would one suffice over the winter?)

As you can see i have headspin from so many websites and would really appreciate some sound knowledgable advice!

*Robin*

I've got 4 dogs and a cat and 3 kittens. I buy the largest size frontline packs and use a syringe to get the right dose for each animal. My vet worked out the doses for me. Cats get 0.5ml, kittens 0.2ml rising to 0.5ml as they grow. There are several on-line vet medicine sites, google it and check prices. I've bought from 3 different sites, depending who is cheapest at the time. I buy Drontal worm pills for all my pets from the same sites. One of the cats; I have to starve her for a day then crush the pill in sardines and hope she eats it before noticing the taste - even my vet can't get that cat to swallow pills!
HTH

KxMx

Don't bother with the non-prescription stuff, like supermarket stuff. It's useless and i'm surprised the ASA allows it to be sold since it doesn't work!

Can you buy a bigger pack from the Vets which works out cheaper? With fleas I treat my cat every month and the worm drops are done every 3 months.

PerfectPeaches

Hi KxMx

I use Frontline for fleas and I get this online as I find it cheaper and I have 3 cats so it can get slightly expensive! But for worming I use a Pancur worming paste for 2 of them as they flat out refuse any tablets in any shape or form. My other cat will happily take a tablet! Pancur is again available from vets or online. It is a suringe which you simple insert into your cats mouth and then push the paste down.

Hope that helps.

Peaches

Poppy_Golightly

I've never been too comfortable about using Frontline etc. on my cats

I use a good old fashioned flea comb with a bowl of hand hot water and a couple of drops of tea tree oil added. I dip the comb in the water, comb the cat and if any fleas are on the comb I dip it straight back in the water. Kills the fleas.

I rehomed a rescue kitten a few weeks back, she was covered in fleas. I was getting about 20 a day off the poor wee thing. Now she is flea free. I appreciate that some cats don't like the flea comb, I have one that doesn't and I have to sneak up on him. However using this method works for my cats and also by combing them in this way I get to check them as well for any lumps, bumps injuries.

Probably not a method to use for the squeamish

snowman2_2

*Robin* wrote: »

I've got 4 dogs and a cat and 3 kittens. I buy the largest size frontline packs and use a syringe to get the right dose for each animal. My vet worked out the doses for me. Cats get 0.5ml, kittens 0.2ml rising to 0.5ml as they grow. There are several on-line vet medicine sites, google it and check prices. I've bought from 3 different sites, depending who is cheapest at the time. I buy Drontal worm pills for all my pets from the same sites. One of the cats; I have to starve her for a day then crush the pill in sardines and hope she eats it before noticing the taste - even my vet can't get that cat to swallow pills!
HTH

Whilst you will get away with this using Frontline, there are plenty of dog flea treatments that will & have killed cats used this way and it is not a method to be recommended

BitterAndTwisted

Poppy_Golightly wrote: »

I've never been too comfortable about using Frontline etc. on my cats

I use a good old fashioned flea comb with a bowl of hand hot water and a couple of drops of tea tree oil added. I dip the comb in the water, comb the cat and if any fleas are on the comb I dip it straight back in the water. Kills the fleas.

The adult fleas actually on the animal aren't the most pressing problem: it's the hundreds and perhaps thousands of eggs, larvae and pupae which could be lurking about in the carpets and furnishings. Once an infestation takes hold a flea-comb and tea-tree oil will be totally useless. It's not a strategy I'd recommend

Mrs_Z

Hi, do your cats actually have fleas? Frontline is very good stuff but it's also an insecticide and I never felt 100% comfortable treating my cats with it every month. I then started exteding the month to every 2 months, etc - and as there were no fleas evident, stopped altogether. Neither of my cats have been treated for over a year now. I would not hesitate to start using it again as soon as I spot 1 flea but I'm not convinced that regular treatment (preventative) is necessary. Same with wormers, I only treat mine if necessary. Both cats have access to outdoors but don't seem to be interested in eating any mice they might have caught - they save them as a prezzie to mum! lol!

ANGLICANPAT

Might be a good idea to see the reviews on ciao for products off the shelf like Bob Martins or anything else you may be considering.

amszephyr

I've done a review of my cats' worming and flea products recently, having found the standard Frontline less effective this past summer while we were at our cottage in Suffolk. The vet in Suffolk recommended Stronghold or Advantage and my vet in Berkshire (where we live in term time) recommended Advantage now that there are some concerns that Frontline is losing effectiveness. The consensus seems to be that non-prescription formulations are not effective.
So we're on Profender for worming and Advantage for fleas now - both highly effective. This is an expensive combination, but one vet suggested that, as the Advantage also offers some coverage against certain worms, you can leave it longer between the Profender treatments.
As for buying these prescription meds online more cheaply, it all really depends on what your vet charges to issue a prescription and whether it's one with repeats built in: if not, you're stuck buying from the vet like many of us.

paddypaws101

Mrs_Z wrote: »

Hi, do your cats actually have fleas? Frontline is very good stuff but it's also an insecticide and I never felt 100% comfortable treating my cats with it every month. I then started exteding the month to every 2 months, etc - and as there were no fleas evident, stopped altogether. Neither of my cats have been treated for over a year now. I would not hesitate to start using it again as soon as I spot 1 flea but I'm not convinced that regular treatment (preventative) is necessary. Same with wormers, I only treat mine if necessary. Both cats have access to outdoors but don't seem to be interested in eating any mice they might have caught - they save them as a prezzie to mum! lol!

This is pretty much the approach that I follow. The last kitten I got in the summer came home complete with fleas and I just combed them out over a couple of days. I do however use a household spray such as Indorex, or RIP as a preventative...again, I don't find I need it every year.
I mainly use Skoosh around the house now which is pesticide free.