Best wormer & flea treatment for dogs?

A question about : Best wormer & flea treatment for dogs?

Time to buy some more meds for our lab. I've searched through old posts and am happy with where to get them.

Just wondering what we should be getting. We've had different brands of wormer in the past from our vet (and I can't remember what they were) and flea treatments have just been whatever we found in the pet shop.

I don't mind whether the wormers are tablets or liquid, although I'd rather not keep them in the fridge.

Any clear winners? Or is it much of a muchness?

Best answers:

• We recommend Milbemax as the wormer and Frontline or Prac-tic as a flea treatmant and that is what I use on my own dog
• We would also recommend Milbemax tablets (prescription only) as a wormer. The main advantage of this over Drontal is the number of tablets you need to treat a particular sized dog will be less for Milbemax, meaning a potential cost saving; also, the tablets are smaller. Though for dogs, this latter advantage less important than for cats. We consider Milbemax a better, broader spectrum wormer, however.
  Drontal is also a good wormer, and the advantage for you is that you can purchase it without needing a prescription.
  We favour Frontline Combo Spot-on (prescription only) for fleas. Our experience is that "Pract-tic" doesn't work very well, particualrly for high risk animals like those living with hunting cats not properly treated for fleas. So we have decided we can't justify trying to sell it to our clients (even though there is more money to be made for us as it is made by the same manufacurer as our favoured wormer), and have sent our entire £1000+ stock back to the wholesalers at a cost of 15% restocking fee - we feel that strongly about it. However many practices rarely sell anything else. We also sell a fair bit of "Stronghold", particularly for clients taking their dogs abroad, because it also protects against heartworm - which causes a horrible disease. Price is very similar to Frontline Combo, though application is a bit messier. There are parts of the UK where heartworm is seen (e.g. the south east), though it is rare - ask your vet if they feel you live in a high risk area. Milbemax will also prevent Heartworm, but for reliable effects, you need to use it monthly
  I hope you mean you have been using basic Frontline spot-on from your pet shop (some can sell it since it is now PML not POM). Anything else from your pet shop simply will not work. If you want to continue basic frontline, then fine. However, the advantage of Frontline Combo or Stronghold is that they also prevent fleas breeding, which can mean fewer fleas living in your carpets.
• I use Advocate(POM) for my dogs and cat for a couple of reasons......
  Very good flea prevention
  It helps control ear mites ( one of my dogs is prone to ear problems!)
  and my vet has just told me that I only need to drontal once a year because avocate deals with most worms including heartworm as well which will save me a fortune as I will be buying 8 drontal tabs instead of 32.I think the drontal is needed for tapeworm prevention.
  It also prevent sarcoptic mange according to the package which could be useful if we get any mangy foxes in the area.
  Ex Large dog is >Ј20 online, (Ј27 at vets) Cat Ј13ish online (Ј22 at vets) for 3 months supply and I use it all year round.
  It would be interesting to hear if there are any cons to this treatment because I haven't found any yet!
• Anything is better than nothing. Your vet is probably on a nice discount scheme with Bayer....
  First problem - The flea treatment part is not as good as Frontline Combo, which only needs to be given every two months(for dogs), not every month as with Advocate. And Advocate won't break the flea life cycle in the same way, because it doesn't sterilise flea eggs.
  Second-problem - the ear mite/mange effects are only as a treatment, not a prevention - though it is useful in these cases.
  Third problem - The wormer part is not as broad spectrum as Milbemax, or even Drontal, which is made by the same company as Advocate and there is some worry about getting the dosage high enough. Tablets go right to the site of the problem.
  Fourth problem - I have seen a number of adverse reactions.
  Really, in dogs (where tablet giving is less of a problem than in cats), I can't see better than Frontline Combo spot on every two months and a Milbemax wormer tablet every three months.
  Price comparison on vetuk.co.uk for a 25 kg dog for 1 year:
  Your vet:
  2 x 6 packs of Advocate 250 (i.e. monthy dosing): Ј53.04
  2.5 Drontal tablets (i.e. an annual dose at 1 tablet per 10 kg): Ј3.97
  total: Ј57.01
  My proposed strategy
  Frontline Combo Large Dog - 6 pack (i.e. once every 2 month dosing): Ј27.93
  4 x Milbemax tablets (1 tablet does up to 25 kg): Ј12.84
  Total: Ј40.77
  Cheaper, and better protection for your dog..............
• I hope wuno would agree with me, but in summary, I think it is difficult to give just one best product. It will depend on the part of the country (we are a low tick area but very wet) and your pet's individual circumstance. We use a combination of 5 products to treat fleas on an individual basis based on certain criteria. Ask your vet to justify their selected product - I can justify mine in less than a minute.
• I'd get whatever you need from the Vets, they will reccommend the right stuff. Supermarket stuff really doesn't work in my experience!
• 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!
• Are vets happy to supply prescriptions normally? do you pay for them?
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 Ј12 for 1 year cover, and are safe for puppies and kittens too.
• 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?
  https://www.csjk9.com/ProductCart/pc/...7&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!:confused:
• 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