We will be traveling to North Carolina on 12/22 to spend Christmas w/our son, dil, & 3 grandsons. Leo will be accompanying us. He is on Trifexis which is not only a heartworm preventative but is also for fleas & other internal parasites but not effective on ticks. We were @ the vet's office this past wknd & I inquired about what I could do about ticks since they're more prevalent where we are going, especially deer ticks. They suggested I go ahead & give him his Trifexis, which he took on 12/8 & then give him Nexgard right before we leave to go to NC which would be 12/21. I'm sure they must know what they're doing but quite honestly, I'm neither sure nor comfortable doing this. Interested in thoughts/opinions about this advice & would greatly appreciate any suggestions for safe/effective alternatives that are working or have worked for anyone else. Thanks so much in advance
Hello there What is making you uncomfortable about this? When I have to treat my dog to guard against ticks, I do so in between treatments to guard against worms/fleas. That would be, according to the instructions, be 2 weeks apart, but I wouldn't worry if they were a bit closer. Are you worried about giving your dog too much of the same chemical? I'm afraid that I'm not familiar with the brands you mention (they might be called something different in the UK, or not be generally used). But you could check on the websites online, and also for any dosage limits etc.
Thanks JulieT for your response. Yes, that was my concern. The Trifexis treats for fleas in addition to being a heartworm preventative & the Nexgard treats both fleas & ticks. Guess Was concerned about too much chemicals going into his system. I tried to Google it to see if I could find out more info on if it was safe to give the 2 products together or if anyone had experience w/giving them together but really couldn't find much. Guess I was just wanting to see if anyone else had been given the same advice.
Ok, well, it's not necessarily a problem. First, the two treatments might not contain the same things. And even if they do contain some of the same things, it is highly unlikely that a reputable vet would recommend them in combination unless the result was still way under any over dose level. The flea and tick treatments I use can be used together even though they double up on imidacloprid. I don't use the tick treatment more than I need to, of course, but that's because I don't use anything that's unnecessary. There are loads of different treatments you can use, including collars etc. and you could discuss these with your vet if you want to try something else. But I wouldn't just worry about 'chemicals' in general. It is much better to give your dog vet prescribed treatments, which have been tested for safety and effectiveness, than it is to give him alternatives that have not.
You can find the information sheet on Trifexis at the link below, and in the FAQs on the site is stated that there are no known contraindications between Trifexis and medications commonly used against ticks: http://www.trifexis.com/about-trifexis/faqs.aspx
We use Nexguard for ticks. If my vet said it was ok to worm and then give Nexguard a few days later j would go ahead and do it. The active ingredients probably operate in totally different ways and one has no effect on the other, hence they are safe to give together.
The products you use, are they topical or oral? Both the Trifexis & Nexgard are chewable tablets. I'm sure you're right that they wouldn't have prescribed this combination if it wasn't safe. And it's just a one time thing, at least for now anyway. I guess I get to overthinking things too much & get myself worked up over nothing. Thank you for the reassurance.
For worming I use an oral product - Milbemax. I used to use a spot-on for ticks (Advantix) and was really happy when Nexguard became available because a chewable tablet is so much easier and less messy than the spot-ons. My dog ate the Nexguard tablet right up - easy!
