Re: Changing flea treatment and wormer Any vet here (Australia) will tell anyone that Advantix is superior to Frontline for ticks. They don't stand to gain from the recommendation as both are for sale in pet shops (and vets). Agree that it's crucial to check your dog for ticks and not rely on a spot-on treatment. But my vet (and pretty much anyone who has a view on the subject) says that a tick bite will be less dire with Advantix than without. So we always use Advantix 48 hrs before going into a tick area, which is anywhere on the east coast. The coastal ticks we have here kill dogs, so they are a very big deal, unfortunately.
Re: Changing flea treatment and wormer sorry i mean lungworm. Bayer have been doing major advertising promotion on but 2 or three years ago was never mentioned by any vet i visited. i asked how many cases they'd seen in the local area and they were extremely vague, saying that a different vet had had a suspected case in Blandford Forum. I'm in North Dorset. http://www.dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/article898.html I haven't seen any advice that makes me want to change. not because i'm being tight but because the more i suspect someone's trying to frighten me the more i resist it. : Edited to add a bit more from the reading i've done, Advocate treats lungworm rather than prevents it. therefore dogs getting advocate every month are being treated for a case of lungworm that they may have got over the last month. also, i am dubious as to why advocate requires a prescription. i thought that drugs requiring a prescription did so as it wasn't the right drug for every dog and would require vet intervention to ensure that it was given to the right dog. if it's right for nearly every dog and harmless to the others, why does it need to be on a script? the cynical element of me would suggest that that is to ensure that the vets push it and that the price is controlled so that bayer makes the right amount of money and vets join in too. it takes a lot of work to be this cynical :-[ Sarah
Re: Changing flea treatment and wormer My understanding - which might be wrong, although I do try to track down the articles behind what I read on blogs and newspapers - is that lungworm first became significant in the UK in 2008 (it had long been so in France and other European countries) and now can be described as endemic in the South West of England (where I spend time) with - probably alarmist - reports of the urban fox population being a "reservoir" for the infection (and London, where I spend the rest of my time, is overrun with foxes).
Re: Changing flea treatment and wormer I really believe that everyone needs to make their own decisions on all of these things. just because i'm a cynical old shrew i don't expect other people to be. similarly i wouldn't want anyone to follow my advice and have an ill dog. i just can't ignore the reduction in a Vet's income from the advent of internet ordering of regular preventative medicines and then this new wave of drugs that have to come from the vet (at least by way of an expensive script).
Re: Changing flea treatment and wormer I think the combinations of wormers and flea treatments available are confusing. I use drontal and milbemax for worming, alternating them so that my dogs have lungworm cover (drontal does not do this) I would use just milbemax but I have to buy it from Australia, or trek down to the vets for it. I am always reluctant to comment on questions like this because I believe that anecdotal reports of side effects can be very misleading. One dog's reaction tells you nothing about how another dog will react or about how common (or rare) such reaction may be. However, for the record, when I treated Rachael with advocate (for ear mites) she had a worrying reaction, and became lethargic and unsteady on her feet for a few hours. And I have to say that the reaction was serious enough, that I probably would not treat any of my other dogs with this. I appreciate that this is not a logical decision but one based on emotion. Her reaction may well have been a very rare one, and probably should not put anyone else off using Advocate I have been using drontal every six weeks, on many dogs, for years and on a couple of occasions one of the dogs has been sick after treatment. But this seems to be a one-off and has not recurred.
