Was just having a chat with my dog trainer last weekend & this subject came up and she looked & sounded surprised when I told her my vet had sold me a couple of months worth of the Advocate for my dog which should take me up to xmas. She was surprised that the vet was still selling it to me as my Bailey is now 8mths old. She does'nt treat her dogs for worm/fleas she says but she does monitor them closely for the signs. Her worry is that we are as owners continually 'pumping' drugs into our dogs and there's now cases of dogs becoming immune, a little like us humuns with antibiotics I surmised which made sense to me. But as I have had over 20yrs inbetween my last dog & Bailey is this a common view now?? Is there many owners who dont innoculate there dogs?? I thought I was doing the right thing by protecting him with the Advocate & now I'm not so sure!!
Re: Worming & Flea Treatment Well, I don't believe in putting unnecessary chemicals in a dog's body, so I would never use it routinely. Though am having to use it on one dog as he has a skin problem, but this will only be for three months. In 40+ years of dog owning, I have only seen one flea on one dog! If you live in a tick infested area then of course it should be used, but otherwise in my opinion, no. You can worm three monthly if you desire, or if you see signs of worms, with worming tablets. I only do it once yearly but again, if I saw evidence of worms I would to it then. But then I come from the 'old school', opinions are different these days.
Re: Worming & Flea Treatment I only use flea and tick treatment between about April and October, but I worm Poppy every three months. We live in a tick-intensive area; and she eats all sorts of rubbish (lots of deer poop!) so I think it important to keep her safe.
Re: Worming & Flea Treatment Charlie has treatment for worms all year - since this is advocate, he is also treated for fleas (and lungworm and ear mites). He gets tape worm treatment every 3 months. I used to apply this every 4 weeks, as recommended, but since having his poo tested - for different reasons - I found he remained free of worms for 6 weeks after the treatment, so now apply it every six weeks. He does have tick protection in the summer - but since I use advantix I try to keep this to an absolute minimum (it overlaps with advocate), and 2 treatments 3 months apart lasted us the whole season. There is an article here: http://www.thelabradorsite.com/worms-in-dogs-how-to-keep-your-labrador-worm-free/
Re: Worming & Flea Treatment I worm Molly every three months as she is a terrible scavenger. I don't routinely deflea her, I haven't seen a flea on a dog in over 20 years, so I am loathe to put chemicals in her system.
Re: Worming & Flea Treatment I find this all really interesting. We're in tick country, so I have to do them year-round. The vet also said he's seen a lot of cases of fleas recently. I'm seeing him in a couple of weeks and will take his advice on worming, based on what worms are prevalent here.
Re: Worming & Flea Treatment With previous dogs I've been similar to Stacia - wormed once a year and almost never de-fleaed. However I'm under a lot of pressure from the vet to give Molly advocate on a monthly basis. I think now it's colder (so I hope no snails around to be munched) I might leave it for the winter.
Re: Worming & Flea Treatment As a new puppy owner I'm also finding this interesting. My parents dogs only receive worm or flea treatments if symptoms are seen and have always been very fit and healthy despite eating a lot of dead rabbits and other rubbish. I have to say I was quite taken aback by the vets advice to worm monthly for life. Once Inca is a bit older I would like to minimise the amount of treatments she receives although will probably treat more routinely than my parents. I've only been up in Scotland for a couple of years and ticks are something that scares the life out of me. I like the idea of stepping up the tick treatments between April and October as some of the others are doing.
Re: Worming & Flea Treatment Maybe have a look at the article about why it's a good thing to worm a dog on a regular basis? And about how the worm load they are carrying is really high before you see signs of worms.... Why are people reluctant to take their vet's advice on this? I'm really interested in this point - do people not trust what their vet is recommending?
Re: Worming & Flea Treatment Personally I take my vets advice on fleeing/worming. If Harley fell really poorly after eating something that is covered by worming and I didn't give it to her I would feel awful and on top of that, the insurance may not pay out! Same for fleeing!
Re: Worming & Flea Treatment I think the article is good and I will probably worm Inca every 3 months rather than monthly. My background is in biochemistry and I don't really like the idea of applying pesticides more often than I strictly need to although obviously there is a balance to be struck between this and having a healthy worm-free dog and also some resistance issues are caused by not following the advised programme for the product. I trust the vet on most things but they supplied us with a lot of propaganda regarding the worming products that they sell and unfortunately it does make you suspicious of the motive. It might turn out to be the best worming programme out there but I would rather double check first. One of the great benefits of the forum is that it gives you the chance to see what other people are doing and see what works.
Re: Worming & Flea Treatment Thanks for the replies, all very interesting & I'm glad I'm not on my own with this issue! Think I'll do a bit more research before making a decision but I'm leaning towards a quarterly course of Advocate rather than monthly & see how he gets on.
Re: Worming & Flea Treatment [quote author=Incastinker link=topic=8907.msg126880#msg126880 date=1417045378] to see what other people are doing and see what works. [/quote] Unless people are sending poo off to be analysed, they don't know how the wormers they use are working or whether they are worming too much or not enough. And the appropriate frequency depends on the product used and the lifestyle of the dog. There is a service that will check though, if anyone is keen to cut out or minimise worming. It's worth a read just for the information. http://www.wormcount.com/companion-animals/
Re: Worming & Flea Treatment [quote author=JulieT link=topic=8907.msg126925#msg126925 date] There is a service that will check though, if anyone is keen to cut out or minimise worming. It's worth a read just for the information. http://www.wormcount.com/companion-animals/ [/quote] Thanks Julie that is a great link. Very happy now I know I can make a fully informed decision Might see if I can get my parents to do samples from their dogs too as I would be very interested to see the results.
