Best flea/worming treatment for mogs?

[CrinklyLion]

Despite being increasingly allergic to the little swines (aaaaah-choo!) I have 'won' the pair of flea bags (which I still maintain were actually my ex's, not mine).  Mind, it always was my job to feed 'em and do litter trays and sporadically remember to de-flea 'em and stuff.  And they do quite like it when random cyclists visit wearing black, ideal for showing up tortie-hair, and lycra, perfect for snagging threads in.  And the cubs quite like 'em.... I s'pose.

Historically our extremely erratic flea control regime has consisted of me thinking "hmm, haven't done that for a while" and getting my elder sister to pick up some frontline and stuff from her vets where, as the owner of three dogs and official walker of many many more she is a regular.  Can't do this any more, and amazon has been suggested to me as a sensible source of meds.  Before I raid the kids' piggy banks and/or remortgage for a couple or three month's supply, is Frontline still considered reasonably effective?  And can anyone remember the name of the spot on stuff for worming that actually works?  I have one mog who is a wanderer and a mouser, so she is liable to get Stuff.  And another who (according to my elder sister the non-resident expert since she administers the flea/worming treatments for all cats and dogs in at least half a dozen households) is startlingly good at not_taking oral meds.  He doesn't particularly fight or scratch but does apply vast reserves of Cunning and Stubbornness to the avoidance...

Recommendations from the panel?

[perpetual dan]

I'm going to the vet later and need some more, I'll let you know what I come back with!

[Pickled Onion]

I've also been left two of the lovely animals that spend their time eating then either shitting it over the garden or vomiting it over the kitchen floor. Lovely. The kids don't particularly like them either as they drop fur and dirt on their favourite chairs. Still, at least I managed to get rid of the dogs...

Anyway, they developed a bit of an infestation last year and after a bit of research the consensus seems to be that, yes, frontline is reckoned to be the best but is a complete rip at the vets. I've also found it works perfectly well used once every two months rather than once a month. I can't remember what website I got it from, but it was a lot cheaper than what the vet charges.

[why1040]

I get my Frontline for the doglet from MedicAnimal online (www.medicanimal.com).  They do good prices.  Certainly for the doglet, Frontline seems to be the best-I tried the Advantixx as it's supposed to be "better" one year, and that was the only year Astra came home with ticks on a regular basis, something she doesn't get when she's Frontlined.

You've reminded me she's overdue.  Fanks   

[mrcharly-YHT]

Same as Chris. medicanimal are very cheap (compared to the vets).

The only thing I've found with frontline is that it doesn't kill fleas, it just drives them off your cat.

So if you have a cat that hunts and kills a lot, the fleas jump off the dead prey onto the cat - then promptly jump off again. It's advisable to vacuum the day after  you've frontlined your cats.

Reminds me, I need to order some more. It can be cheaper to order a chunk of the stuff.  3 pipettes is £11, 6 is £18

[tiermat]

Frontline flea and tick here, available from supermarkets, Boots and Costco (by far the cheapest place to get it (can't find the receipt at the moment, but it was much cheaper than anywhere else we could find it).

Works brilliantly on our current two, and it worked the same on Lord Dashworth.

[perpetual dan]

We used to have advocate. Today I got advantage for fleas and frontal for worms.

[TimO]

I stopped using Frontline, because it was basically having no effect on Kai and Zev's fleas.  I'm using Advocate now, which seems to work (when I remember to do it), but I think is prescription only, so you'll have to get a prescription from your vet, and send that off to an online supplier if you really want to drive the price down.

(Personally I'm happy to buy mine through my vet, but I appreciate that some people may need to get the costs down as much as possible).

Having said that, there doesn't seem to be much evidence for Frontline loosing it efficacy, other than anecdotal, so it's probably still effective in most cases, and since you can buy it in places like Sainsburys now, it's probably a lot cheaper.

The trick with keeping the fleas under control, is to regularly treat them, without fail, every month.  Waiting until they're out of control will result in it taking a lot longer to get them back down to sane levels, and probably isn't particularly good for the mogs either.

[Valiant]

Frankie has jabs at the vet which seem to work. Lumen and kittens had Frontline sprays and drops. Which weren't great to be honest.

[Feline]

Frontline (or any product with the active ingredient fipronil) is no longer very effective (has been in widespread use >20 years and now heaps of resistance to it in the wild).
Mine get monthly Advocate spot-on (does fleas and worms), this is very effective but you won't get it from online pet shops without a prescription. In fact this is mostly true of all the effective products on the market.
The worming spot-on that works very well for all cat worms is called Profender and comes in 2 sizes for smaller and larger cats.
If using Profender then you may as well use a flea-only spot on for the fleas. Currently effective ones in the UK are Advantage and Stronghold.

What ever you do never put a dog spot on on a cat (fatal organo-phosphate toxicity can result). Just because a product is cheap and available off the shelves in the pet shops and supermarkets does not mean it won't kill your cat. Bob Martins dog spot-ons are a good example of this, I wouldn't want this product anywhere near my kids or my nervous system never mind my pets. You tend to get what you pay for with flea products. The safest and most effective products are the most modern ones and cost a lot of R&D money to produce, and therefore cost more.

[TimO]

Advocate spot on also comes in different sizes for cats, Zev has the smaller cat and ferret variant (below 4kg cats iirc), and Kai the larger cat one.

[Feline]

Advocate spot on also comes in different sizes for cats, Zev has the smaller cat and ferret variant (below 4kg cats iirc), and Kai the larger cat one.

Kiri is technically a 'small cat' but I put the large cat size on both of them, which is easier for me and safe to do 

[fred the great]

In  our Clinic we sell Revolution rather than Frontline. Both products are expensive to stock and therefore expensive for the Customer. Here in Bangkok the biggest problem for us is tick infested dogs. It is more usual for the cats to have the fleas on them.

[Feline]

In  our Clinic we sell Revolution rather than Frontline. Both products are expensive to stock and therefore expensive for the Customer. Here in Bangkok the biggest problem for us is tick infested dogs                     
and it is more usual for the cats to have the fleas on them.

Revolution is selamectin, marketed as Stronghold in the UK. It doesn't kill tapeworms which makes it an expensive choice for flea control in cats.

[Jaded]

If you are combing cats/dogs with a flea comb, have a container of water next to you with a couple of drops of washing up liquid in it to break the surface tension.

Then put everything off the comb into the water; fur, fleas, flea poo, blood. As the surface tension of the water is broken the fleas don't rest on the top of the water threatening to jump out, but sink to the bottom. Trashing. Flea death throes.

Don't do this if you don't want to be cruel to fleas.

[CrinklyLion]

Oh bugger.  I really don't want to have to cart the pair of 'em to the vets for a prescription, not least because on top of costing a bloody fortune that would involve either a taxi or yet more favours.  Well, tbh, I don't really want to have to cart the pair of 'em anywhere or deal with 'em at all!  Annoying, expensive, messy beasties that make me sneeze.  But I'm stuck with 'em!  They're only 11, and revoltingly healthy too 

[TimO]

I don't know exactly what the rules are for vets, but when I need "normal" drugs for mine, I just ring up the vet and ask for them.

If you've got a regular vet, that you use, then I would have thought that you could get a prescription from them, but vets are allowed to charge for a prescription, which I believe is meant to be "reasonable", but I'm not sure if there's any control over what that means.

[Feline]

I don't know exactly what the rules are for vets, but when I need "normal" drugs for mine, I just ring up the vet and ask for them.

If you've got a regular vet, that you use, then I would have thought that you could get a prescription from them, but vets are allowed to charge for a prescription, which I believe is meant to be "reasonable", but I'm not sure if there's any control over what that means.

If the cats are 'under the care of' a vet then they can sell you the product or a prescription for it. That generally means your cats need to have been seen there sometime in the past year or so. For most pet owners this poses no problem since they will have been vaccinated somewhere in the past 12-18 months. If your cats are unvaccinated and not registered with a vet then you will often find there are vets in your area who are willing to give a new patient a free 'health check' examination so they can be added to the system and then you can buy flea and worm products for them.

[Jules]

What ever you do never put a dog spot on on a cat (fatal organo-phosphate toxicity can result). Just because a product is cheap and available off the shelves in the pet shops and supermarkets does not mean it won't kill your cat. Bob Martins dog spot-ons are a good example of this, I wouldn't want this product anywhere near my kids or my nervous system never mind my pets. You tend to get what you pay for with flea products. The safest and most effective products are the most modern ones and cost a lot of R&D money to produce, and therefore cost more.

This is really  interesting. We take our cat to Italy every year. Two years ago we used our normal treatment of Frontline before we go and before we come back. Frontline seemed to work although not desperately well but was recommended by our Italian vet who signs the Pet Passport.  We returned home mid-evening to a front room carpet full of very hungry cat fleas ( who had presumably fled the cat on treatment before our departure and had had flea sex orgies in the carpet while we were gone) which we killed off with a pet bedding  spray. The cat - now possibly reinfected we treated with a Bob Martin cat flea treatment as that was the only product available from our local 24hr supermarket. The cat became very ill, started frothing at the mouth and looked really sick for a few hours. It would have been off to the vet first thing in the morning but by then she had returned to being her normal miserable self. It certainly is a product I  won't be using again.

[fred the great]

Interesting information. We only buy products from the Manufacturers or approved re-sellers.

[TimO]

... We returned home mid-evening to a front room carpet full of very hungry cat fleas... The cat - now possibly reinfected we treated with a Bob Martin cat flea treatment as that was the only product available from our local 24hr supermarket. The cat became very ill, started frothing at the mouth and looked really sick for a few hours. ...

As I understand it, cat fleas mostly live in the carpet and furniture etc.  At any given time only a small proportion, around 10%, are actually on the cat (Wikipedia probably has a lot more information on this).

I've seen Bob Martin products mentioned around the web in the past, and the sort of reaction that you mention hardly seems to be unique, to the extent that I wouldn't touch those products with a broom handle.  I'm glad to hear that you cat recovered, some others don't seem to have been that lucky.