Vet advice on flea treatment?

[Pringle89]

I crumbled up my dogs bravecto tablet into his food as usual and he refused to eat it, and then Kept refusing it so ended up having to throw away (lesson learnt - won’t be doing this again! - never had this problem before) £30 in the bin!

However when I’ve asked the vets the receptionist told me as no way to tell if he injested any (as he did have a little nibble) I would have to leave him for another three months to treat him incase of an overdose.

I have rang and left two messages asking if there is another flea treatment I can use with with different ingredients that won’t cause a problem - or a natural treatment? (Still waiting for a call back!)

Any vets on here who can recommend another treatment that would be safe?

Many thanks in advance x

[missbattenburg]

Pringle89 - Battendog was the same when I last gave him Bravecto. He had refused the tablet previously, despite having eaten it before with no trouble. I crumbled it and mixed it with fish so he ate it. The following 4 days or so, he was very subdued, lethergic and twice wet the sofa where he was laying without knowing he'd done so. I called my vet and they said it sounded like a reaction to the bravecto. He also then stoppd eating his meals, despite being hungry and eating other things. He didn't appear to 'trust' hs dinner and it took him a few weeks to get back to eatingnormally. I now think it had made him feel bad before and he started to refused it because he'd linked it with feeling unwell and I mention it just so you can keep your eye out.

[Pringle89]

Thanks @missbattenburg, I have read mixed reviews about bravecto but we had awful trouble with ticks and it’s the only thing that kept them at bay. I’m worried about leaving him without flea treatment for 2 months, so frustrating! Vets rang and said nothing we can give him in case of an overdose. I’m going to research natural flea repellent/treatment!

[missbattenburg]

No problem. Lots of people successfully use Bravecto with no problems but it's not for us now.

Dorwest do a garlic and fenugreek tablet and garlic juice. I've known people use them to dissuade fleas and then only treat if and when they have a definite problem and swear by it. You feed the tablets daily and use the juice to groom the fur.

I can't speak to their effectiveness but thought I would mention it so you can take a look...

[villainousbroodmare]

I'm a vet.
I've often heard of this happening with Bravecto; it's not as palatable as all that! For future, as long as your dog can be relied upon not to bite you, I would simply open his mouth and put it as far back as possible until he swallows. Really a pity that you hadn't a friend or neighbour with a less fussy similar sized animal who'd have eaten the meal.
Alternatively there's spot-on Bravecto which actually lasts a bit longer too.
I think your vets are being excessively cautious wrt ongoing treatment now. Where I live we have serious issues with tickborne diseases and so the small possibility of an overdose would be very much outweighed by the risk of babesiosis or ehrlichiosis.
I'm wondering what weight your dog is? Remember that there are quite wide weight brackets for Bravecto. So a 20kg dog and a 40kg dog get the same dose. The 20kg dog is not deemed "overdosed" despite that iykwim.
So if your dog has only eaten perhaps a quarter of a tablet I would most certainly just give him another one.

[villainousbroodmare]

missbattenburg garlic is toxic to dogs and is additionally absolutely useless against parasites.

[OrangeSwoosh]

Your vets sound overly cautious. Ask to speak to a vet or nurse rather than a receptionist, they'll likely tell you it's fine (although I don't know the data, I'm fairly sure it'd take more than a 2x overdose to cause a problem).

My dog once ate his bravecto, gobbled his dinner and was sick. I totally picked out the bravecto, washed it off and gave it to him again!

For future reference, simparica, although monthly, is generally better accepted by dogs (and is smaller if you do need to go for the shove it down the throat method)

[Pringle89]

Thanks for all your advice, I did speak to a nurse in the end and her advice was the same. So frustrating! He’s only 10kg, my instinct tells me he probably didn’t eat any of the bravecto at all but I don’t want to risk giving something else and causing a problem. I don’t think the vets will prescribe me anymore now annoyingly even though I know he probably had hardly any!

I’ve ordered a natural flea spray off amazon (natural oils etc and a comb) hopefully he will remain flea free until end of December 😬

[OrangeSwoosh]

To be honest for most areas it's not really high tick season any more. You could use something like advocate for fleas (doesn't cover ticks) which I'm 99.9% certain can be used at the same time as bravecto

[OrangeSwoosh]

Or a seresto collar