Frontline

[Heffagooday]

We moved house 2 months ago, and have since been able to let our one year old cat outside. She's picked up at least one tick so far, and I assume that more ticks (and probably fleas too) are to follow. I want to get hold of some Frontline since I've found it excellent with cats in the past. I know you used to have to buy it at the vet but I'm not sure whether I can just go to the vet and buy some, or whether they will need to examine the cat first? I'd be grateful for any advice because I don't want to drag her along to an appointment if it's unnecessary (she was seen by her old vet fairly recently so doesn't need a check-up).

TIA

I think that you can buy it from my vet without them examining your pet. and supermarkets sell the same 'Frinotline' type of flea/tick stuff -- though I'm not sure if it is as good as the vet-prescribed stuff.

frontline not frinotline

You can get Frontline in some chemists now without an appt/prescription. far cheaper. or buy online.

Heffa, you CAN buy frontline in the chemist, however you can't buy frontline combo without seeing a vet and this is the one that will do for ticks as well.

So long as you have been seen by a vet in the past year you can purchase frontline combo. Are you light years away from your old vet? You could get her some from there without being seen.

Depending on how flexible the new vet practice is then you "could" wangle it, if they were willing then you could get your old vets to send a history to prove that the cat is healthy. Although this isn't actually the issue - the law says that the animal has to be "under the practices care" or "under veterinary care" im not sure which exactly - but it clearly matters, in order to prescribe prescription only preparations, of which frontline combo is one. By that, they mean seen by that practise in the past year. It is highly unlikely that there will be any contra-indications health wise, that would be picked up on exam. Most practices offer a nurses check which is usually free - thats quite good imo - they check things like teeth and ears and general well being, also its an opportunity to ask any questions you might have.

Of course if the issue is, nervous cat who hates the vets, go with the first option.

Thanks everyone. I think it is frontline combo that we need. We're not too far away from the old vet, so that's a possibility. The cat actually loves going to the vet (weirdly) so it might be a nice outing for her to have a free nurses check. It's not too far away either, I just can't carry her around there at the moment but DH can.

Thanks for advice LEM, I didn't know I could just get her seen by a nurse.

You can buy it OTC at the vet's.

when mmy cats had fleas they had to be seen by my vet first so that he could advise on their weight and tell me exactly how much i would need to use each cat, now they have a repeat 'prescription' for it i can just pop in and buy it as and when needed.

Thats how it worked at my old practice Heff. Micci i am a bit that your vet wanted you to been seen for weight etc, as frontline is a one size fits all preparation, unless you have a huge cat then you can buy one for a bigger size if i remember rightly, but most cats have the normal size one. I hope he didnt charge you for that examination.

Our vets did not require a nurses consult for frontline so long as they had been seen by SOMEONE in the past year, so most cats are seen yearly for their vaccinations anyway, its only usually an issue for new clients.

ST you can buy fronline, but not frontline combo - i think thats as mad as a box of bats, but thats the way it is

no he didnt, he said he is meant to but as he has known me since being a child he saw them free of charge. it could have been that he had never seen the cats the before then as i had recently moved back to my home town and had been under a different vet, but he did weigh them. having said that one of my cats is v large so that may have been why.

of the big fat cat!

my other cat is a skinnny little runt who never stops eating and can fill the litter tray in a day!!! vet thinks he has fast metabolism, but also told me to stop feeding on demand as he was being very greedy. he was still so skinny though and still is.

frontline will do ticks, you don't need the frontline combo. The combo part is to do with flea hormones and stopping a part of their lifecycle and nothing to do with ticks.

-You can buy frontline in some pharmacys
-You can buy frontline from the vet you are registered with without them seeing the vet
-You can only buy frontline combo from the vet or via a vet prescription and they will only sell it/write a prescription for it if the pet has been seen within guideline times for legal reasons.

Supermarket spots ons are NOT the same as frontline and in my opinion are actually quite dangerous. We see a few cases of accidental poisonings with the permethrin based ones (supermarket types are this) but I have never seen a frontline poisoning.

Micci - has your vet run a thyroid check on your skinny cat?

beautifulgirls: do your remarks about supermarket spot-ons apply to the dog version too? I've just used a Bob Martin one on my dog (normally I get Frontline from vet) and I'm concerned about whether it is actually effective.

I just got some from Pet planet, quick delivery too.

beautiful girls is right about the combo - LEM berates her battered memory . BG, the advantage of combo then is that it does the house too, if used regularly?

I haven't seen a poisoning in a dog that I can recall, but I have seen plenty of dogs that have been reportedly treated with supermarket spot ons that as still running alive with critters ! If you cant see any on your pet then there is probably no major concern. Provided you have followed the instructions and used the correct product for your pet there is minimal chances of a problem with toxicity. Cats are higher risk of overdose, especially if people use the dog ones on them.
If you see fleas still then best wash off the area you applied it, wait a week and then apply some frontline/combo. As they are different chemicals in them it should be safe to do this. It is not however always appropriate to use certain products in this way!

Yes LEM f/line combo is effectively both a flea killer and environmental control agent all in one product. I love the stuff and think it is one of the best products we have to wage the flea war right now. I don't know about other vets but we sell it for slightly less than we sell frontline for now to try and encourage people to be able to use the best product possible.

I'm quite puzzled by the marketing of frontline combo actually. The packaging is more or less identical and there doesn't seem to be a statement as to why it is better. I must admit i went back to working at the vets after its launch so maybe i missed something. I dont work there now. What i don't understand is, originally frontline was a POM, but now it isn't but frontline combo is, why is that?

They were able to get a new licence on Frontline as suitable for pharmacy sale, not POM category any longer. As the combo contains additional ingredients to "raise" the licence to a pharmacy sales level would require a lot more financial and time input as different standards will need to be met to allow it to become a more generally sold product - this would push the price up no doubt, so for now it has a vPOM licence only - hence you can not buy it over the counter. Similar things happen in the human world with time too - like cimetidine tablets for example you can buy these days but were only a prescription item from the GP once upon a time.

Got Frontline yesterday in Pets at Home, they just asked for address and wrote it on a sheet but did not check that our 4 cats are healthy or under the vet.

Bought it online last time without any information provided.

Ah thanks for new information I am worried about getting fleas around the house (PFB on the way!) but I haven't noticed any signs of them around (no flea bites on us, can't see any fleas on the cat etc) so I think just the standard Frontline would be OK from what you're saying.

My parents used to use the supermarket stuff (and/or Bob Martin) and it was always completely ineffective so I figured I'd save money and go straight for the Frontline.

Is it true that cat collars can be dangerous? We need to get a cat flap so that we don't have to leave the back door open so much, and I want to stop the other local cats coming in (we've already broken up one midnight cat fight in the living room) but I wasn't sure about the magnetic ones because I've heard that collars can cause injury. I wasn't sure if this was just an urban myth though?

Collars can be very dangerous as the cat can get caught on branches etc., but there are now collars available with a quick-release catch or an elastic piece to allow the cat to wriggle out of it. Also, there's a cat flap which recognises your cat's microchip (if it has one) and won't let other cats in. How cool is that?

Elasticated collars big no no in my book. Seen too many cats get their "arm" caught through it trying to wriggle free from something. Often they then end up missing a few days as get stuck somewhere and then return with some horrid wounds under their armpit area that are not always that easy to treat sadly. If you use any type of collar please use a type that just snaps open or the catch slides open so the collar drops off - stops the arms getting caught. The down side to these is they do lose them, sometimes frequently, so means you have to buy new collars and new magnetic things too.
If you google it there are now microchip operated cat flaps you can get so no risk of wrong cat coming in I don't think. May be a better option for you HeffaG

i get our cat's Frontline at Co-op Pharmacy.

we can get it at the vet, and they don't need to examine the cat for you to get it.

but we buy it in Co-op because it's about a fiver cheaper.

DON'T use a substitute. they are shite.

get the real McCoy.

Thanks beautifulgirls. I think the microchip option sounds best. I don't think she'd like wearing a collar much anyway.

Thanks for all the help!