Flea and worming treatment

[HollyBollyBooBoo]

5yo Lab is currently on Program Plus, a monthly tablet that treats both fleas and worms. Have just ordered some more from the Vets and they have gone up in price again, and are now £42 for a 6 month supply (£7 a month).

Does this seem a lot, maybe I'm just shocked at having to pay such a bill all at once! Are there more cost efficient yet as effective treatments I could/should switch to?

Firstly you need to understand the principle of Program to compare it to other products. Program reduces the number of fleas you see, by preventing them from breeding in your house it does not kill live fleas. The other products on the market all kill live fleas and some also prevent breeding with in the house.

Advocate - kills live fleas, prevents breeding, kills roundworms, kills some mites and also lungworm
Stronghold - kills live fleas, prevents breeding, kills roundworms.
Advantix - kills live fleas, repels and kills ticks and sandflies
Practic - kills live fleas
Frontline combo - kills live fleas, prevents breeding and kills ticks
Frontline - kills live fleas and kills ticks
Promeris - kills live fleas and ticks

All of them apart from Frontline have to be bought from the vet Frontline can be bought over the counter. There are now some cheaper generic 'frontline' types avaliable, but only from the vet eg Effipro.

Lizcat does that mean that with Advocate you don't need an additional wormer and what about ticks? I am. Also particularly paranoid re ticks and lungworm.

Hi, sorry if this is a bit off topic but my 16 week old puppy definitely appears to have roundworm. I feel quite sick just typing that! The strange thing is she has been treated fortnightly with stronghold since she was 8 weeks to treat "walking dandruff" (a mite infestation).

I'm taking her back to the vet later today but I'm so surprised that she can be passing worms after having had so much medication. Is there something about the life cycle of worms I don't understand? Does stronghold sometimes not work? (the mites seem to have gone and hoping for an "all clear" verdict on that front)

I'm really squeamish and paranoid about parasites and can't believe this pup has been so 'yucky' since we've had her. She has also had a benign tumour that went all crusty, then fell and she ate it!

Jellybrain there is no perfect answer I am afraid. With Advocate you do need to treat twice yearly for tapeworm. If your concerns are ticks and lungworms one option is to use advocate on week 1, Advantix on week 3, Advocate week 5, Advantix week 7 thorough the summer.
'Just' if you are seeing roundworm in your pup's poo it is because the stronghold is killing them, pups do have very high worm burdens as they get them across the placenta and from their mum's milk. Stronghold does not kill creeping Dandruff Frontline spray is the only product proven to kill this particular mite.

Thanks Lizcat, I've only just come back to this thread and hadn't seen your reply.