£90 fecking quid for flea treatment?

[D0oinMeCleanin]

I feel a bit sick.

£90 whole English pounds. That is a bit extreme, no?

It wasn't that much last time I went, although admittedly that was a year ago. Is this a normal amount?

I am being charged for a consultation, are they charging that twice because I am bringing two dogs do you think? If I get a box to take home are they going to actually de-flea my dogs while I am there? So they won't need fleaing once I get home.

Then I get a box of 6 x pippettes of Advocate for small dogs, that will last us 3 months (2 small dogs) and another 1yr prescription so I can then re-order online from an online pharmacy.

NB: I have not been leaving my dogs flea infested for a year, I have had a prescription to order online.

mine is £53 for 1 large dog with 3 months advocate and 3 months worming tablet. I do get 10% discount due to DHs job included in that price. One pipette out of the 3 month box is used as that is what the nurse does whilst there.

I also have a full MOT every 3 months but that is done by the nurse (who also does the advocate and worming) with weight check. We don't pay consultation for the nurse.

I am a bad person. I used a citronella spray on my dog, and in total she had 4 ticks in her 10.5 years. Always on her head or paws - and I check regularly. She never had fleas.

But so far we are not in a area where we need to be concerned about lymes.

We constantly have fleas. It's the sodding cat going off galavanting all night with undesirables from the neighbourhood and bringing home 'gifts' from them, as soon as his treatment goes so much as a day over due he comes home covered in them.

Luckily I still have some flea stuff for him and more I am able to order on his prescription. Because the dogs are of similar size I use one script for both of them, so the cat's lasts twice as long and rarely needs ordering at the same time.

I wish I could be more lenient with treatment but both dd1 and the Devil Dog are allergic to fleas. She comes out in hives he knaws himself bald and bloody.

I sometimes wonder why I put up with them.

I took Devil Dog off lead last night, went to put his lead on and lo and behold his collar is gone, with all three of his i/d tags. So now I need to replace those too.

When I got home I went to flea him having been meaning to do it for some time now and forgetting. Of course this is when I remember that I used the last lot and never got round to ordering more. I go to get their prescription to order more only to realise I have already re-ordered all I can with that prescription.

And when possibly could be a better time for the dog to start biting at himself and dd1 to find a hive, but this morning? So now not only do I need to pay for the consultation to get the new prescription (they need weighing before the vet will give me one, for this I have to a pay a consultation fee ) but I also need flea drops now so have to pay the extortionate prices my vet charges for them.

Adding to all of that the puppy has picked this week to regress on his toilet training and DH has been storming around house clutching his pearls and wailing "Won't someone think of the children" every time the pup has an accident whilst simultaneously not periodically taking pup into the yard to toilet and treat while I am at work.

The boiler has broke and needs eleventy million new parts, the roof has sprung a leak and while on the roof the roofers discovered the chimney needs urgent work too, so there is that to pay for also.

It's been one of those weeks. All I need now is for one of the white goods to pack in and my week will be complete

Doin you should come live with us it sounds as if your life is as hectic as mine right now

I am sure pimmsdog would love the company and the DCs could amuse themselves. Although my DH is somewhere hot an sandy for the next 6 months so at least I don't have him to contend with only a naughty dog and 4 money draining DCs (all of which need new school shoes this week, along with replacement x,y and z) coupled with various doctors appointments 160 miles away my bank account is going to be after half term

Ours is 43 quid. No worming tablet tho - the nurse said the advocate would do it all - should we be doing the tablet too?

At least you have the dawgs to keep you warm Dooin. Our large boy is a total heat snuggle treatment at the mo.

My DH is doing pearl clutching too. We have too many animals apparently and he's horrified at the idea of my building an indoor run for the guinea pigs. There's no way my fat little ladies are spending winter outdoors.

Our heating still works, thank god, it's bloody freezing here, it's the diverter switch? that has gone, I think this is the thing that tells the boiler to send hot water to the taps not the radiator, the element is eroded, so the pilot light is not coming on as quickly as it should be, so every time the boiler kicks in there is a small build up of a gas and then a huge popping noise when the pilot comes on, but the plumber said it is still safe to use for heating for now and the thing that tells the radiators not to get too hot has also broken.

The plumber was going to try and source us some second hand parts yesterday and is coming back today, the roof people cannot start work until the rain stops.

I was told the advocate does all bar 1 type of worm and as my evil hound is a scavenger who eats anything he can find/catch including fluffy bunnies (the guinea pig if he could only work out how to open the cage) he is a higher risk so the worming tablet is a back up

I use a wormer but likes Pimms dogs my dogs are walked near and chase fluffy bunnies, they've never caught one yet but they do come across already dead ones, plus dead seals and seabirds and we are not always quick enough to get to them before some has already been ingested.

My last vet bill was for anti nausea drugs and rehydration sachets after Devil Dogs supper of rotting seal blubber did not agree with him

So we use wormers just in case, but advocate does most of them.

Ah, that clears it up then. DDog, being as he is, is always muzzled when he's off the lead so no danger of contraband food.

Does front Line not work on other MNers cats? Despite regular Tx, my bloody hairy old cat still has fleas. I even shave the back of his neck in two sites so as to get good skin contact. Help!

We've always been told advocate monthly and then either Milbemax or Drontal every 3 months on top. My dog has fortunately never had fleas or a tick despite spending most days running around in long grass. My DS says he's so scruffy not even a parasite wants to sit on him!

I never tried advocate. But dragon gig had an awful reaction to frontline. That's one of the reasons I refused to let dcs get a cat, to try and prevent fleas.

HoneyDragon afaik Advocate has a different active ingredient to Frontline so you could possibly try it, but you'd need to see a vet first, well you have to do that anyway, since it's prescription only.

Would anyone believe me if I said our back gate fell apart this morning? Meaning I now have no way of securing the dogs when they go outside, obviously I can and am supervising them outside. I also have no way of stopping up the roads savage Spaniel getting in, who is always left unsupervised and who my dogs would kill in seconds if it got in and started on them. I am now trapped in the downstairs of the house on Spaniel watch

And of course we now need to pay for a new back gate. Plus I am having to take the day off work to wait on workmen, source and pay for back gates and control other people's viscous dogs. It's people aggressive as well as dog aggressive .

If I wasn't so laid back and couldn't see the funny side of this I'd have had a total mental break by now.

The guttering on the extension has been loose for a while now I am just waiting on that falling off, the fridge is very, very old and does not have much life left, so I am waiting for that to blow up too. If I wait for these things to happen then I won't be so dismayed when they do.

We buy Advantage which has one of the two ingredients in Advocate, but is available without prescription - I bought 3 months' worth for about 12 quid online last week. It works far, far better than Frontline and keeps our dog clear of fleas for about 4-5 months with one dose. Wormers are a pound or so each. Free postage. Job done!

Sorry, not 3 months' worth, 3 treatments - will last us almost a year.

Our vet recommends Frontline & it seems to have worked for the last 12 years. No cat though.

I never buy flea treatment from the vets.
It's far cheaper online. Many are non prescription but even the prescription ones you can get much cheaper online. You just need to get a prescription from your vet.
Up till last year vets were legally required to provide you with a prescription free on request. But they changed that so now they can charge you for a private prescription. My vet still doesn't charge me.