need some help re flea/tick/worm meds

[ontheotherside]

My vet recommends that to protect my dog from both fleas/ticks and lungworm that we alternate monthly treatments of Advantix and Advocate as there is apparently no preventative treatment that covers all these parasites. Is this really true?

We've been doing this for a while and it seems ineffective for ticks over an 8 week period, so I'm worried that it's not effective for lungworm either. He generally picks up a few ticks in the second half of the month that he has Advocate. We walk a lot in woods (lots of ticks) but I have never ever seen him eat a slug or snail. I apply the spot-on stuff very carefully exactly according to the instructions.

Would really appreciate other people's experience/advice.

The only thing that has ever got rid of tics and fleas on my dogs is frontline, not quite sure what the worming syrup that we get from the vet is called

I would be interested to know too. We have a ten week old puppy. I asked about flea treatments when I took him for his second lot of jabs this week and was told that I didn't need to worry about treating him as I kept the cats' treatments up to date. This didn't sound quite right to me!

We use Advocate monthly as we are in a lungworms area, then worming tablet quarterly or we attempt to as getting it in her is an art. We have just added a tick collar as it was getting ridiculous, 7 ticks on her on Monday! No more ticks so far this week which is encouraging.

I wish there was one spot on that does the lot but apparently not.

You can now the combination of Seresto collar for fleas and ticks (last 8months). Then give Milbemax monthly for roundworm, tapeworm and lungworm. Unfortunately there is no one golden bullet for everything yet.
The brand spanking new approach is to have the Lyme disease vaccine and not have to worry about the ticks.

Thanks Lonecat, that's useful info. I will quiz my vet on this! Vaccinations and tablets sound way better than spot on stuff.

The added complication is that I spend time in France where there are other tick borne diseases that we don't have here in the UK, but I will talk to my vet there about that and get a realistic assessment of the risks.

We use advocate monthly for fleas......he still has the odd one but I think he's picking them up from the house so am busy spraying the house ATM. On the old dog advantage worked and frontline didn't.

Advantage does round worms and then every six months he'll have a Drontol tablet to cover tape worms.

I've never seen any ticks on him.

Do you know you can post his poo off to get it examined to see if there are any worms, inc lung worms. I've done this for my dog.

Lonecat, how do you find the collar? I've read conflicting things about it.

Lol at magic bummer!!!

Thanks house buyer - good to know exactly what details I'm looking for and I can ask the vet. I am a bit scared of her (she is v bossy and does like to tell people off) but armed with info I shall be brave.

What is 'cascade'?

Vet care in France is totally different (and cheaper!). I may ask them too (will be there next week) and see what they recommend. They never mention lungworm - maybe it isn't prevalent in my bit of France.

House buyer 6 weeks ago novartis got a UK licence for monthly use as a preventative treatment for lungworms for milbemax so it is most definately an on licence use. You are welcome to check this, but I have the updated product sheet from Novartis confirming this. So yes it is effective and licensed.
Ontheotherside my advice still stands and is correct. The data sheets you currently get in the packet may not reflect this, however, the VMD website and Novartis' own website will confirm this. The new data sheet is also held on the NOAH website.
The collar works really well I have been using it for the last 18 months not seen a flea or a tick on my own dog.

lonecat and housebuyer - thank you very much for your help. I'm taking the cats to the vet on Monday and have arranged to speak to her about this too. Alarmingly the receptionist just told me that she thought I ought to have been giving the spot on treatments alternately but with only a fortnight between. So of course it hasn't been working. I must have got completely the wrong end of the stick when the vet originally explained. Wish that vets gave a printed instructions/prescription like doctors do.

Anyway, hopefully I will be able to switch to the solution you've suggested which I think will work much better for us. :)

Housebuyer I amazed your Novartis rep hasn't been, round mine was here within 48 hours of the licence being granted to ensure that we knew that Advocate was no longer the only option.