Best Over The Counter Dog Wormer / Flea Medicine

[jay3534]

Feel like nothing works prescription or OTC flea and tick wormer. Any suggestions?

 

[Frankenkubota]

I do know in NC you must have a clean heart worm test by vet before you can buy heart worm meds.

 

[nybirdman]

I have used Advantix for at least the last 20 years for fleas and ticks and it works great;I refuse the "pill" form of tick prevention.
Worms are another matter;use prescription "Interseptor Plus" and it also works well.
Advantix can be purchased online.

 

[tallyho8]

Any brand containing pyrantel pamoate is good for intestinal worms and this is the safest wormer you can buy. It is not toxic even at 50 times the recommended dose. It is also one of the cheapest. I use the pyrantel horse wormer in a tube you can buy at Amazon for $12 or eBay for $11 and it will last for years with a couple of dogs. You squeeze out 1 inch of wormer for a 50 pound dog. This kills all intestinal worms except for tapeworms.

For heartworm prevention there are products for sale on the internet that you do not need prescriptions for.

For fleas and ticks, Pet Armor is one of the least expensive that works on most dogs. Dogs who it does not work well on need Nex-Gard which requires a prescription.

Beware of the Seresto flea collars that are claimed to have killed thousands of dogs.

 

[jay3534]

Thanks I will look into the suggestions

 

[jaydee325]

Beware of the Seresto flea collars that are claimed to have killed thousands of dogs.

My wife has worked at a vet clinic for over 20 years. She has spoken to the rep of the company that makes Seresto and has decided it is safe to use on our dogs. She has seen no issues reported to her clinic.

Here is a balanced report of the perceived issue.

Vets call for calm over Seresto flea collar death allegations

 

[plowhog]

Our 5 year old dog started having seizures a year ago. Until then was completely healthy. Then the seizures got more frequent. Very alarming. Finally he had a very bad neurologic episode a month ago, which he has not yet fully recovered from. He may never get back to 100%.

After consulting with our vet, we stopped giving him Nexgard. We've made a few other changes as well but this was the most significant. Our vet said Nexgard is known to have an association with neurologic issues with certain other breeds (not our breed.)

He hasn't had any seizures since we removed him from Nexgard. Can I conclusively say that Nexgard was the problem? No. But we are not putting him back on it.

FDA Alert: Potential Neurological Problems with Certain Flea and Tick Meds

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is alerting pet owners and veterinarians to be aware of the potential for neurologic adverse events in dogs and cats when treated with drugs that are in the isoxazoline class.

thebark.com

 

[tallyho8]

Just as some people are allergic to some things such as aspirin or peanuts, some dogs are allergic to different things also. A new product may be tested and be found safe in 99.99% of dogs but that means it is not safe in 1 in 10,000 dogs.

Any time you give a dog a new product you should keep an eye on him for a certain period of time to see if you notice any type of reactions, just like humans are being watched right now for 15 minutes after a covid shot for reactions.

 

[gsganzer]

As far as dog heartworm medicine, you can use equine Ivermectin as a monthly preventative. It's a lot cheaper, $10 versus the $100 bottle of tablets the vet sells you. The web will give you dosing guidelines based on weight. You will want to do a test dose first to make sure your dog doesn't have a sensitivity or adverse reaction.

 

[tallyho8]

Equine paste wormer is almost impossible to measure and administer the small amount needed for heartworm prevention and also contains some ingredients that some dogs should not have. Also, just a glance at the web shows recommendations for amounts that are toxic to some dogs.

1% liquid injectable cattle ivermectin is a much better choice to use on dogs for heartworm prevention. Less additional ingredients and easy to measure. It is given orally, not injected. This also, has many threads on the web giving inaccurate dosages. Many web sites say to give a 100 pound dog 1ml. and this is more than 10 times the recommended dosage. You might want to use that much once a year to kill intestinal worms but using it monthly for years will wind up giving the dog kidney or liver failure.

This means that a 20 pound dog would get less than 1/40 ml orally monthly. This amount is too small to measure and if you gave it to the dog you would not be able to tell if he swallowed it or drooled it out. It must first be cut with an approved mixer like propylene glycol to make it weak enough to measure and also to make the taste more palatable to the dog. I have seen it premixed for sale on the internet for $25 for enough to treat two 55 pound dogs for over 2 years.
This is much safer than giving a dog the wrong product or overdosing it with the right product.