Advantage

[AmberLee]

Thanks for the info, Debbie. I think you've saved a lot of us time and worry...

[Randi]

I searched for this thread because I'm in the exact same dilemma. Yesterday, when I went to the vet to get cat food, I saw they had Advantage for dogs - for less than half price because the date is running out in April! The vet was not there, but I asked the assistant, and said I thought the content was the same, but she said I should get Advantage for cats. Hmm!

Think I'll go and get the one for dogs. I give Fister only a few drops anyway - once a month. He's never had one single flea.

What do you think? Has any new info about this come up?

[Laura's Babies]

I don't know if there is anymore new news about it but I still do this for my babies, even the vets now know this is what some of us do and are willing to give us the proper syringes to measure it with.

It can not be done with the new Advantix for those that do not know that. ADVANTAGE ONLY!

[smokey the elder]

I've dosed very tiny kittens (3 weeks old) by adjusting for the body weight. The danger of anemia from fleas is greater than the danger of the Advantage (which has low toxicity, according to the label.)

[Moesha]

My vet gave my friend dog dosages for her dogs and her cats, giving the amount needed for the cats from the large dosage dog size. She has 5 dogs and 4 cats. Again it was the Advantage to treat fleas.

[catmandu]

My Vet Sold Me The Dog Size , And Its Fine As I Make Sure That I Dont Overdose Them.
Cat People Are Overcharged For So Many Things.

[Catlady711]

As a poster above said, this cannot be done with the Advantix because of the ingredients in that one is toxic to cats.

As for the other, here's my take on the Advantage thing....

If every vet was telling people they could use the dog Advantage on cats you'd invariably have someone that puts the whole dog dose on the cat, cat gets sick from it, possibly dies, client sues vet who is in no mans land as far as the company is concerned because it's being used against the manufacturers directions. I think it's more of a liablility issue personally.

The petmed type places...

Some of them get their products from US vets with the proper meds, which happens to be illegal in most cases for them to sell it to mail order type places. The vets selling it to the mail order places are generally the ones that are only in it for the money, not the pets. They don't care what happens to it, if it's stored properly, if people use it right, or if it's even given for the right reasons, they just want a quick buck. I guess to my way of thinking buying from the internet pharmacies is kinda like getting a pet store dog/cat, it just supports the pet mills. In the case of pharmacuticals it just supports the greedy uncaring vets as well as a few other money grubbers who skirt the law on a few things. JMO

BUT, there are some internet pharmacies that get their products from China and whatnot that have been repackaged or have near duplicate packaging to the US products. Now we all know what a 'great' track record China has with product safety right? NOT. Some of these products have been tested to have the wrong ingredients or the wrong dosage than what the package indicated, big surprise. Usually when you buy meds from places like this you lose any warrantee or discounts offered by the manufacturers to boot.

I'd sooner pay more and know the meds I get are the proper and safe US versions from a properly licenced vet. But that's just me.

Here's another thing to consider....

Vets have alot of money in inventory so that people can leave the office with the proper medications (from flea stuff to antibiotics etc) and don't have to go to the pharmacy down the road, wait in line for their RX to be filled before they can go home with the unhappy fido/fluffy waiting in the car the whole time. Or worse people just won't fill the meds because of the hassle so the visit was wasted and the pet never does get the meds. Not all pet owners are as concerned about their furbabies as we are.

If the vets have a huge drop in people buying the inventory they'd have thousands of dollars go down the tube when all of it gets expired. Yes the inventory is a fair percentage of the vets income, but not ALL of it. If they did not have some of the income coming from the medication inventory guess what happens? The vets have to raise the prices of office calls, vaccinations, and surgeries to maintain the hospital's income level.

As for flea products in general.....

I recently went to a seminar about a one called Promeris. We've been using this one for almost a year now and it's ran circles around the others as far as how fast it works and how well it keeps working. It's only available from the vet, but is usually considerably cheaper than Frontline or Advantage, well where I work it is. Only drawback? I can think of is the cat one smells like bananas and the dog one smells like eucalyptus. I like it myself and it only lasts a day or two then the smell goes away but some people are sensitive to the smells. Our head vet is getting sick of the other companies continually jacking the price of the flea products every time we order, and the products just don't seem to be working as well or as long as they used to, so he is basically switching our flea meds over to Promaris now to keep costs down and keep the feas dead. I don't know how many other vets have started carrying Promaris yet but it's worth asking anyways.

That's my $.02 worth.