Fleas & Worms

FLEAS & WORMING CATS AND DOGS

WORMING

Cats and dogs need to be wormed at least annually. The current recommendation is to worm every 6 months. Advice on this varies from place to place and some people worm every 3 months instead.
The latter recommendation is probably based on marketing advice rather than epidemiological evidence.

There are several ways of doing this and the latest, easiest way is to use Advocate or Revolution. These products do both worms and fleas at the same time and all you have to do is apply drops to the skin on the back of the neck.

Yes, no more trying to hide the pill in the food, or battle with them to give directly by mouth. Hooray!!!!!!

Both these products kill fleas as well but do not kill tapeworm. Tapeworms are contracted by pets from fleas; so keeping your pet free of fleas also keeps them free from tapeworms.

Tapeworms are less pathogenic than the other worms but a new "spot-on" wormer called Profender for use on cats kills these as well. So if you see tapeworms associated with your cat, this is the product to use. It is the most comprehensive spot-on wormer of them and kills all feline intestinal worms.

There is still nothing wrong with the old worm tablet however-they still work just fine. Provided you can get the tablets in [such as Drontal or Milbemax], then there is no worry in using these as well.

For specific instructions for worming puppies or kittens see worming on our kitten and puppy pages.

FLEAS

Fleas are the consequence of living in Auckland , one of the flea capitals of the world.

Our high-humidity summers and moderate winters cause flea population explosions.

Flea control these days is not all that difficult.

The latest product-Comfortis -is a tablet that you give orally to your dog once per month. Comfortis is only for dogs.

The little vials you dab on the skin are also easy to use but there are a confusing variety to choose from:
Use either Advantage or Practic.
Once again these products are simply applied to the skin on the back of the neck. They should be used monthly.

Only in certain circumstances should you need to use environmental flea control such as house foggers because Advantage and Practic kill fleas before they start to lay eggs. This usually prevents widespread contamination of the house and property.

Flea shampoos and flea combs are mostly a waste of time as both methods are inefficient; they offer very short term relief and do nothing to prevent egg contamination of the house.

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