Worm and flea treatment on the South Coast?

Re: Worm and flea treatment on the South Coast?

Hannah Wynne Richards — Thu, 20 May 2010 11:54:51 GMT

Catherine You can take it from me that 1/2 strength panacur for 7 days on alternate months is very effective at preventing lungworm, even when exposed to extreme challenge

Kate Yes you should be more pro-active, and if you can find a way of persuading neighbouring practices to be as well, then please tell me how

Wynne

Re: Worm and flea treatment on the South Coast?

Kate Richardson — Wed, 19 May 2010 20:45:04 GMT

We have a practice meeting with Bayer tomorrow to discuss worming protocols- I am in North Wiltshire and angiostrongylus is something we feel we should be pro-active about in high risk animals but we also have ticks and fleas to deal with plus the usual worms! So am equally confused about what to recommend. Will update you tomorrow...

Re: Worm and flea treatment on the South Coast?

Hannah Wynne Richards — Wed, 19 May 2010 16:07:23 GMT

I advise frontline combo for fleas, and alternate 7 day course of 1/2 strength panacur 1 month, (angiostrongylus ) and single dose milbemax the next (toxocara ) I'm in Swansea and in spite of being in the lungworm capital of UK, in a recent Merial survey, they failed to find any worm eggs/larvae at all in 12 samples from my practice. What makes me absolutely hopping mad is that other practices in the area won't back me up-that's why we are such a dreadful area. One practice actually advises 3 monthly worming on their web-site-totally ineffective. They think that owners won't pay to do things properly, and they're so desperate for trade that they will lie, just so as not to alienate mean customers.I then have the problem of owners saying that their neighbour's veterinary surgeon doesn't think such frequent treatment is necessary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've had lungworm probs with dogs given both advocate, and milbemax at weekly intervals, which is why I've gone back to using panacur-and if anyone complains about the cascade, I think I'm clinically justified!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wynne

Re: Worm and flea treatment on the South Coast?

Catherine Williams — Wed, 19 May 2010 10:23:30 GMT

[quote user="Bob Russell"]I have lost confidence in Advocate - it did not deal with ear mites in puppies nor demodex - so it would take a lot to persuade me to return to it.[/quote]

Have to say I've found the same thing when I've used Advocate and if it doesn't appear to be effective against those then it does dent my confidence in its ability to treat other conditions. The other issue is that to treat fleas, ticks, roundworm, tapeworm + lungworm I think we worked out we'd need Advocate, advantix (alternating each fortnight) + drontal - it just seemed very complex.

One of my colleagues researched this and I think the jist of it was that no product was licensed to prevent lungworm but I think the milbemax monthly should limit the infection (trying to find the notes from our discussion and not finding it) I think our clinical cases have received advocate + panacur, possibly with milbemax as well

Re: Worm and flea treatment on the South Coast?

Bob Russell — Tue, 18 May 2010 15:05:02 GMT

I am based in Hythe nr Southampton - we have not had any issues with lung worm but will keep an even closer watch on things. We have found Frontline in both its forms completely useless in cats and more issues with dogs and rarely use it. Funnily enough we have not had any complaints or found similar issues with effipro!! Rather strange but we have not advised its use on a wide basis so it may be a matter of time.

We recommend Prac-tic routinely and keep Promeris Duo in reserve for those animals that still have a tick issue. We warn owners of smell and possible side effects of Promeris Duo. Dogs (and owners!) can either cope with it or not but it is fantastic at controlling ticks. Two of my dogs get Promeris duo the third runs under my daughters desk and hides so he gets Prac-tic. We are in a very high risk area for ticks so it is a good product for us.

We still use milbemax every three months - I have lost confidence in Advocate - it did not deal with ear mites in puppies nor demodex - so it would take a lot to persuade me to return to it.

If others have seen a number of cases of lungworm it would be interesting to hear about them!

Re: Worm and flea treatment on the South Coast?

HMC — Mon, 17 May 2010 21:34:36 GMT

ps. I'm also in Chichester

Re: Worm and flea treatment on the South Coast?

HMC — Mon, 17 May 2010 21:33:55 GMT

I try to recommend Advocate due to the occasional case of lungworm I have seen/heard off.

I heard of a sad case at NDSR where lungworm was found as the cause of fatal resp disease despite montly Advocate. So I see Advocate as a preventative but Panacur as the treatment.

Does anyone else have owners stare incredulously at them when describing a life cycle involving slugs and snails and toads???

Re: Worm and flea treatment on the South Coast?

Jacquin Mitchell — Mon, 17 May 2010 12:57:58 GMT

Aha! I just found some relevant notes in my LVS notes. Thats very helpful, thanks Vikki.

So has anyone seem lungworn near London?

Jacq

Re: Worm and flea treatment on the South Coast?

Vikki Halliday LLB — Mon, 17 May 2010 12:50:28 GMT

Milbemax originally had a licence for treatment of lungworm, but due to a differenc e opinion between Novartis and Bayer who make Advocate, they had to remove the claim.

If you are using Milbemax for treatment it needs to be given once weekly for 4 weeks, and monthly dose will not remove the larval stages.

Advocate has the only current licence for lungworm treatment, however that may well change if Novartis manage to get it back on the Milbemax licence.

Re: Worm and flea treatment on the South Coast?

Jacquin Mitchell — Mon, 17 May 2010 12:33:13 GMT

I think I'm missing something here. When my friend was telling me about monthly treatment, I assumed they were treating for lungworm/french heartworm/ Angiostrongylus vasorum.

But there is no mention of Milbemax being effective of it here. Is there some other info on it anywhere?

http://www.wormfree.co.uk/milbemax_pet_cat_dog_wormer/en/

Jacq

Re: Worm and flea treatment on the South Coast?

Catherine Williams — Mon, 17 May 2010 12:19:38 GMT

I'm about 30 miles away in Chichester, we've pretty much stopped using Frontline in any form as had far too many cases where we weren't achieving flea control -despite double checking household control, frequency of application etc. We're now using Prac-Tic for the majority of dogs to control fleas + ticks (we see a lot of ticks too).

We've just started using Milbemax monthly as we're starting to see lungworm - 3 confirmed cases in the last mth - 6wks, so we're starting to get a little more pro-active. One of the owners of an affected dog has been very vocal to her friends and walkers she meets so we're getting a lot of queries about lungworm. We've had a lot of debates about the best way to control fleas, ticks + the range of worms and the conclusion was Prac-Tic + Milbemax - both monthly.

I'm generally not great as a salesperson - I need to be convinced of the benefit to sell something rather than just for making more money (I'm sure the bosses out there will despair) but the lungworm cases have been pretty nasty so I feel quite comfortable recommending more freq control measures for at risk pets.