Believe it or not, spring is on the way.
Each year, I sit down with the endless choices of products available to vets and give my best shot at what will be our recommended flea/tick preventative as well as heartworm/intestinal parasite product. Each year, all the companies rush to sell their newest, shiniest products and you all rely on us to look over and recommend what is best. For me, my approach is usually the same. Balance safety, effectiveness and price. In general, I avoid the products that are out the first year, because in my experience there is often something that is missed when they rush to market.
Either its stinkier than we thought
Or it causes more topical reactions
Or dogs don’t like the flavor (cats never like the flavor of anything, so we don’t consider that for them)
Or it has a reaction that wasn’t covered in the original studies
This year, I need some input from you all…
I’m not going to ask you about the chemical composition or contraindications of any of the products, but more about your habits and success and failure around the products for your pets.
The past few years have seen some game-changing events in veterinary products, and we now have an online pharmacythat we can order any product and have it sent directly to you without ever stocking it. This saves on our inventory and expense, and allows more product availability. The prices are competitive with the internet pharmacies and they compound drugs as well, which allows us access to some very helpful medications that are not commercially available.
There are now also ORAL flea/tick medications for dogs that are safe and effective. In fact, it looks like that is going to be the way that parasiticides are done in the future.
But the choices are now even more overwhelming.
There are now products that:
Prevent fleas
Kill fleas and ticks for 1 month
Kill fleas and ticks for 3 months
Kill ticks
Prevent heart worms and intestinal worms
Prevent heart worms
Kill fleas for 1 day
Prevent heart worms, intestinal worms and fleas
So far, there is not one product that kills fleas,ticks, prevents heart worms and intestinal parasites…but it looks like it might be on the horizon.
Also, I am dying to figure out a way to reasonably send what you need each month. No forgotten pills, no calendar stickers, no wondering when to start what product (our recommendation for dogs is year round heart worm/intestinal parasite prevention and start flea/tick in March, end in November…unless you go down south….
Anyway, before we come up with a plan, please give me some data of your preferences by completing a brief survey. I will report the findings next blog, and then we’ll make a plan for what to do going forward. If you have a dog that goes to Kindred Spirits, please take the survey….you will get a cute puppy picture at the end that will totally make it worth the time.
In the meantime, time to sign up for the next lecture. The first lecture was on Lyme disease and shortly I will have the slide show posted on our website. The next one will be on Helping Your Pet Age Gracefully. March 15th, 11am, at the clinic. Sign up for limited seats by emailing reception@kindredvet.com
Thank you for being part of the Kindred Spirits Family!
