Purrs In Our Hearts - Cat Forum UK
Cat Health & Behaviour => Health & Behaviour General => Topic started by: kp76 on February 02, 2009, 09:36:47 AM
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How do you spot if a cat has fleas? My cat was given advantage in Mid Nov will this still cover her? She's scratching a bit at the mo.
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if you brush her with the flea comb, and you get little black bits (flea dirt) in the comb, put them under warm water if they turn red as they disolve you may still have fleas
Fleas are hardy little :censored: and can survive for ages in egg form, once you put your heating back on when it get's cold, they hatch, and it's back ti the vicious circle again
the secret is to fumigate the house as thourely as your cat too
try this link
http://www.fleasmart.com/life.htm
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Thanks Stuart. I'm not sure if she just likes to groom i would have said she's semi longhaired. My other cat doesn't seem to be scratching. What do you use to protect against them. Are tablets or spot on treatments more effective?
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You need to get a spot on but not the ones from a supermarket. You can get Frontline from your vet or even a chemist shop - vetUK are a lot cheaper though www.vetuk.co.uk
I don't think you can get pills for fleas, only for worms but again the supermarket ones are at best useless, at worst dangerous.
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I'll check out the prices with my vets. They seem to be really reasonable on drug pricing. Profender wormer is actually cheaper at my vets than online. The same maybe the case with flea treatments.
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Maybe - and it certainly beats pilling! - If you are using a spot on wormer and flea treatment, I would check with the vet about how long to leave between the two.
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Def easier. I will ask the vets when i go & get some how many days apart i need to leave between the wormer & frontline.
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Frontline is fab.
But as with everything, read the notes in the box and keep an eye out for side effects.
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Side effects? Oooh that sounds scary.
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Side effects? Oooh that sounds scary.
The most common is excessive drooling if they lick it! Followed by hair loss at the application site and some cats really react and get a sore which is less common. These are applicable to all spot ons tho.
If you can worm with a tablet its better, the oral route is more effective and they dont linger in the body like spot ons do (if your someone concerned with chemical usage)
Spot ons last 4 weeks so she wont have any cover from her last one.
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Apart from drontal are there any other good wormers? I've heard that the drontal are huge pills. I'm new to popping pills into cats & i'm worried i'll not be able to get the drontal into them. It's good to know what the side effects of the spot on products are. I'm not so worried about the chemical side of things more that i have a cat recovering from a urinary infection. I don't want to set her back.
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I use Milbemax tasty - they are much smaller and have a beef flavour coating - they do the same thing as Drontal. There is a long term offer on 4 for the price of 3 so enough for a year for around £12 from the vet.
Really annoying as they cost about £1 each buying direct but you need a prescription.
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Right i'll ask the vet about them. If it needs a prescription doesn't that mean i'll have to take the cats for a consultation? I wouldn't have thought that would be cost effective even with the 4 for 3 offer. I've just forked out over £100 to get one of them put right last week.
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Just order the Milbemax in the name of the cat that was seen recently and that will be fine :)
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Drontals are bigger tablets but not that huge, i slot into raw steak for simon and he knows nothing about it lol
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I've spoken to the vet nurse this morning & she recommended they have drontal, so thats what i've got along with frontline spot on. Just need to go home & sort them now. I'm sure the nurse said something like put the frontline on an hour before they eat, is this right?
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I have never heard of putting frontline on before food :Crazy: . As for the VN recommending Drontal - it is probably all they stock :evillaugh: -
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Noooooo i meant putting the frontline on the cat an hour before eating......not on the food. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: I need to explain myself better i think.
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I didn't think you meant that :evillaugh:
But I have never heard any reference to treating cats before or after meals - in fact I find a good time is WHEN they are eating and distracted :evillaugh:
I have always treated mine as and when.
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Lol never thought of doing it while they eating but i doubt that would work anyway. Fortunatly i have my sister staying on friday night so i'm going to get her to help hold them while i frontline & worm them. She doesn't know this yet. Lol
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I've never heard of frontline being associated with a mealtime either. Didn't think it mattered.
Only mentioned the side affects because if you have a sensitive cat it can freak you out if they appear. It's only particularly scary if you haven't thought of it before hand.
George started washing Edward (which he always did, but I'd forgotten would be a factor) the first time we treated them, and then went all frothy at the mouth. Scared the bejesus out of me till I realised what had happened!
Needless to say I kept them separate till it dried after that :innocent:
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Maybe i just heard her wrong. I'm sure i'm slightly deaf. I'll double check the instructions on/in the box just to be sure.
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Also if the drontal are huge can i half them?
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They can be broken in half but if your pilling directly a whole one is better as the coating hides the bitter contents. They are not that huge a pill, size of a smartie or similar, nothing compared to the size of food my lot have stolen and swallowed in one go :evillaugh: I would worm before you frontline so it doesnt get wiped everywhere
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Thanks MM i'll try to get them down in one go. I never thought about worming before the frontline, it's a good point about not rubbing it off to do the worming first. Tonight is worming & frontline night in my house. Once my sister gets here.
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How did it go?!
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- in fact I find a good time is WHEN they are eating and distracted :evillaugh:
Not a good idea if you have an especially nervous cat - they can associate food with the spot on and go on a bit of a hunger strike in protest! ;) Hope it went well.
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Well that went better than i thought. In the end i had to do them on my own, my sis didn't get here til late & i wanted to get them done just before tea so they had something to take away the taste. My goodness the tablets are huge! What size cats do the manufacturers think we have? You'd think they'd be able to concentrate the ingredients down into a smaller pill. I'm going to frontline tomorrow because i do think i'll need am extra pair of hands to help with a wriggly cat, parting fur & squeezing the liquid on to them isn't going to be easy with one hand. Especially as ones semi longhaired.
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How much did they charge you for the Drontal? - I bought 4 Milbemax the other day and they were £13 (4 for the price of 3) - it just shows how much profit the vets make as you can buy them online for £1.30 each, the only problem is you need a prescription and my vet charges £10 so it would end up costing me more. Maybe I should ask for a prescription and buy 2 years worth at a time? :evillaugh:
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Mark, i don't know how much they charged for the Drontal cos i bought it with 6 frontline. The bill came to between £25 & £30, sorry i can't find the receipt to tell you the exact amount. I have to admit i found that quite expensive, but i suppose you live & learn. Now i have a better idea of what i'm doing i'll be looking at costs.
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Mark, i don't know how much they charged for the Drontal cos i bought it with 6 frontline. The bill came to between £25 & £30
Six frontline at VetUK are £16.35, two Drontal would be £3.00 so £19.35 for three months worth of flea and worming stuff for two cats. Plus if you go to VetUK via a rescue link then the rescue gets 5% of your order total donated to them by VetUK :)
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How do i find a rescue link? I don't think any of the rescues round here have them on their websites.
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Here you go ;D
If anyone orders from vetuk, and lets face it you'd be crazy not to given their prices and free superfast p&p, please order through a rescue link so they will get 5% of your order value donated to them by vetuk.
The rescues on here that have a link are below, I always take it in turns every time I order.
http://www.canterbury.cats.org.uk/ - scroll down and click on VetUK logo
http://www.coventrycatgroup.org.uk/sections.php?id=commission - click on the words 'vetuk link'
http://www.catactiontrust1977.co.uk/ - click on 'vetuk online shop' on left hand side
http://www.pawsinncats.com/ - click on vetuk logo at bottom of home page
www.chesterfieldcats.co.uk/ - click on vetuk logo on right hand side of home page
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Great thanks for that, i'll certainly bare that in mind the next time i need to order stuff.