Put simply, there is no flea, tick and worming tablet or spot on treatment you can give to your cat or dog. Instead you’ll need a combination of the three to ensure your pet is completely protected.
But why isn’t there one product that protects against all parasites?
We asked our Pet Nutritionist, Polly why this was the case.
"One of the reasons that there isn’t a product that covers all parasites is that it’s difficult to register a product in Australia with more than two active ingredients."
Consider trying a couple of different treatments over an appropriate amount of time on your pet after consulting your vet. Some pets will benefit greatly from flea collars while others will get better protection from a tablet. You may also notice that some pets are immune to certain treatments.
Contrary to what some people are saying, it’s not critical that you change over their treatment every 12 months. In fact, it would be best if you’ve found a treatment that works for them, that you stick with it.
How often should I be using these treatments?
This will sometimes differ on a case-by-case basis.
"Generally speaking though, intestinal wormers should be started at 2 weeks of age and then topped up every 3 months. Heart wormers need to be given monthly for the best results. Any worming product that doesn’t cover tapeworm will require an additional tapeworm solution to be given every 6 months to your pet in addition to what you’re already using."
Right now in the Australian market, there’s chewable, spot on and collar treatments available for your pets. Each method offers protection for a combination of things including fleas and ticks or flea and worming. You’ll also find treatments that are solely made for just fleas, ticks or worms so you can specifically treat for either.
"If you’re giving your pet a flea chew and a worming tablet at the same time, consider waiting 24 hours between both tablets." Polly suggests that this is a more ideal solution for sensitive tummies and increases the likelihood of the tablet’s effectiveness.
So what products are available in Australia currently?
Polly gives us the run down.
Currently, there is no one product that treats all flea, tick and worms at the same time. However you can use a combination from the following list to mix and match. Make sure you’ve picked a flea, a tick and a wormer for all round protection.
- Advocate or Revolution cover the most parasites including multiple flea life stages (this includes lice, sarcoptic mange, demodex mange, heartworm, ear mites, lice) but doesn’t include coverage for ticks or tapeworm.
- Bravecto or Nexgard Spectra cover ticks(including paralysis tick) and adult fleas. These treatments need about 24 hours to treat paralysis ticks.
- Frontline or Advantix covers tick (but needs to be applied fortnightly for paralysis ticks) and multiple flea life stages.
- Advantage covers multiple flea life stages.
- Heartgard covers heartworm and intestinal worms but NOT tapeworm.
- Sentinel Spectrum covers fleas (eggs only), all intestinal worms and heart worm. This is an IGR treatment which means it will affect the flea egg and leave it unable to hatch.
- Interceptor covers heart worm and intestinal worms.
- Panoramas covers Fleas (adults) heartworm and intestinal worms not tapeworm.
- Milbemax covers all intestinal worms and heartworm when given monthly.
- Comfortis is a flavoured tablet for adult fleas in cats and dogs.
- Profender is a spot on all wormer for cats.
- Seresto is a collar that works for fleas and ticks (including paralysis tick in dogs).
- Frontline spray is the only product registered for use on cats for paralysis tick in Australia.
For cats, unfortunately there is a limited range of treatments available to them. You can use Comfortis or Capstar which are both oral treatments. Never feed any dog treatments to cats or vice versa.
It’s important that no matter what treatment you’re giving them that you stay on top of the dosage and keep them up to date as required.
See our other blog articles to learn more:
- How do dogs get fleas?....read article
- Is my area a hotspot for ticks?....read article
- Signs and treatment for Cat Lungworm....read article
