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Groovychook

Non prescription alternatives to Advocate?

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I've just tried to place a repeat order for Advocate for large cats and one for dogs, only to find that it now requires a prescription :shock:

 

As this would now make it quite an expensive order, just wondered if anyone has any recommendations for an alternative product?

I don't use Frontline any more as it didn't seem to do the trick.

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I always understood it needed a prescription. What precisely do you use it for? (If that doesn't sound like a stupid question :oops: ).

 

Advantage is a flea treatment.

Advantix is a flea and tick treatment (although I believe it also requires a prescription?)

Prac-tic is a flea and tick treatment.

Milbemax covers worming including lungworm (but needs a prescription)

Effipro, Fiprospot and Flevox are all the same as Frontline (ie they are all Fipronil) so don't bother with these if you're not finding Frontline is effective.

 

Not sure if that's helpful or not?! I tend to stick with regular worming with Milbemax from the vet, and using Frontline as and when needed, I don't routinely use it every 1-2 months.

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I originally understood that it required a prescription but assumed that this was no longer necessary when I was able to purchase it through Animed without. I've no idea why this has been possible for so long but I wish I'd stocked up!!

 

I use it as a flea treatment. One of my cats has a flea allergy and Frontline stopped working for her ages ago. I use Drontal as a separate wormer.

 

Thanks for the suggestions, much appreciated :D

I haven't heard of Prac-tic before, so I'll go and do a google search!

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Well, in the end I opted for Advantage as apparently it is the same as Advocate but without the wormer. I worm anyway with Drontal so hopefully this will do the trick.

Advantage does not require a prescription but Advocate does, so it must be the worming element that necessitates this.

 

Fingers crossed it works!

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As a newbie I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but I will never use Advocate. It's terrible stuff. My dog was born with the nerves carrying water to one eye, damaged. To check the internal cause, when he was young he had a course of drops that, best description, jumped the nerve signal across the gap in the nerve and we found his eye watered normally. Unfortunately the drops needed increasing so much he would pour slobber out and soak everyone and anything. He couldn't live like that. So he now has artificial tears.

 

Anyhow, whilst on these drops if I ever gave him Advocate the drops stopped working completely. After much research by me and the opthalmic vet, we discovered that Advocate kills the insects by attacking it's central nervous system. By stopping my dogs flow of tears showed it was interfering with his nervous system.

 

In discussions with the vet we discovered Milbemax offers as much protection but is far gentler. To be fair my boy doesn't like puddles or jump in rivers so is very unlikely to pick anything up.

 

For fleas I use Billy No Mates, a herbal supplement which I have used since he was 6 months old. Maybe had one or 2 fleas all told. I try to keep everything natural and he eats a BARF diet and only had puppy vacs and 1st year booster.

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If your online suppliers have be suppling Advocate without prescription, they have been doing so illegally I'm afraid. Either they are getting their supplies into the country under the radar or they are selling it against the UK medicines regulations i.e breaking the law. It has never been avaiable without a prescription. Advocate does not treat ticks or tapeworm (Advantage does not treat ticks). Advantage is not the same as Advocate without the womer either. Advantage + Drontal is reasonable alternative to Advocate but will not treat ear mites, sarcoptic mange, heartworm, some lungworm and a couple of other less common parasites. Hope this helps a bit. I assume you are talking about treatment for a dog.

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On 7/12/2014 at 12:31 PM, Groovychook said:

Well, in the end I opted for Advantage as apparently it is the same as Advocate but without the wormer. I worm anyway with Drontal so hopefully this will do the trick.

On 9/28/2014 at 3:07 PM, Chucky Mama said:

Advantage is not the same as Advocate without the womer either. Advantage + Drontal is reasonable alternative to Advocate but will not treat ear mites, sarcoptic mange, heartworm, some lungworm and a couple of other less common parasites. Hope this helps a bit. I assume you are talking about treatment for a dog.

 

Hi All, I wanted to add to this discussion because I have only just discovered that Frontline, Flevox, Fipnil, Bob Martin, Eppipro and others all use Fipronil. So I've been looking for a different drug.

I had also been told, by the vets, that for fleas Advantage is as good a Advocate. I haven't found Advantage effective, but was finding Flevox great.

My cat, unbeknown to me, got switched over to Fipnil, and I didn't realise that it wasn't working as I was away. Things got bad.

I am now peddling hard, trying to find a way to get back on top of the fleas. In my search I have also been told that

Frontline plus has Fipronil (in form of phenothrinyl pyrazole) plus S- Methoprene. And Fipnil plus has this too. I haven't tried either of these, but know someone who I believe has, and is having the same problems.

I am trying to find out

a) why Advantage doesn't seem to work - tried several times over the years, and trying again now. (Advocate did years ago, but I haven't used it since)

b) what to use now that fleas seem resistant to Fipronil

c) Why Flevox was soo effective when the others failed!

d) why Flevox said re-apply every 5 weeks last year, and now it says it lasts 8 weeks against fleas!!

Any info appreciated.

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