being bunni

Someone asked me for this so I thought I’d post it again for anyone who needs it. I don’t use combined medications that  both prevent heartworm and treat fleas. There are a number of reasons for this – perhaps another article’s worth but I don’t think it’s a good idea.

For many years we used Advantage and Frontline, neither of which will work anymore.  We recently switched to Comfortis which is a pill the dog takes. It works like magic but would cost far more than I can spend if I ordered it the way they like to market it. We always split up the larger sized tubes of Advantage or Frontline but Comfortis tells you not to cut the pill in half by reason that the dosage may not be split evenly. I consider this absolute marketing BS intended to make you spend more money.  However, even considering that it were true the whole pill does contain the right dosage throughout so if you crush the pill and then split it you would be getting the correct dosage, at least by my logic.  For a 5 – 10 pound dog Comfortis is about $57.00 for a six month supply.  That’s $9.50 a month/dose.

Consider this: If you actually have a 5 pound dog do you really want her to get the same dosage of pesticide as dog who is twice her size? I don’t. So I would have to split the pill even for one 5 pound dog. But let’s consider what happens if you have a 5 pound dog and a 10 pound dog. You could use the 6 pack, cutting three of the pills in half (which you’re going to do anyway for the little dog) and it will provide 3 doses for the 10 pound dog and 6 for the 5 pound dog. The price has gone from $9.50 a month to $6.33 a month/dose. I have 5 little dogs and by doing math, crushing pills, mixing them in baby food and dividing it back up it costs me $2.24 per dog per month/dose which is downright reasonable.

Another cost associated with Comfortis is that in the USA it is a prescription drug. That is going to add the price of a vet visit to the cost.  In Canada it is not a prescription drug so I order it fromwww.CanadaVet.com. I have been ordering my heartworm medication from them for years.  Valueheart brand is comparable to the price of heartworm meds in this country but it does not require a prescription either in Canada. I am a bit more careful about getting the right size/dose of heartworm medications because we must rely on them working without any indication that they are whereas with the flea medication I can err on the side of caution and if we have a flea problem (which we have not since we started using this) I can increase the dosage a bit.

A word of caution: For Comfortis to work the flea has to bite the dog so this is not going to be the best solution for dogs who are allergic to or sensitive to flea bites.