Save your money on revolution, advantage or sentinel

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    • Bronze

    Save your money on revolution, advantage or sentinel

    I thought I would share a little interesting fact on how to save a lot of money on any of the products you choose for your pet this year.
     
    The manufacturers all advertise their products as "good for up tp xxx amout of lbs/kg". This means that you might not need a full vile to protect your pet. For example....if you have 2 dogs and buy a product that will do up to a 100 lb dog you can split it in half and dose it. I never knew this until recently and was always wasting the whole product on my animals because that's what the vet told me to do. I bought a 6 mnth dose for my two girls (so the vet said 3 months for the two of them) and as it turns out when calculated it will do both my dogs and my moms cat for 6 months...not three. Big difference from the 3 months and two dogs concept eh? A difference of about $130! I guess we shouldn't always follow the label. A vet friend of mine confirmed this and said it is not something they tell customers because most people don't know how to dose it or don't want to.
     
    So a little hint for everyone out there....read the label closely. Here is an example of the new Advantage Multi and how to REALLY dose it.
     
    Advantage Multi: (fleas, hookworm, roundworm, heartworm and an off label mite and lice deterrent/treatment)
    Comes in a 4mL vile x 6 months. A 50 lb dog only needs 2 mL to be sufficient or half a vile. A 70 lb dog=3mL or 3/4 vile. And a cat= 0.4 mL of a vile (astonishing since we are spending and dosing more than that)
     
    So whatever that it is you choose read it closely and buy the largest vile per $$$ that you can and dose it out. You will save a lot in the long run.
    • Gold Top Dog
    Well, that is interesting, although I don't need to use it very much. I wonder if that would apply to heartworm meds as well.  But I surely don't want to play around with that too much.
    • Bronze
    It depends on what product you are talking about. If it is a prescription product....most likely no. If it is an over the counter product then possibly yes. What is the product you currently use? I may be able to shed some light but may not as well. Pharmacology is a confusing and difficult thing.
    • Gold Top Dog
    I've split larger vials of Frontline onto multiple dogs before and you can get a savings doing it that way.  However, dosage accuracy is very important.  The vials themselves have minimal markings on them.  Dispensing one vile between 2 or 4 dogs of the same weight is not too difficult, but if you are dealing with an odd number of dogs and/or dogs of different weights, then you have to calculate the amount each dog needs based on their weight and use a syringe (without needle) to extract the right amount from the vial and apply it to each dog.   So...it can be done, but it takes extra effort and attention to accuracy.   As far as heartworm meds go - I would never try to split them, in particular any type of tablet as you can't be sure the active ingredient is disbursed evenly throughout the tablet.
    • Gold Top Dog
    I did it, too, when I used chemical flea control. Since I have Teenie, now, and it burned her the only time I used it on her, I don't use it any more. It helps a lot, with multiple pets. My vet will tell me the correct dosage for each, if they're dramatically different, and give me the syringes to use. 
    • Gold Top Dog
    if you had enough left in a vial for another dose, would you be able to save it until next month or would it become ineffective?
    • Gold Top Dog
    When I still needed flea control products, I did the same thing, divided it between dogs.  I'd not want to try to SAVE some until the next month tho, it might not "keep" well and it would be heck trying to keep it from spilling.
     
    Revolution is a HW med so I sure wouldn't play around with saving on that one.  And I know with Heartguard, the medicine isn't always spread evenly throughout the chew so if you tried to split one, someone might get NO HW protections.
    • Gold Top Dog
    I wonder though, is it that important to measure exactly how large the dosage should be for flea/tick medication?  Whenever I give my dogs frontline, some of it always ends up on my fingers or on their fur.  So even applying by their dosage is not exactly 100% accurate.
    • Gold Top Dog
    I might try dividing something like Frontline--except my dogs are all big--but i would never divide something like Revolution that has to work on heartworms as well.  But my vet doesn't carry Revolution any more as several of his clients dogs came down with heartworms while on it.  I do not know if it was no applied correctly or what, just the dogs got heartworms while on it.