De-wormer of choice

[Patti]

I'm pretty sure she looses money on the kittens after paying for vaccines and worming.quote]
I don't know of anyone who actually makes money on kitten sales after paying for all the expenses...

 

[Bekki]

You're right patti. Breeding cats in general has to be costly. And obviously is a lot of work. You can't do it half a$$ed. I'm sure occasionally there are even deformities that happen or health complications they're born with. A friend of mine breeds Saint Bernards. And one from her most recent litter in august was born both deaf and blind. It melts my heart. Poor little guy. She's keeping him because she doesn't feel that anyone else would understand or have the patience to raise a pup who can't see or hear. He's healthy otherwise however. And such a sweetie pie. Marie had a kitten born with part scoliosis and has been paying for surgery for him because of the way his spine is formed he wouldn't survive very long. He's been through two surgeries and has been hanging in there as well. I could never be a breeder. There's just so much to worry about and pay for.


"Those who wander aren't always lost"

 

[Moggieslegacy]

3 days ago Moggie had his first vet appointment. He got the routine 2nd round of vaccinations (first done by the breeder) He had fleas (YUK!) so the vet gave him a dose of Advantage 2. He was going to give him an all in one topical treatment for worms and fleas I have seen mentioned here in a positive way, but my freind had 2 cats and a dog, used this, said they all turned into zombies for a day, and her elderly cat which very probably had other problems died within 24 hours. I expressed some concern about this and the vet said he did not think this product had anything to do with this, but instead he gave me another topical dewormer to apply 2 days after the Advantage had mellowed. Kitten had diarrhea for the first time after the vet visit (mostly resolved) so I held off applying this yesterday and looked up side effects. I am concerned now because I see a lot of people reporting and showing pictures of cats with burned bald spots where this stuff was applied. I am not wanting to name this product, (name sounds like a super hero)and understand even a small percentage of users having a problem will be proportionally over represented on social media.... But I don't see nearly as many similar complaints about Advantage, many people complaining say they never had a problem using Advantage, even though the possible side effects sound similar to read them. My kitten has no signs of parasites I can see and diatamous earth is part of his regular diet. Should I assume my vet knows what he is doing, or listen to many people posting warnings and find something safer?

 

[Patti]

I don't know which product you are referring to but I use Revolution (selamectin) because it takes care of not only worms and fleas, but ear mites as well, in case that is a problem (which it can be with my Highlanders because of their curled ears and narrow aurel passageways).

 

[admin]

I don't know which product you are referring to but I use Revolution (selamectin) because it takes care of not only worms and fleas, but ear mites as well, in case that is a problem (which it can be with my Highlanders because of their curled ears and narrow aurel passageways).

If revolution is rubbed in, then yes, cat owners have reported loss of hair and bald spots. Profender was once used on a litter of kittens I brought to vet for vaccines and the entire litter almost died.

I do not use our give anything with vaccines as vaccines lower resistance.


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[Moggieslegacy]

Thanks Patti. Now I have had a chance to read up on Revolution I am thinking I should have just gone with that, and will consider this in the future. But as Advantage was applied just 3 days ago I don't think this is something I can use for at least another month.

If I Google Cat Topical Dewormer Burned Bald Spot people's comments naming the product I am concerned about seem to be at the top of Google search. With social media I would guess that the rather horrific things I am seeing and reading about this product could be accounted for if only 1 in 100,000 cats has had a temporary bad reaction, and 1 in 10 of these cat owners posted reviews, pictures and comments on social media. Maybe this over dramatizes the occasional side effects? I can accept a very low risk...

But I have contacted my vet and will be swapping this stuff for an old fashioned deworming pill.

I guess my underlying question is framed by being generally creeped out by the possible general health implications of any topical pesticide. Maybe I am just uninformed, but it is hard to imagine stuff like this would be approved as safe enough for human use? So I wonder whether the companies producing these products are careful to do long term clinical studies of side effects and restrain themselves from releasing products that can be a problem for a small but significant percentage of animals this is applied to? I know even for human medications often drug companies are accused of focusing on marketing instead of educating Drs about the possible side effects of their products. Looking at some of the information about the clinical studies of these products seem to often involve small groups of animals and may not look at long term?

 

[Moggieslegacy]

Just now seeing the reply from Admin...

Yes... Thank you for confirming my gut feeling to look into this product and proceed with caution...

I am also concerned about combining it with Advantage applied 3 days ago. Chemicals can interact in unpredictable ways and years ago Time magazine did an article on how a substantial percentage of people given 3 or more drugs at a time end up sicker because of unexpected interactions.

 

[Patti]

I think it has always been more difficult to do large studies on animals - I mean, after all a human can come in, received the study drug and go home, then do the routine study follow-up. An animal is the researchers' responsibility for the duration of the study, possibly for of the life of the animal, as sad as that sounds... at any rate, I don't think most research facilities have the ability to house large numbers (e.g., hundreds) of animals long-term - of course I could be wrong...

 

[Moggieslegacy]

For people looking for information, I just wanted to say not to assume the various once a month spot on treatments will always control internal parasites. I just found out somethings (round worms in this case) may continue to be a problem and may require two or three back to back treatments with 10 days between. If your cat has any health problems that could be caused by parasites, I would suggest getting the feces looked at, to make sure the once a month spot on is the only treatment needed. In my cats case, apparently, it wasn't.

The information on this website is similar to what my new vet told me.
https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/roundworm-infection-in-cats

 

[Moggieslegacy]

This article has some really helpful information on the lifecycle of common parasites

http://www.ivis.org/advances/Parasit_Bowman/ddb_GI/ivis.pdf