Is anybody using Advocate for dogs?

Question

When I adopted my dog the vet advised to use Advocate as flea and heartworm treatement. My dog also needs to have a tick collar because we are in a paralysis tick infested area and the vet nurse check to see if they were compatible (which they were). My question is, my dog thinks it's a game when I try and keep her still when I apply it. I get most of the stuff on her actual skin but some of it ends up just on her hair. I was just wondering if even with maybe not the whole dosis it is still effective against heartworm or should I maybe switch to heartworm tablets so at least I'm 100% sure she is protected?

Answer 1

Advocate is good stuff. There would be no harm in also using heartworm tablets to be sure the dog is 100% covered -however as long as you got like 90% of the stuff on the skin it should be fine. You'll never get 100% of it on the skin even on a still animal!

I'm surprised the vet nurse didn't tell you to lose the flea/tick collar - they're so useless! Reason being, the chemicals in them don't spread through the skin, so you dog is ONLY protected again ticks round his neck area! Collars often end up causing reactions too, a ring of hair loss at a minimum.

Since your main problem is fleas, ticks and heartworm, probably the best treatment for you is Frontline (which does the fleas and ticks) and a complete worming tablet. Frontline, Advantage, Advocate and Revolution are all as decent as each other, but they all do different things - it's a matter of choosing the right one for your own circumstances. Yeah, Advocate is good for fleas and heartworm, but you need tick treatment too and at the moment, believe me when I say you don't have it. See what the vet thinks of this idea!

Chalice

Answer 2

if you are not applying the entire dose correctly then you do need to switch to an oral heartworm prevention. i would recommend switching to one anyway.