Advantage for Cats vs. Advantage for Cats-n-Rabbits: Question

[Flaxbee]

(Cross-posted in the Lounge)

OK, I need to order more Advantage flea meds for my cats. I can ONLY use "Advantage I" b/c I tried Advantage II and it made two of my cats miserable, rashes, no flea relief, nothing.

So Advantage I it is. Now, having 5 cats, I have to buy this stuff every month, and it gets $$. I look for the best deals, which are usually on Amazon.

Advantage for Cats costs more than Advantage for Cats and Rabbits; I was told once that the Cats-n-Rabbits version is what is sold in the UK (more bunnies as pets there? who knows) but the two formulas - cats only and cats-n-rabbits - are identical.

Can anyone tell me if that's true? I looked at the Bayer website and they only seem to have posted the label (including ingredients) for Advantage for Dogs. Nothing that I could find about the cat products. And their "Ask the Veterinarian" feature seems to be inactive.

Argh. Typical.

Anyone here have a clue? I need to place my order soon... and if I can save $10 on every order, I'd love to.

[TorchTheWitch]

1. Is there a customer service phone number you can call?

Though the ingredients may be the same for the two the amounts of them may be different. You could try asking your vet, too. They might know what the difference is. Actually, this is something you should probably clear with the vet anyway especially if your kitties had issues with the products before rather than trusting customer service. Seeing as how much you'll need to buy I would want to make absolutely certain before making the purchase just because of the expense.

Hey, maybe you could try another online "ask the vet" service that could help you? Might be worth a shot.

[Flaxbee]

2. phone ... number? What is that?

Ha ha - I kid. In this email age, I am embarrassed to admit it didn't even occur to me to CALL someone at Bayer. Will do that. My sister is a vet, but a wildlife vet who does not work with companion animals; she didn't know the answer offhand but has asked a colleague.

Thanks for your reply, TorchTheWitch!

[MadrasT]

3. Check with a vet to be sure before doing what I am about to suggest:

I have a multi-cat home and have to deal with issues like this sometimes.

Some dog flea products (I believe Revolution and the older version of Advantage) are the same ingredients as the version labeled for cats.

So you can buy the packages of the great big dog doses and split them up into small cat sized doses (using a small brown glass bottle and a 1.0 ml syringe to get the correct dosage for a cat). (One great-dane sized Revolution/"Advantage I" dose is enough for I think about 5 cats).

The price of a 3 pack of "big dog" doses of medication is not much more than the price of a 3 pack of cat doses of the same medication.

I am not going to quote doses because I am not a vet, but when I need Revolution or "Advantage I" for cats, I buy the huge dog doses and split them up and it ends up being 1/4 to 1/6 of the price per dose.

Be careful because I believe with Revolution, the biggest dog doses are double strength (ratio of active ingredients to inert carrier) so the amount of liquid you need to administer is half what the actual amount of liquid in a cat dose is.

There are also some flea treatments (I think Advantage II is one of them) where the ingredients for dogs are different and are not safe for cats at all.

Here is a web site that describes what I am talking about: Advantage for multi cat homes

Please do check with a vet to make sure what you want to do is safe, but I (and the rescues I work with) do this all the time to save money on flea treatment.

[Curmudgeoness]

4. I am not sure what the issues are with the two meds,

but my vet has gone from Advantage to Revolution completely. She said that Revolution covers much more pest then the other products on the market....fleas, ticks and heartworm, ear mites, worms.

I know this doesn't answer the question of which Advantage you should use, but thought you might want to consider this.