Money saving flea and heartworm treatment

[Clackalacky]

I discovered that the active ingredient in the oral prescription med for fleas with the brand name Comfortis is actually a organic pesticide that is sprayed on certified organic food crops. So how could this stuff be sprayed in large quantities on crops but be so incredibly expensive in pill form? I found a garden spray on amazon which contains 0.5% spinosad as the active ingredient along with propylene glycol, which is a food additive approved by the FDA. 0.5% is very dilute. There is a shampoo approved for humans as young as 6 months for the treatment of lice that is nearly double the strength (0.9%) which costs $147! I bought the spray and fed it to my dogs. I looked up the dose for Comfortis; for my small dogs it is 270 mg. The garden spray contains 50 mg of spinosad in every 10 ml of liquid. I got a 5 ml oral syringe and gave my dogs 11 syringes full on their food and added some tasty broth to mask the taste. The spinosad smells like dirt. It is, in fact, made from soil, so that makes sense. Anyway, I spread the 11 syringes out over three meals and no more fleas. This $16 bottle will last for at least 6 months for my small dogs. I also have a great pyrenees and he needed a lot more- about a cup and a half. I spread that over 6 meals with no problem. Saved a ton of money, no vet. My next project is to figure out the dose of ivermectin to replace heartguard by using ivermectin horse paste, which is also available online with no prescription. One $7 tube treats a 1250 lb horse, so it may have to be diluted first, then divided. I will post the formula once I figure it out if anyone is interested.

Anyone else have any tips for beating the high cost of caring for pets? With this quarantine, I want to save every penny I can since who knows how long this will last.

 

[Mr Bya Lungshot]

 

[Lilly001]

I looked into the ivermectin.
The problem was that the proper dose vs the damaging dose was so close that I wasn't confident doing it.

 

[Clackalacky]

It will definitely be a problem to measure the right dose. If you use the ivermectin for horses on dogs, the paste is so potent it would be difficult to measure it properly. A difference of a very small amount could be detrimental. Pharmacists use something called the aliquot method when compounding in cases like this. There are videos on youtube explaining the aliquot method. They dilute the drug first and the resulting compound is then able to be accurately measured. I have not yet tried to do the math, but if you took, for instance, 1/2 ml of the paste and added it to 4.5 mls of some other inert substance (diluent), perhaps then it would be easy or easier to measure the proper dose. Or you may have to serial dilute it meaning add 1/2 ml of paste to 4.5 mls of diluent, then from THAT mixture, remove 1/2 ml again and add it to another 4.5 mls of diluent. The resulting mixture would be 100 fold less potent than the horse paste. You could even do that a third time and the result would be 1000-fold less dilute than the horse paste. From this diluted paste you could likely measure the proper dose for a dog.

 

[kc65]

I get our ivermectin from canada, no prescriptions needed as it's over the counter there and half the cost of getting it here...We also get advocate topical for fleas, ticks and other parasites also from canada and half the cost....

 

[Hillbilly stalker]

Bayer Grub control 1.47% Imidacoprid. Just like the pills $7 a bottle WITHOUT Fertilizer. Put it down their back and neck
Dosage
10lb. 3ml or cc
20-26 lb 7.5 ml
40-65 lb 15 ml
65-90 lb 25 ml

Purple cow tags stapled on dog collars for ticks

Liquid ivermectin 1/10th cc per 10 lbs of body weight . Costs $25 for 50ml.

I don't believe there is a cheaper way. I've been doing this with my dogs for years and years. Same active ingredients as anything you can get at the Vets office for 1/10 th of the price. The Bayer lasts for years with multiple dogs and the ivermectin last for a long time also. This is what most guys use with hunting dogs. You can buy the Bayer and cattle tags at Tractor supply or Home Depot . Gordon's is another .brand but make sure you get the one without fertilizer. The ivermectin is labeled "Noromectin" and can be found at feed and farm type stores.

 

[Clackalacky]

Bayer Grub control 1.47% Imidacoprid. Just like the pills $7 a bottle WITHOUT Fertilizer. Put it down their back and neck
Dosage
10lb. 3ml or cc
20-26 lb 7.5 ml
40-65 lb 15 ml
65-90 lb 25 ml

Purple cow tags stapled on dog collars for ticks

Liquid ivermectin 1/10th cc per 10 lbs of body weight . Costs $25 for 50ml.

I don't believe there is a cheaper way. I've been doing this with my dogs for years and years. Same active ingredients as anything you can get at the Vets office for 1/10 th of the price. The Bayer lasts for years with multiple dogs and the ivermectin last for a long time also. This is what most guys use with hunting dogs. You can buy the Bayer and cattle tags at Tractor supply or Home Depot . Gordon's is another brand but make sure you get the one without fertilizer. The ivermectin is labeled "Noromectin" and can be found at feed and farm type stores.

 

[Clackalacky]

Awesome!

 

[Hillbilly stalker]

A couple small drops of ivermectin in each ear will kill ear mites. So will the old yellow listerine.
You can put 4-5 green walnuts in a mason jar and keep it under the sink. The water will turn black and that makes real good mite killer. It leaches the tannic acid out of the walnuts ( wear gloves).

For yeast infections you can buy the generic Monistat used by women and take care of it. Yeast infections tend to smell bad in a ear.

There's all kinds of ways to treat your dog passed down by the older dog men. A vet an get very very expensive.

 

[oldguy]

Had a good friend an old time dog man that had a bulldog cross with a bad case of mange. He kept that dog shut up in a corn crib. Each afternoon after work my job was to hold the dog down while he swabbed him down wih a mixture of burnt motor oil, sulfur and battery acid. I don't know the ratio/amounts of the mixture. I do know that dog didn't like us for awhile, but he got over the mange and slicked up pretty. Big 'ol brindle dog used to catch hogs.

 

[Hillbilly stalker]

We've done that before. With just motor oil tho. The "red mange" is actually a mite. Most fogs have something in their immune system that fights it off naturally. The ones who don't show the symptoms of " the mange". You can kill them off for a little while like that....but the ones we treated always came back.

 

[Hillbilly stalker]

A HUGE WARNING......You cannot use ivermectin on a Collie dog or Border Collie. It will kill them. Check with your Vet on that.

Also it's near impossible to get the correct dosage with the paste type wormer used for horses. It is a mixture and no 2 dosages will be the same. I've seen people do it, but I would not...go with the liquid, you can measure the proper dose.

 

[Gator89]

Had a good friend an old time dog man that had a bulldog cross with a bad case of mange. He kept that dog shut up in a corn crib. Each afternoon after work my job was to hold the dog down while he swabbed him down wih a mixture of burnt motor oil, sulfur and battery acid. I don't know the ratio/amounts of the mixture. I do know that dog didn't like us for awhile, but he got over the mange and slicked up pretty. Big 'ol brindle dog used to catch hogs.

Back in the day, we used burnt motor oil and sulfur, don't recall any battery acid in the mix.

 

[280 Man]

I'll just keep buying the Comfortis pills for my dogs! That self dosing of Ivermect and other stuff can be detrimental to dogs!! I think more of my dogs than that!

 

[Cmp1]

Back in the day, we used burnt motor and sulfur, don't recall any battery acid in the mix.

Diesel,,,,

 

[Gator89]

When Tramisol first came out in the early 70's my big brother saw on the label you could use it to treat dog for worms. B.B. gave three dogs 1 c.c. per pound. The dogs died. The label had very small print and it read .1 c.c. per pound. The print was small and the decimal was hard to see. To this day I put a digit to the left of the decimal, even (0.1, 2.1, etc.). Too bad that Tramisol label had not read 0.1 c.c. per pound.

 

[Hillbilly stalker]

I'll just keep buying the Comfortis pills for my dogs! That self dosing of Ivermect and other stuff can be detrimental to dogs!! I think more of my dogs than that!

Buddy I promise you I ran that by my local vet before I ever went with it. I’ve done it for years as so has many many others have. I’ve been doing it for over 20 years and haven’t had one single problem. My dogs are healthy and fooled with daily. You would be hard pressed to find someone who thinks more of their dogs than I do. But a fellow should do what he thinks is right. Look at the active ingredient in what your using. I know guys with HIGH DOLLAR hunting dogs that use the same dosage regime. No problems.

 

[280 Man]

Buddy I promise you I ran that by my local vet before I ever went with it. I’ve done it for years as so has many many others have. I’ve been doing it for over 20 years and haven’t had one single problem. My dogs are healthy and fooled with daily. You would be hard pressed to find someone who thinks more of their dogs than I do. But a fellow should do what he thinks is right. Look at the active ingredient in what your using. I know guys with HIGH DOLLAR hunting dogs that use the same dosage regime. No problems.

Then by all means continue to do what works for you.

 

[Hillbilly stalker]

Wasn't looking for permission, I was just answering the mans question.

 

[280 Man]

Wasn't looking for permission, I was just answering the mans question.

I wasnt giving permission either! Like you I was making a statement!