I am getting heartily sick of the palavor we have to go through each month to worm Stripe. Since we switched to me holding her (swaddled in a towel) and OH dealing with the mouth tablet there have been zero scratch incidents but OH has been bitten.

I see there are 'spot on' wormers available from the vets, combined with flea treatment.

We don't have a flea problem so we only use normal FrontLine about twice a year as a preventative - probably don't even need to do that. Both cats are regularly groomed - Layla daily, Stripe once a week - and I haven't seen a flea or flea dirt since we got Layla (she'd been treated at the rescue, but there were a few 'Uber Fleas' remaining) two years ago.

Additionally, Murphy dog has a flea allergy and he hasn't had fleas in TEN years, despite irregular treatment.

So, given that flea treatments aren't a major issue but I like to keep the cats wormed* and Stripe is evil with tablets, what are the pros cons of switching to a combined spot on treatment?


*I regularly worm the dogs - but stick ANY tablet in a a bit of cheese and they eat it

I tried Bob Martin Spot On wormer for my cat earlier this year; it was great not to have the usual resistance and bitten hand. I got worm tablets for her at the vets when stocking up for my Spring blitz on the dogs, again as a preventative measure, as I walk them in areas with lots of foxes and rabbits. They did not offer any spot on version of wormer for the cat.

Strangely, she swallowed the tablet no problem, being held by my son while I put it as far back in her throat as I could, she is so unpredictable.

We use Johnsons worming tablets for ours, they always work. I wish they did something to replace my skin afterwards, one of them is not over keen on taking tablets and turns into a fluffy ball of claws and teeth.

Next time you are at the vets ask them to show you where to touch to get the cat's jaws to open, it is like magic. I have always had Siamese or small females, so for my hands, my palm on the top of their head gets my thumb and ring finger in the right place, put tablet as far back as possible, rub down their neck to ensure they swallow and job done. In most cases, having the cat wrapped in a towel and held by another person is needed but I have given tablets on my own.

That's what I do with one of them, his brother though is something else. Even the vet has had to have a fight with him because none of the usual tricks work. It's strange because normally he is the quieter of the two and is one of those that likes to sit quietly and let world pass him by, that soon changes if he senses a tablet or the cat carrier, the transformation into the cat from hell is instant.

The Bob Martins medication nearly killed our cat a few years ago.She was frothing at the mouth and fitting.

Remember the "spot on" is the application method, not the product! It's like talking about having an injection, rather than about what the injection contains.
Personally I would only use veterinary obtained flea and wormer products for my animals as some of the non-vet ones are either very old fashioned and have been replaced by more effective prescription products or they can be down right dangerous as many flea treatments are pymethrin-based which is nearly as poisonious (sp?) for the cat as for the fleas.
There is a veterinary spot-on wormer that does round and tape worm called profender. The downside is it's a bit more expensive than the equivalent tablet. There is a combined vet wormer/flea treatment which also does mites, including ear mites and mange mites, called advocate, but it doesn't do tapeworm though it does round worms, and I think lungworm though that's a dog problem.

Thanks for that Tass - I think our vet only offers the combined but I'll ask about Profender.

If you're using spot on flea treatment and profender for worming it's advisable to apply them a few days apart.

My son bought this

http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/pets-accesso...y/1249848/#rev

and took it back


How do they get away with selling it?

Have you tried crushing it up and then mixing it into some salmon and shrimp paste? My oldest cat is a nightmare to get tablets down and yesterday we had to give her one as she's hurt her leg - I was dreading it, but I crushed it and mixed it into the paste and she ate it down no problem.

Also worth trying to crush the tablet and then dissolving it into tuna brine and then let the cat drink it - possibly not the best way to get a tablet down as the brine is high in salt i would think BUT it can do the trick.

Tuna in spring water has no salt, my cat loves drinking the tuna flavoured water but not so keen on chunks of tuna.

I m not sure of a simple way to get tablets in but the tablet i buy is drontal dual wormer and I only have to give it to him every 3 months not every month at least that could cut down the amount of hassle- that said if your cats over 4kg which Beans now is the vet moves you on to a different tablet- no idea what its called though!

I asked the vet about Bob Martin and they do not recomend it the foaming which happened to one of my cats happens when they groom themselves and its the taste and ingestion that causes them to produce excess salavia