how hard is it to shop for a chihuahua really?

a friend of mine recently took an a chi and is wanting to move away from Advocate, for both the reasons of cost and the fact it doesn't cover him for tapeworms.

however most don't say you can use them on dogs weighing less than 2.5kg. (he's 1.5kg)

a few suggestions have come up, but the ones we're most looking into are half of a plerion 5 tablet (confirmed by a vet nurse that this is okay)
or a quarter of a drontal tablet. (we'd prefer this as drontal is a brand we know and so far, trust)

obviously she'd go to the vet for something, but he has told both her, and my GSD owning friend, that advocate "does everything"
which it quite obviously doesn't.

what do members here use for their smaller dog worming routines?
and does anyone know if a quarter of a drontal tablet would be okay?

We relied on our vet to give us the right dose of whatever he recommended. He tended to swap and change annually so fleas and worms could not build up a resistance to the pesticide.

If I remember correctly our late Chihuahua Rosie often had cat wormers as they had the right dose for her size.

never considered cat wormers to be honest!

my collie has always had milbemax, but this time around we've given him Drontal XL at less than half the cost, but we know it's effective as it's what our older dog used to get all the time. (the big chalky tablets that are apparently a "tasty flavour" - yeah right! they had to be forced down her throat. milbemax chewable though, they most definitely got it right with those, she'd eat it then ask for another )

mine needs to go to the vet shortly anyway, i may ask what my vet thinks of the situation.

I switch between wormers and flea treatments to avoid building up resistence.

Chihuahuas are just dogs like any other and the dosage can be adjusted accordingly.

I use Advocate alonside Panacur or Milbemax atm

It's not at all hard to shop for a Chihuahua. they are dogs like any other. I've had chihuahuas for 16 years now. I have always used Johnsons all in one wormer for small dogs. 16 years using it and not a problem with all 4 of my Chihuahuas.

Tried Drontal but it made one of mine violently ill for two days so I stick to the regular shop bought one and have never had an issue with worms

Why not join us on the chihuahua people forums? And feel free to message me anytime if you have any chi questions. I've kept them for 16 years and am always happy to help out with advice.

it's harder when you're used to bigger dogs and if the basic information on websites it to be believed
i.e. not being able to use almost every product in a dog smaller than 2kg
but i don't see why quartering a tablet would be any different to halving one, it's just been difficult to find information on these specific products

thanks for all your input
i think she's just about set with him now (she took him on as his previous owner was treating him as a fashion accessory, rather than a dog. he never got taken out and wasn't properly house trained. also being fed bakers, but he's now being changed to another brand)

we're going to try a quarter of a drontal and see how that suits him, along with using advantage for flea treatments.
if the drontal doesn't suit him, we'll do some more research. maybe have him on milbemax.

just a question though Muze, are you using advocate for just flea protection in your case then?
as advantage is the same product but without the worming ingredient and works out a lot cheaper if you're worming separately anyway.