From Dr, Chip.....
Damn, I knew I shouldn't have commented on this post. This subject has been beat to death on every dog forum on the net. It would take a book to cover the subject thoroughly. Here are a few of my opinions and not every vet will agree .First - if you cant afford to properly care for your animals you shouldn't have them. Have fecal exams done to see if you even have a problem and if you do what specific parasite do you need to treat. None of the mentioned products treat coccidiosis - one of the most common puppy parasites. Giving medications not needed is as bad as not giving needed medications. Worm life cycles are important. Most wormers need to be used at specific intervals (every 10 days, 3 days in a row etc. ) to be effective. Routinely giving once a month or whatever without proper intervals just increases resistance. If you don't do anything about the environment your dogs are in ( like on a chain) you'll never get rid of the worms. You will never get rid of tapewoms if you have a flea problem.
Yes wormers, like most other medications, are poison if not used properly, and all have side effects. Proper dosing is critical .
I should have included Zimectrin gold on my dont like list for 2 reasons. First it is concentrated for horses and is hard (impossible) to dose dogs correctly - especially if they are smaller. A "pea size dab"
Come on!! Second even if you could, the proportions are not correct for dogs. To dose for tapes you would have to way overdose the ivermectin and vice versa.
Valbazen has been shown to cause serious bone marrow problems and abortions. I dont want my dogs to be anemic or have low white blood cell counts.
Ivermectin is very effective on not only internal parasites (except tapes) but also external like mange and earmites. Sure you can overdose and cause problems - you need to do the math . I would only use cattle ivermectin (not the plus) and carefully , with a SMALL syringe dose at 1/10th cc (ml) per 10 lbs and give it orally only. Herding type dogs should never get it and even mixed breeds especially with white feet can have the gene that causes reactions. You can blood test for this gene if your not sure. And make darn sure they dont have heartworms.
Ivermectin, fenbendazole, pyrantal, and Drontal plus are my wormers of choice depending on the situation. I use Corid for coccidiosis . There are NO magic bullets that are right for every situation.
