As far as the Spot-On type of flea repellents are concerned, I find they don’t seem to work anymore - fleas have become resistant to them round my way. I have recently invested in Seresto cat collars which work very well. I have no complaints, and none have come loose, yet.
They are expensive but work for 7 to 8 months, and are snag proof.
I’ve used quick-release collars for my cats for years and recommend them. My cats wear radio collars with quick-release buckles and come home from time to time, too often, without a collar, but which I search for and find. Rarely have I found a collar snagged anywhere – usually find them just lying on the ground, possibly coming off during a fight!
Yes, all mine had the plastic pipettes and within ten mins they all had what looked like a greasy patch on the back of the neck that stayed for a day or two. With the dog (Shiba Inu) he had a top coat and then a very thick insulation coat underneath that was a devil to get to the skin so often the drops did not get right down to the skin, the vet suggested somewhere less thick coated that he could not reach with tongue or paw.
I used to give the worm tablets in a pinch of tinned salmon or tuna or even push into a tiny cube of strong cheese, that disguised the smell except for the very clever siamese who used to lick the fish and then lift the mat and shove the tablet underneath.
we use a 3monthly spot on treatment from the vet. Costs about 30E per pipette. We notice it has worn off when the cats start getting ticks. TIME FOR A NEW ONE!
Well worth the money
I hadn’t realised that the name for the container of the putting-on-the-back-of-the-neck stuff was a pipette, nor that it worked by absorbtion rather than by being spread around with grooming. Thank you very much for enlightening me, everyone
I’ve only ever tried the pipettes for flea treatment, not ticks, so am interested that there is one, even if the general verdict is that it’s not so effective these days.
I think that (yet another) trip to the vet is called for, for one of their products. Thanks to the last trip, where the cat was chipped at a grand old age, he now has his own Carte d’Identite, which is more than we do. He was born in France though, as far as we know…
I seem to recall that the stuff for cats was some kind of paste that you injected into the cat’s mouth - good luck with that! Mine didn’t like it all and managed to flick most of it over everyone else, and scratch me to shreds in the process. The tablets, I could just about get him to swallow them after much restraining and stroking his throat.
I grind any tablets to powder. Press the back of the bowl of the largest metal tablespoon or serving spoon you can find onto the pill, on a chopping board ideally wooden, possibly with a paper serviette on the chopping board to catch the powder - a big flat risotto serving spoon is perfect - and conceal the resulting powder into any pâtée or terrine dish your cat will eat.
Hold a cat and try to get it to take and keep a tablet? No, I value life and limb . Besides, my cat would just laugh at me. Even liquid drops, if to be taken not put onto the skin , I’d go the pâtée way.
My little siamese female had to have a towel wrapped round her so her claws were covered, the big siamese male would spit and hide, my “feu vert” huge white male was a greedy pig and just ate everything anyway and the others were a bit more cautious but took the paste, tablets or pipettes what were being used. They all used to take off as if they had a rocket up the backside after and sulk for an hour until they wanted dinner.
We have resorted to giving our dog, Charlie, his tablets mixed with pâté. He gets a tiny bit with the tablets but knows that there’s a much larger second helping coming his way once he swallows the tablets.
I don’t use my fingers any more - too painful, and the cats get stressed. And they keep vomiting up the pills if they haven’t been shoved right to the back of the throat! I haven’t looked back since I started using pill dispensers. I swear by them! I get them from the vet.
If you are giving a cat a tablet, pop it in, clamp the jaws shut with your hand and gently rub the throat with the other hand as it makes them swallow. Worked every time I did it.
And with your 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th hands hold each of its 4 limbs and with your 7th scruff its neck tightly so it cant turn itself around inside its own skin…
Actually the Pig is (in this respect as so many others) a paragon, he sits nicely on your knee and lets you put the tablet in his mouth and then swallows it, amazing. He’s the second best tablet taker of all the cats I’ve had (the champion just ate them like a dog, no need to hold him or put him on your knee).
I found that @shiba and @chrisell 's way worked the first couple of times but after that, the nearest to success was @KarenLot 's method. Works fine provided the cat isn’t completely off his food, which ours was, the last time. Fortunately, we managed to get a few pills down him the “wrapping a towel round” method but only for the first few days (and with 2 people, or not enough arms, as @mark says ), after that, he regained enough appetite for him to get some bits of the tablets if ground finely enough into food…
My german shepherd has a NEXGARD pill once a month. I cannot remember when I last saw a tick or flea. Everything else was useless. I get this from my vet, I expect they do it for cats. go to your vet and ask
For our dog we used something called Bravecto (but it is from the UK so not sure if they have it in France). You can only get it through the vet. It is a tablet and seemed to work very well in preventing ticks for I think about 3 months. Not sure if there is a version for cats.
. Besides, my cat would just laugh at me. Even liquid drops, if to be taken not put onto the skin , I’d go the pâtée way.
