Kaleb

Advocate and Interceptor both contain ingredients for worming and Heartwormin, so you will be doubling up on chemicals if you use this treatment regime. If using Advocate just use a tapewormer. It is true that they both due, but ive never had a problem where someone overdosed them ever and i have ALOT of people that use it with no complains. To each their own i guess. For a tapewormer seperate you should ask your local vet or the store you are buying it from(somewhere where they know what their doing) they will give you a brand they have available. But like i said earlier overdosing, on those two products and sticking by the doses is safe. You can also go for comfortis which is a wormer and is put on the back of the neck like advocate so no hassle of tablets or drontal which is also very common used in conjunction with advocate and no problems that ive encountered or heard of. Hope this helps you :D Comfortis is actually a flea adulticide - it is a tablet, and is not for use in pups under 14 weeks.

I advise you to use advocate( does most of your worms except tapeworm), fleas, and heartworm in conjunction with interceptor which will cover your missing tapeworm. Ive found this to be the best combination for my dogs and many of my customers tried it and now swear by it. [/quote] Advocate and Interceptor both contain ingredients for worming and Heartwormin, so you will be doubling up on chemicals if you use this treatment regime. If using Advocate just use a tapewormer.

"You obviously haven't owned a Border Collie. They live just to please their owners, do exactly as they are told and are devestated if they think they have let you down. The most important temperament trait for a Border Collie is their "will to please" their owner. I will not breed from anything that shows any tendency to being stubborn or strong willed because it loses the essence of the breed. They frequently out-think novice owners and it ends up with the dog training the owner instead of the other way around, but if you are smarter than the dog and know how to train them they are the easiest breed to live with. I couldn't handle living with dogs that didn't just do whatever I tell them to." Another vote for Borders here! With my first boy, Luka - my heart dog, (RIP) it was almost as though he had read the training book the night before a session... one repetition and behaviours stuck. I inadvertantly trained 'wait' instead of stay, just by telling him to 'wait' at open doors or before getting out of the car when he was little! Luka ended up with some slightly strange neurosis.... we couldn't open a ring binder in his presence or he would duck and cover and eventually any clicking noise could upset him... I could never work out what started the behaviour either! Most loud noises were fine, and no problems with storms or anything. With Luka at times it seemed as though his reason for living was to please me. Kaleb (current pup) is still smart, but is a little more independent. he is happy to have an explore on his own, slightly less of a crawler, and will take a little more time to respond to comands sometimes. I love that they are so responsive, I love that they like to work, I love not having to repeat sessions too many times, I love that they amaze me with how fast they learn, I love that I have to stay one step ahead of them all the time... but I can understand why some people can't handle borders and find them claustrophobic! I've considered other breeds, but I'm scared that Borders have spoiled me!!

The fleas are terrible this year! I feel your pain! they can be very hard to get rid of once you have an active infestation going - they are also carried by all mammals - so the current rabbit plague is not helping the problem. 95% of their life is spent in the environment, they hatch out and jump onto the animal to feed and then lay eggs (they remain there for their whole lives, they do not jump on and off their host - and can live for up to 4.5 months on a host!), up to 50 eggs a day are laid by each flea, so you can see how quickly an infestation can snowball! All of the products that have been mentioned (for application on the pet) require the flea to jump onto the pet and get a dose of the chemical and die. None of them create a magical barrier on the pet to stop fleas jumping onto the pet. every time your pet goes into an infested environment, wether it is your yard, the dog park or the beach, fleas are going to jump on. If you are using a treatment these fleas will die (and dependent on product be sterilised too) in under 12 hours, but you will see fleas a lot on your pet during an active infestation - they are all new fleas jumping on from the environment. when you have an infestation you are going to keep seeing fleas on your pet until they have all hatched out, jumped onto your pet, received a dose of the chemical and died. This could take up to a couple of months, as the little buggers can pupate for up to 6 months in the environment! Best to use a product that has an IGR as well as an adulticide, this will ensure no eggs can be laid - which prevents problems further down the track, also some IGR's can last for several months - meaning you have a buffer to avoid eggs being laid in your house if you forget a treatment. In order to get rid of the infestation, you really need to treat every month with a flea product of your choice, if you do this every month all year round, you won't have a flea problem. Unfortunately, too many people see flea products as a quick fix, they are in fact a prevention - a bit like vaccination, you don't vac to treat your dog for parvo, you vax to prevent it! Same with fleas monthly application prevents a problem. As prevoiusly mentioned, Comfortis is contraindicated in epileptic dogs. Sentinel was also mentioned as treating all of the lifecycle - it will actually only sterilise the fleas, not kill them - so they won't lay eggs which is great for the future, but htey are still on the dog - you need to use an adulticide with it to kill the little black s***s! As far as product choice, all of the modern flea products available at your vet/petstore do work - there is no resistance to any of them - you need to make your choice dependant on your needs. Make sure you do read the label, as there can be things you need to consider such as bathing and so on. Most important thing, sadly - keep treating year round to avoid the prob next year - and good luck!

The general public keep telline me that Kaleb (5 month old red BC) can not be purebred as Borders do not come in "that colour" I have asked a couple of these geniusies what they think he is and have been told that he is either a husky cross or a Golden Retriever cross! Really annoys me - as it is usually people with a crossbred 'oodle' whatever that are telling me that my registered pup is across bred!

No matter which flea/tick control you choose, you need to use it every month (or fortnight for ticks). This is because of the flea life cycle. Not sure if you are aware that the fleas you are seeing make up less than 5% of the total flea population? 95% of the problem is the immature stages in the environment. None of the topicals or systemics are capable of jumping off the back of your dog and killing immature stages. Unfortunately, if you have not been treating year round, it can take up to 6 months to get on top of the problem (the little buggers can pupate for up to 6 months) The only way to kill a flea is to get it to jump onto the pet and die from whichever chemical you have chosen to use, this is why you see fleas every day for a while - they are the new ones hatching! There is no resistence to any of the modern treatments, what we have is a lot of people using them as a silver bullet - eg put it on once when you see fleas and expect the problem to be gone immediately. Unfortunately, they do all need to be used each month, year round, as fleas are about all year round. Comfortis worries me I have heard some reports of reactions - it is a systemic drug, one that goes into the dog's blood - the others are just on the skin. Spinosad (comfortis) was previously used as a lice pour on for sheep... not something I want in my dog. I know that the fleas are bad - especially if you are on acres, we have a rabbit plague and the increase in fleas has been staggering, rabbits carry fleas too! currently working on trying to create a bunny free zone for the dogs to run in!

I was lucky enough to take Kaleb away to work with me this week to Port macquarie and Coffs.. We had a great time! However my stress levels are still at an all time high panicking about ticks! I always use spot ons fortnightly, even though we don't live in a high risk area for ticks, also put a Preventic collar on him.. so you would think that I should be fairly calm.. in addition.. I only let him walk on the beach, in parks (mown short!) or on the footpath - to avoid tick habitats.. I then spent at least an hour searching him each night for the little buggers! - Kaleb was loving the extended massage sessions! I am still searching 3 days after arriving home - just in case! I had a couple of conversations with Pet owners in the area that are not doing anything about ticks! :D I could not believe it! Anyways, - hats off to all of you that live with the stress of paralysis ticks every day.