Bravecto

[mita]

Because it is a relatively new active ingredient, there really isn't much of a history yet, good or bad.

I got some good advice from our vet yesterday. I asked about changing our tibbies over from Comfortis to a newer product that includes anti-tick, like NexGard or Braveco.

He said NexGard has been out on the market for quite a few years now.... whereas Braveco is more recent. NexGard has thrown up no major problems in that time.

He had nothing bad to say about Braveco but said, given our girls are seniors, it would be better to go with the longer 'market-tested' NexGard.

In a couple or few years time, could consider moving to Braveco, if it shapes up as well given longer market exposure.

We went with NexGard. Our 15 1/2 yr old girl had her first dose yesterday(for small dogs, 4-10 kilos).

That vet had previously given us excellent advice about giving these oral anti-parasite meds. Split the required tablet in half. Give 1/2 in the morning & 1/2 in the evening. He said it prevented one big whammy dose hitting the dog ... but only 2 lesser ones. But collectively, it would add up to protection. We always did this with Comfortis & did it with NexGard yesterday and there were no problems.

Edited September 23, 2015 by mita

[Guest donatella]

I'm still waiting on my apparent replacement as promised by the company after one of mine vomited on it immediately after ingestion. Not that is touch the stuff again!

Mine do well on nexgard

Edited September 23, 2015 by donatella

[Fides]

There is the feeling that Bravecto was rushed out to compete with Nexgard - they came out within months of each other. Nexgard applied their submissions for approval in US in September 2013, and in Europe Dec 2013, so coming up to two years now.

The orals would give me more peace of mind knowing the tick is feeding its way to certain death once it bites, and avoid the problems that the topicals have e.g. swimming, or exposure to people, cats, dogs ingesting by licking etc. Hopefully with this being the first real tick season that both are available (and they must definitely be eating into Advantix sales with all the two-for-one offers Bayer has at the moment) there will be few reports here of adverse reactions and a clearer picture of its safety and efficacy can emerge.

Mita that's very interesting and sounds like an effective way your vet recommends for dosing. They sit around in the tissue for weeks (or months in Bravecto's case) so you'd think splitting the dose like that would be a safer way to administer to avoid the immediate shock of a whacking great dose. Maybe in future, that will be a recommendation.

[mita]

Mita that's very interesting and sounds like an effective way your vet recommends for dosing. They sit around in the tissue for weeks (or months in Bravecto's case) so you'd think splitting the dose like that would be a safer way to administer to avoid the immediate shock of a whacking great dose. Maybe in future, that will be a recommendation.

That's exactly what the vet said, Fides. Those meds have powerful ingredients so immediate impact is huge, even at right dose for size. I agree, maybe that advice will one day go on the pack.

Gives peace of mind.... I wasn't at all nervous about giving 1/2 + 1/2 later to our 15 1/2 yr small senior dog yesterday. Went well.

[Willem]

Hi,

...my first post here (so be gentle :) ). I did some reading over the past days to find a suitable tick / heartworm strategy for our young border collie and had also a look at Bravecto. Did some googeling binging and found this article My link ...(also a sad reminder that a lot of dog lives are scarified by the pharma industry when developing new drugs).

Now, while I'm not a vet and not working in this field, however, having some scientific background I ask myself:

• If the drug was only tested with one breed, how can it cover genetic variations (e.g. like ivermectin impacting dogs with MDR1 mutations) across various breeds?
  

• The tests only covered a relative short period of young dogs (56 days old – approx. 200 days old) - how can they guarantee that there are no future long term side effects for adult dogs? … or rule out that the drug is not carcinogenic?
  

I will keep an eye on this – it is obviously a relative new drug and I won’t start a ‘long term test’ with my dog before there will be more evidence that the drug is also safe in a long term.

[LisaCC]

1442987108[/url]' post='6745954']

Hi,

...my first post here (so be gentle :) ). I did some reading over the past days to find a suitable tick / heartworm strategy for our young border collie and had also a look at Bravecto. Did some googeling binging and found this article My link ...(also a sad reminder that a lot of dog lives are scarified by the pharma industry when developing new drugs).

Now, while I'm not a vet and not working in this field, however, having some scientific background I ask myself:

• If the drug was only tested with one breed, how can it cover genetic variations (e.g. like ivermectin impacting dogs with MDR1 mutations) across various breeds?

• The tests only covered a relative short period of young dogs (56 days old – approx. 200 days old) - how can they guarantee that there are no future long term side effects for adult dogs? … or rule out that the drug is not carcinogenic?

I will keep an eye on this – it is obviously a relative new drug and I won't start a 'long term test' with my dog before there will be more evidence that the drug is also safe in a long term.

If you clicked one more link (and I linked it earlier in this thread) you would have come to this page http://www.parasitesandvectors.com/series/bravecto that shows more studies including an MDR1 study done in collies.

[Willem]

Thanks for the hint - I obviously missed it.... looks like it could also be used together with milbemycin oxime and praziquantel (interceptor)... I will keep an eye on this...

[sandgrubber]

But only 20 Beagles (10 male, 10 female) were ever treated with Bravecto for the reproductive study and to me, that sounds like such a small number. I don't know how commonly deformities or litter losses occur in the general dog population, or if some breeds are more prone to problems, so it was the FDA's own conclusion that there are potential treatment related effects on pups that made me start wondering about the safety of the drug and Merck's claim for its use on breeding dogs. Also, my understanding of the eligibility criteria was the 4 pups per litter as you mentioned, but my interpretation was that there had to have been no congenital defects in any pup (not just from those litters). I could be wrong about that.

The problem here is that reproductive safety tests are ugly and demanding and involve lots of compromises. Who wants to breed dogs and then slaughter the test dogs and their offspring. Use a big sample and the animal rights community is going to be all over you . . . they may do so even for a small sample. Use a small sample and you are vulnerable to the many doubts that come from small sample size. Many drugs simply aren't tested for reproductive safety. Merck would probably have been better off if they hadn't done this testing and could simply say that reproductive safety was not tested . . . so "not for use on ...". I don't know the ins and outs of reproductive testing, but they've gotta be complicated. Eg., the effects of giving a drug to a bitch are likely to vary from the first to the second to the third trimester, and then there's the additional concern of possible effects through lactation.

I don't see that there's an easy solution to this problem . . . other than for breeders to use only absolutely necessary chemical exposure for breeding bitches . . . and maybe also dogs.

[Taliecat]

I just dosed Dozer with his first dose of Bravecto this morning..

So far he's stopped his chewing at the base of his tail and doesn't seem to be bothered by the effects of the tablet.

Time will tell if we get a vombomb on the carpet tonight...

[Lucky-Dog]

I was hesitant to give our hounds after our local Vet Recommended to give a while ago.

" She who must be obeyed " purchased online approx. 2 months ago and has been nagging me to give but have been reluctant to administer after reading this on DOL.

Today the nagging has got the better of me as our older two, Digger and Honey went to vets this morning for their arthritis shots and vet told the misses that the ticks are extremely bad again.

So I gave to Digger,Honey and Lucky with there meals. See how we go. :)

[Taliecat]

I'm pleased to say that we didn't get a vombomb on the carpet after the Bravecto, we always did with comfortis and panoramis..

[Willem]

....." She who must be obeyed " purchased online approx. ...

:laugh: ...I love your wording....

wrt Bravecto: we had one dog in our agility class that just recovered from a paralysis tick bite; the owner didn't use any anti tick drug before, now the dog is on Bravecto, no recognizable side affects so far.

[Lucky-Dog]

Administered two days ago and no side effects so far. :)