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Revolution for 100% indoor cats?
- Thread starter coatfetish
- Start Date
Never say never. In the right place it's an incredibly useful and effective drug.
How useful a drug is means nothing if it carries a high risk of heart, kidney, and liver failure and diabetes and a much safer option is available. Using your logic, the FDA would never recall any drugs that killed people after being approved.
All drugs are a balancing act. Steroids are powerful drugs, and easy to abuse, but used correctly they are life savers and life enhancers.
That balancing act is not as risky with a different type of drug. Yeah, there is a risk with every drug, but the risk is more severe with steroids. If that was not true, I would have just told my vet to keep giving Wilbur steroid shots for the rest of his life.
Also keep in mind what the risk is. There is a big difference between a risk of CRF and a risk of UTI.
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Cats tolerate steroids better than dogs and humans do. That said, I still prefer not to use them if there's any alternative. But since the OP's cat has been on steroids long-term, and the vet just wants to switch to a different steroid, apparently the OP doesn't mind using steroids.
As for flea meds, use them if your cat has fleas. If not, don't :dk:. I would give a de-wormer at least once a year, though. Whether it's Revolution or some other kind.
As for flea meds, use them if your cat has fleas. If not, don't :dk:. I would give a de-wormer at least once a year, though. Whether it's Revolution or some other kind.
Treating a cat with steroids is completely different than treating a human with it. It affects cats quite differently than people, and in many cases can mean the difference between life and death, or at a minimum, a comfortable life.
I've gotten confused reading this thread. The steroids are being used for rodent ulcers? And the vet(s) suspect now that maybe the rodent ulcers are being caused by fleas? :dk:
I know you said your e-vet is more holistic in approach... but apparently she's not trained in Chinese Medicine? Have you tried searching to see if there is a DVM trained in Chinese Medicine where you live? http://www.ahvma.org Our Chum had a rodent ulcer. When treated for his "extreme spleen Qi deficiency" (with chinese herbals) the rodent ulcer cleared up and never came back.
I know you said your e-vet is more holistic in approach... but apparently she's not trained in Chinese Medicine? Have you tried searching to see if there is a DVM trained in Chinese Medicine where you live? http://www.ahvma.org Our Chum had a rodent ulcer. When treated for his "extreme spleen Qi deficiency" (with chinese herbals) the rodent ulcer cleared up and never came back.
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I was just talking about steroids in general for any purpose. Nobody told me the benefits outweigh the risks for something that is not life-threatening.
Same here. There are alternatives to it I would consider first.
I've seen many situations where steroids have been very, very beneficial with minimal side effects.
That does not make it right to give a cat steroids when a safer kind of treatment is available. Sometimes steroids are necessary, but not every time they can be used. I would only want my cat to be on steroids if there was no other treatment option.
Yeah I hear ya on the steroids. I don't like them and know all the side effects that can potentially come from them. That being said I did have my vet administer a low dose steroid injection to my allergy kitty. We are in the process of getting her on a raw diet and adding extra fish oils. Her's is an atopic allergy which is different from rodent ulcer, but in my case I am using the steroid to buy time while all the other stuff kicks in. She was chewing herself raw and was very uncomfortable. Now she is much more relaxed and can sleep better. I did bloods on her prior to the injection and all her parameters are excellent.
As to the Revolution treatment. Well it does treat and prevent, fleas, heartworm (prevent) and does treat and prevent roundworms and hooks in kitties. It is an excellent ear mite killer. That is what the clinic I worked at used it for. It also treats sarcoptic mange in dogs. That being said. I do believe that your vet should really test another fecal or two and maybe even send one out to their lab. Hooks and round worms are easy to identify on a slide if the animal has shed them. There are also cheaper wormers that work just as well if the worms are all that are of a concern. revolution is kinda expensive if all you want to do is kill worms. Heartgard and pyrantel will do the trick.the cats should be tested for heartworms to be on the safeside if you do the heartgard route, but then again they should be tested if you use revolution.
Now as to the rodent ulcer, it is an immune system response.If your kitty is allergic to fleas that can be a cause and is probably why your vet is pushing the revolution. We did treat alot of them with steroids and they did great, but the vet I worked for wasn't trained in the more holistic medicines. that being said, I know that holistic and homeopathic routes can be a success in treating rodent ulcers, I believe by getting the immune system up to snuff. So maybe getting a second opinion from a holistic vet may be a good idea.
Oh and to the vet not being computer savy lol, that doesn't really matter. There are other ways to stay current in the field. My boss is very computer phobic. He stays current in the latest and greatest through seminars, vet journals, and communicating with collegues. This was how it was done before the great invention of the internet. Granted we did have computers in the office and if we needed to google something it was one of us girls that did, but just because a vet doesn't use computers, doesn't mean he is a bad vet. As long as he or she is staying current in some way shape or form then that is all good.
As to the Revolution treatment. Well it does treat and prevent, fleas, heartworm (prevent) and does treat and prevent roundworms and hooks in kitties. It is an excellent ear mite killer. That is what the clinic I worked at used it for. It also treats sarcoptic mange in dogs. That being said. I do believe that your vet should really test another fecal or two and maybe even send one out to their lab. Hooks and round worms are easy to identify on a slide if the animal has shed them. There are also cheaper wormers that work just as well if the worms are all that are of a concern. revolution is kinda expensive if all you want to do is kill worms. Heartgard and pyrantel will do the trick.the cats should be tested for heartworms to be on the safeside if you do the heartgard route, but then again they should be tested if you use revolution.
Now as to the rodent ulcer, it is an immune system response.If your kitty is allergic to fleas that can be a cause and is probably why your vet is pushing the revolution. We did treat alot of them with steroids and they did great, but the vet I worked for wasn't trained in the more holistic medicines. that being said, I know that holistic and homeopathic routes can be a success in treating rodent ulcers, I believe by getting the immune system up to snuff. So maybe getting a second opinion from a holistic vet may be a good idea.
Oh and to the vet not being computer savy lol, that doesn't really matter. There are other ways to stay current in the field. My boss is very computer phobic. He stays current in the latest and greatest through seminars, vet journals, and communicating with collegues. This was how it was done before the great invention of the internet. Granted we did have computers in the office and if we needed to google something it was one of us girls that did, but just because a vet doesn't use computers, doesn't mean he is a bad vet. As long as he or she is staying current in some way shape or form then that is all good.
Kattie, are you saying cats are only allowed to use Revolution if they have a high risk of getting heartworms?
Nope. We actually used it alot as an ear mite treatment, but the downside to that is that the cat or dog should be tested for heartworm if they aren't on a preventative already. The reason being, if an animal, cat or dog happened to have heartworm and was given the preventative they could get an influx of dead worms clogging their heart and lungs. That's a different story, but as a rule unless an owner wants the other benefits of revolution we chose other dewormers and flea preventatives. In fact, we hardly sold many revolution boxes because it was expensive, and most cat owners didn't want to deal with the heartworm aspect of it. That may have been just our area though. We never saw a case of heartworm in our area in cats, but the makers of revolution or heart gard require a blood test prior to administration. If you are looking for a heartworm preventative with other benefits like dewormers and flea control Revolution is a good product.
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Why does it matter whether a cat gets one thing for fleas and something else for heartworms or Revolution for both? I can understand money, but not the safety issue.
Owner compliance is the issue mostly. Since Revolution is a topical like frontline or advantage, owners will treat it the same way. They may give Revolution for a month or two because of fleas then skip a month and give it maybe a few months later. Well that is fine with Frontline and Advantage because they just kill fleas and ticks, but with Revolution it is a danger because if the cat was off of it and then was infected with heartworm, then to go back on it again could be dangerous. Just like giving a heartworm positive dog heart gard. That is why heartworm tests are always done before giving the preventative. People think that just because it is a topical that it works the same, but that isn't true. We had issues with owners even after explaining over and over, that we chose not to use revolution unless it was warranted because of multiple things. Another thing I personally noticed and some clients reported was lethargy for a day or two after applying. May just be a coincidence, but it is a heavy duty drug that does lots of stuff, so we didn't like prescribing it unless it was truly needed.
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I agree! I have always used the Advantage-Multi on Angel to cover heartworm treatment as well as fleas, but after reading on here that a few people thought Revolution worked better, I tried it for a couple of months instead. After using it a couple of times, I noticed that the place I put it had less hair, like it had caused some to come out.
Not bare, but noticably thinner& less dense there. I went back to Advantage-Muti!!
