Flea Control; Cat Wormers

1.  I've been doing a lot of searching to find best prices on acceptable products.  For fleas, petbucket.com has Advocate, made by Bayer, same ingredients as Advantage but sold in Europe, 12 for $99.95, which is an OUTSTANDING price! 

2.  For Drontal, droncit, etc., am finding a lot of variation in price.  Mostly, these pills are priced per each.  http://www.fleasmart.com/tape.htm?tp=CONTINUE+SHOPPING, Generic Drontal for cats.  20 capsules for $23.95.  Can't figure out if I can use 1 per cat or if I'll need more, each cat; need to know that to decide if this is a good price.  This place is located in Austin-

3.  I need products for 12 cats.  Does anyone have great, cheap sources for valid products for fleas and/or de-wormers?  I apologize if there is information already here about this.  I'm ragged from being up all night, which I often am.  Have been searching online, reading.....  haven't explored this site at all, yet.  I need to make a decision and get these 2 things purchased for the cats.  I know fleas have caused a lot of problems for them, but I only just now can afford to buy what is needed for the group!  I wish I knew how to thin down my flock, but that's almost impossible to do--too many cats, esp now that Spring is upon us--and not enough homes.  Thanks, again, for anything you can contribute, pro or con, on these subjects.  It's 11 AM and I'm going to get some shut eye!
 

FYI Advocate is NOT the same thing as Advantage!  It's the same as Advantage MULTI, which means it has another medication in it, the kind that kills heartworms.  You cannot use the Extra Large Dog Advocate and break it down by weight like you can with Advantage and Advantage II BECAUSE the concentration of the moxidectin is different in the dog formula than it is in the cat formula. 

For flea control on multiple cats, II still use plain Advantage and/or Advantage II (it's getting harder and harder to find plain Advantage) by getting the Extra Large Dog size and using a syringe to break it down into cat sized doses.  I wouldn't use the Advantage Multi ever again because I had a kitten (4 months) who turned out to be highly sensitive to the moxidectin, just as some dogs are.    The vet prescribed the one dose of the cat product because he had ear mites and it is known to kill ear mites (although not all that fast, as it turned out).  He had scary neurological symptoms and I have heard of several other cats having that type of reaction.  Its rare but nasty.  (Google "ivermectin sensitivity" to get an idea of what the symptoms are if you are curious.)

I buy my Advantage on eBay, lurking around for the best price either through auction or Buy It Now sales.  Retail sells for roughly $10 per vial and up (i.e. a 4-pack would be in the $40 and up range, a 6-pack would be in the $60 or more price range).  I try to pay no more than $8 per vial and sometimes get lucky and get it less.  And this is an extra large dog vial (4.0 ml each) and not the average sized cat vial (0.4 ml.), so you get ten times as much for about the same price.  One vial of the extra large dog size Advantage will treat 10 average sized cats (under 10 lbs).

My mistake, I meant to say Advantage Multi.  I'm aware of being able to split up a big dog's vial, and that it mustn't be done with Multi.  And I've read about the bad reactions to Multi, in cats.  At first, I thought the ingredients in Advocate and Advantage M. were different, but they're not--according to my research.  Heartworm in cats is unusual, but I had one, 3 yrs ago, successfully treated, thankfully, so because of that experience I'm rather in favor of using heartworm preventive.  I have a conflict about using or not, Multi.  I'm having to dose so many for stomatitis that any additional dosing of any kind is daunting.  And all but maybe 2 are over 10 lbs, so one 4.0 dog vial wouldn't stretch to 10 cats, but enough that it certainly would save a considerable amount of money.  But, about dosing, I've got enough experience with it now that I could easily correctly divide the 4.0, so I don't know; I've not made a decision yet, and very much appreciate your input.  Do you know what all Multi covers that regular doesn't--is it only heartworm?  I can look it up later.  As for ear mites, I saw a video yesterday about using melted, warm coconut oil for them.  Intend to try it this week (just have to figure out who my first target will be, lol!)  Still working on all of this.  Help is very appreciated!

I would say no to the warm coconut oil or ANY oil, as it annoys them (both the mites and the cats).  Instead, get yourself some boric acid powder (you can also use diotomaceous earth, but the boric acid powder is quicker in my experience.)  Clean the black junk out of the ear with a  a Q-tip and then pack the ear canal with the boric acid powder, massaging the base of the ear, and then let her shake it all over the place.   Then do the other ear.   Repeat in 5 days to a week, then repeat once again a week later and they should be totally gone.   Thanks for reminding me, one of the yard cats has ear mites and I have the boric acid powder to take care of it.

Yes, you can mathematically dilute the Advocate or Extra Large Dog Advantage Multi to be the same concentration as Cat Adocate, but you will need to have some of the PLAIN Advantage to do it, NOT Advantage II either.   There is a reason Bayer doesn't combine all 3 medications in one product.   The extra medication in Advantage II kills eggs and larvae, and the Advocate and Advantage Multi do not have that. 

The moxidectin kills intestinal worms, ear mites (but may take more than one application to kill ear mites) and heart worms.  It is just one drug in the avermectin (ivermectin) family.   You can do an internet search for "ivermectin sensitivity" to learn more.  When they ARE sensitive, the drug crosses the blood-brain barrier and they have neurological symptoms. 

My vet which is an cat only practice, offers the large dog advantage for multiple cat households and then provides a vial and a syringe. But their measurements are as follows .4cc for cats 9 lbs and under and .8cc for over 9 lbs. I empty the advantage tube into the vial and then snip off the top of the lid which fits well around the syringe. Of course every cat knows what this is and scatters to the wind to avoid the application. The chubby ones are easier to catch.

QUESTIONS about Cat Dewormer, Droncit/Drontal.  Does anyone have knowledge or experience with any of the following products which are e-bay listings?   Are the products from other countries safe?  For several reasons, incl my mother's illness and death, as well as the cost of products, I've not used flea or worm control for my cats for a long time.  I have tried to go the "natural" route, and have used at least 5 "natural" sprays, most of which are too strong-smelling for me to tolerate well, so you know how the cats take them.  Just haven't worked, unfortunately.  So I'm trying anew to treat fleas, worms, and stomatitis, too.  Again, your help is appreciated.

1.  http://www.ebay.com/itm/100-tablets...771389?hash=item3abec6523d:g:pjcAAOSwu1VW2Xca    This is made in Romania, seller is in Italy.

2.  http://www.ebay.com/itm/DOGS-AND-CA...983372?hash=item2363e7af0c:g:HOYAAOSwFqJWs6u4    This is made in Bulgaria; seller is in Bulgaria.

These two are same seller:

3.  http://www.ebay.com/itm/PRAZIQUANTE...hash=item1a0faebb08:m:mhjgsKoTe5rI9YU-IkBUURg

4.  http://www.ebay.com/itm/PRAZIQUANTE...hash=item1a0f82abc1:m:m4YZuboC6FdzSojO6S1vThQ

5.  Different Seller:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/12-Month-Su...843770?hash=item1eac5dbefa:g:KqYAAOSwmmxW1h6m

6.  This Seller is in USA, but product is Biheldon brand from Bulgaria.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Generic-Cat...094545?hash=item2a5b762011:g:ujYAAOSwu-BWOvkn

Thx for information on boric acid powder.  Will try this.  Also, will prob do flea control using larger vial divided, as soon as I decide what/where to buy tapeworm, etc., control, because cats need both.  Composed a post about sources in e-bay but had to go to moderator for OK, because I included links to several sellers.  Don't know if that will be allowed.