Animal Welfare Professionals

We are a small shelter (combined intake of <400 dogs & cats annually) and have traditionally purchased all of our monthly preventative medications from the veterinary practice that partners with us.  They sell us the same consumer sized packages in single dose packaging that they sell to their clients.  They have given us the okay to purchase them elsewhere if we can find a more cost-effective solution.  I feel like I have done a good job scouring the internet but I have only come up with the same single-dose packaging that we are already purchasing.  With our flea/tick protocol, we buy the largest size topical, open and re-bottle it, and then dose by weight to cut the costs.  We use the monthly chews for Heartworm prevention.  Any guidance that anyone can offer would be most appreciated. 

This is an old thread, but for shelters struggling with this, ask your shelter's vet about dosing ivermectin into a pill pocket.  It needs to be diluted and with a dose calculated by a vet (it's easy to OD, especially sensitive breeds like Aussies, and some internet sites recommend doses 1000x stronger than commercial prevention doses -- so don't trust a random website to do the calculation and dilution for you).  Any shelter vet should be able to do this -- but if you don't have one on staff, any farm vet in a rural area could do it for you too.  Make a chart to keep in your medical area with doses per 5# of weight.  Once it's done, it's as easy as counting drops into a pill pocket based on weight and costs pennies per dose.

We are a small shelter (combined intake of <400 dogs & cats annually) and have traditionally purchased all of our monthly preventative medications from the veterinary practice that partners with us.  They sell us the same consumer sized packages in single dose packaging that they sell to their clients.  They have given us the okay to purchase them elsewhere if we can find a more cost-effective solution.  I feel like I have done a good job scouring the internet but I have only come up with the same single-dose packaging that we are already purchasing.  With our flea/tick protocol, we buy the largest size topical, open and re-bottle it, and then dose by weight to cut the costs.  We use the monthly chews for Heartworm prevention.  Any guidance that anyone can offer would be most appreciated. 

Original Message:
Sent: 7/17/2023 11:25:00 AM
From: Maggie Thomas
Subject: RE: How to buy Flea/Tick and Heartworm preventatives in bulk

This is an old thread, but for shelters struggling with this, ask your shelter's vet about dosing ivermectin into a pill pocket.  It needs to be diluted and with a dose calculated by a vet (it's easy to OD, especially sensitive breeds like Aussies, and some internet sites recommend doses 1000x stronger than commercial prevention doses -- so don't trust a random website to do the calculation and dilution for you).  Any shelter vet should be able to do this -- but if you don't have one on staff, any farm vet in a rural area could do it for you too.  Make a chart to keep in your medical area with doses per 5# of weight.  Once it's done, it's as easy as counting drops into a pill pocket based on weight and costs pennies per dose.

------------------------------
Maggie Thomas
President
Red Stick German Shepherd Rescue

Original Message:
Sent: 10-03-2019 04:42 AM
From: debe jolliff
Subject: How to buy Flea/Tick and Heartworm preventatives in bulk

We are a small shelter (combined intake of <400 dogs & cats annually) and have traditionally purchased all of our monthly preventative medications from the veterinary practice that partners with us.  They sell us the same consumer sized packages in single dose packaging that they sell to their clients.  They have given us the okay to purchase them elsewhere if we can find a more cost-effective solution.  I feel like I have done a good job scouring the internet but I have only come up with the same single-dose packaging that we are already purchasing.  With our flea/tick protocol, we buy the largest size topical, open and re-bottle it, and then dose by weight to cut the costs.  We use the monthly chews for Heartworm prevention.  Any guidance that anyone can offer would be most appreciated. 

#Medicine,SurgeryandSterilization
#frontline
#heartworm
#heartgard
#medications
#prevention
#preventatives
#bulk
#flea
#monthly
#tick

We are a small shelter (combined intake of <400 dogs & cats annually) and have traditionally purchased all of our monthly preventative medications from the veterinary practice that partners with us.  They sell us the same consumer sized packages in single dose packaging that they sell to their clients.  They have given us the okay to purchase them elsewhere if we can find a more cost-effective solution.  I feel like I have done a good job scouring the internet but I have only come up with the same single-dose packaging that we are already purchasing.  With our flea/tick protocol, we buy the largest size topical, open and re-bottle it, and then dose by weight to cut the costs.  We use the monthly chews for Heartworm prevention.  Any guidance that anyone can offer would be most appreciated. 

I know this is an old thread, but recently this came up as a requirement for certain grants - for our adoptable cats (we are a cats-only rescue). What are you using for your cats and how are you dosing it? I am without a clue.

We are a small shelter (combined intake of <400 dogs & cats annually) and have traditionally purchased all of our monthly preventative medications from the veterinary practice that partners with us.  They sell us the same consumer sized packages in single dose packaging that they sell to their clients.  They have given us the okay to purchase them elsewhere if we can find a more cost-effective solution.  I feel like I have done a good job scouring the internet but I have only come up with the same single-dose packaging that we are already purchasing.  With our flea/tick protocol, we buy the largest size topical, open and re-bottle it, and then dose by weight to cut the costs.  We use the monthly chews for Heartworm prevention.  Any guidance that anyone can offer would be most appreciated. 

This is an area we are also struggling in. We are a cat-only rescue. We currently purchase TevraPet FirstAct Plus Flea & Tick Treatment for Cats Over 1.5lbs, 6 doses from Chewy. It is $33.22 for 6 doses and is comparable to Frontline. It is a big expense for us and we have been searching for a way to reduce this expense.

We applied for a Zoetis Product Grant through AdoptAPet but we were denied, probably because we are a small and new rescue.

I know this is an old thread, but recently this came up as a requirement for certain grants - for our adoptable cats (we are a cats-only rescue). What are you using for your cats and how are you dosing it? I am without a clue.

We are a small shelter (combined intake of <400 dogs & cats annually) and have traditionally purchased all of our monthly preventative medications from the veterinary practice that partners with us.  They sell us the same consumer sized packages in single dose packaging that they sell to their clients.  They have given us the okay to purchase them elsewhere if we can find a more cost-effective solution.  I feel like I have done a good job scouring the internet but I have only come up with the same single-dose packaging that we are already purchasing.  With our flea/tick protocol, we buy the largest size topical, open and re-bottle it, and then dose by weight to cut the costs.  We use the monthly chews for Heartworm prevention.  Any guidance that anyone can offer would be most appreciated. 

We are a small shelter (combined intake of <400 dogs & cats annually) and have traditionally purchased all of our monthly preventative medications from the veterinary practice that partners with us.  They sell us the same consumer sized packages in single dose packaging that they sell to their clients.  They have given us the okay to purchase them elsewhere if we can find a more cost-effective solution.  I feel like I have done a good job scouring the internet but I have only come up with the same single-dose packaging that we are already purchasing.  With our flea/tick protocol, we buy the largest size topical, open and re-bottle it, and then dose by weight to cut the costs.  We use the monthly chews for Heartworm prevention.  Any guidance that anyone can offer would be most appreciated.