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. 

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

I am surprised that there have been no comments at all to my post looking for solutions for less costly preventative medications.  Surely other rescues are dealing with the same issue and would love to find ways to reduce costs in this area.  Am I barking up a dead tree because you've already searched for solutions and come up empty?  Or is it just because your veterinary partners require that you buy from them?  Any comments at all would be most appreciated!!!  

#Medicine,SurgeryandSterilization

We buy directly from the distributor as we have a vet on staff.  I can't say it's a huge savings.  It still takes up a large portion of our budget.  I am not involved with the buying of the products so do not know how much it actually costs us for each dose though.  I do know we use Sentinal Spectrum as our heartworm preventative as it's also a dewormer.  It costs us less to use that rather than heartgard plus an additional dewormer.  We use Paradefense Advanced for fleas/ticks, a spin off of Frontline Plus.  We are constantly looking for better pricing but haven't had any success. 

#Medicine,SurgeryandSterilization

Thanks so much for replying!  I will certainly look at Sentinal and Paradefense.  Are either/both available in bulk form or are they still single-dose?  I appreciate your time!

#Medicine,SurgeryandSterilization

We buy in bulk!  ParaDefense Advanced comes 4 doses in a box with 4 boxes in a pack, Bayer is the maker.  Sentinal Spectrum is by Virbac and there are 6 doses in a box, 5 boxes per pack.

#Medicine,SurgeryandSterilization

Have you looked into Zoetis for Shelters? They offer discounts to shelters. We are also a small shelter, with just over 400 combined cat/dog intake. We use Proheart 6, an injectable heartworm preventative(good for 6 months) and Simparica(similar to Nexgard) for flea/tick preventative. They also just came out with Proheart 12(good for 12 months of prevention). Where are you located? I can tell my rep to have one of their regional reps contact you.

#Medicine,SurgeryandSterilization

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply!  We are in central Arkansas and I'd very much appreciate the referral!  My email is debe3@att.net

#Medicine,SurgeryandSterilization

I have recently been tossing this problem around our team as well, you are not alone! Even buying from the vendor directly, at per dose cost it would average $5-6. That is not a feasible option either to maintain a year round protocol recommended by AVMA and CAPC. We utilize the "bulk dosing" as we call it to administer at intake but then each pet is kept on a monthly preventative (being rescue base all pets in homes) we can not do that for the maintenance. So what do we do now...... still trying to figure this out. We have discontinued the use of topical flea/tick until March 1st due to our region but then you have the problem- do as we say not as we do. We recommend our clients and fosters administer monthly preventatives year round, we would for the rescue pets but budget restraints do not allow it. 

In the era of influencers' and marketing I do not understand why these companies are not using the rescue & shelters as their "in" to the consumer. We start their pet journey. Most organizations have built a large community as well that adds another tier for potential consumers. If they can gain owner loyalty instead of just the businesses they establish their longevity for the new era. 

#Medicine,SurgeryandSterilization

Have you looked into Zoetis for Shelters? They offer discounts to shelters. We are also a small shelter, with just over 400 combined cat/dog intake. We use Proheart 6, an injectable heartworm preventative(good for 6 months) and Simparica(similar to Nexgard) for flea/tick preventative. They also just came out with Proheart 12(good for 12 months of prevention). Where are you located? I can tell my rep to have one of their regional reps contact you.

#Medicine,SurgeryandSterilization

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

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

You're very welcome.   This is standard practice at many of the municipal shelters I know.    If your vet balks, remind him/her that only trained staff will have access to the diluted cattle Ivomec (the one with no other ingredients), and they'll use the vet's dosing chart.  I think they usually dilute it with propylene glycol in the clinic when setting it up for dogs too in order to make it easier.

IMHO, it's not much different than the vet dispensing a liter of Panacur liquid (large-animal formula) for the shelter to pull cc's of liquid into in a needleless syringe based on weight for dogs to squirt in their mouths --nobody can afford individual packets of Panacur Canine in a shelter environment either, so everyone I know uses the "farm animal" liquid!

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

Original Message:
Sent: 07-17-2023 08:55 AM
From: debe jolliff
Subject: How to buy Flea/Tick and Heartworm preventatives in bulk

Thank you very much for the reply! This helps a ton as I never found a trustworthy solution so we have continued to purchase the single-dose meds. We will discuss with our vet!

Thanks again

Debe Jolliff
Hot Springs Village Animal Welfare League
www.hsvawl.org
501.915.2252

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