Worm Your Way Out Of This One (Drontal Plus For Dogs)

Member Name: FourPaws

Product:	Drontal Plus For Dogs
Date:	17/06/09 (817 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Safe, effective, easy to administer, beef flavoured tablets

Disadvantages: Slightly expensive, especially if you have large dogs

*What is Drontal Plus For Dogs?*
These highly effective Drontal Plus tablets are a veterinary grade worming medicine, produced by the German based chemical company Bayer, manufacturers of a wide range of pet medicines, flea treatments, worming solutions and health benefiting pet treats.

*The product itself*
Worms. They're horrible little buggers, they get ingested by your dog, invest his gut and stomach, causing painful bloating, tummy upsets and even malnutrition, and then when your dog goes to the toilet, he passes on some of his unwelcome friends to every other dog who goes pass the mess. It's a vicious circle, and unfortunately, even in this day and age- there is nothing available to prevent the nasty little sods- there are only products available to treat the problem once it has started.

There are many different worming preparations available, and to the novice dog owner, or even the experienced one, it can be hard to know which one to choose for the best. There are tablets, pastes, granules, liquids and even treatments which are applied externally and there seems to be endless brands available too. It is quite tempting to choose any old one from the pet shop but worming really is one area which needs some special attention, in order to make sure you get the best possible medication that kills every little bugger that may be lurking inside your dogs body!

After years of dog ownership, if there is one thing I have learnt regarding worm treatment it is that the brands sold in pet shops such as Bob Martin and Johnsons are quite simply, pants. They just don't do the job, which is why now, when it comes to worming, Drontal is one of only two brands I'll consider going anywhere near Benson and Grace with.

Drontal Plus is a veterinary graded professional worming preparation, available in liquid form for puppies and oral tablet form for adult dogs, handily with added beef flavouring to make the product taste more like a treat for your dog and it is the only worming tablet which will kill pretty much every type of intestinal worm found in the UK- such as roundworm, tapeworm, hookworms and whipworms.

It is designed to be administered every 3 months (for adult dogs), although this depends on personal circumstances- for example, if you have children or live in a rural area you may well wish to worm your dog more regulary and is the worlds most trusted worming medication, with vets prescribing more Drontal tablets per year than all the other worming brands put together.

As mentioned earlier, there is no product available to prevent worms, you can only treat them, and the general recommendation from most veterinary professionals is that you routinely treat your dog regulary to eliminate any small worms and prevent a full blown serious infestation which can not only be painful and very dangerous for your dog, but also to humans, especially children as there are serious health risks to children posed by a rare species of tapeworm, which can in the most serious cases, cause blindness.

*Packaging*
Drontal tablets come packaged, singularly, in grey and white foil blister packs and then often supplied in a small cardboard sleeve which gives the contact details for Bayer and then your vet will normally note dosage instructions on the packet, as it varies for each individual dog.

Handily, on the cardboard sleeves, there are also four small stickers, which you can peel off and stick on your calendar to remind you when your pet next needs worming.

*Price & Availability*
As Drontal is a licensed veterinary medicine, availability is somewhat limited. You may only purchase Drontal from veterinary surgeries, various places online (make sure they are genuine) and more recently, from some of the larger Pets At Home stores- in all these places however, you must be at least 16 years old to purchase and they can only be sold to you by authorised personnel.

I personally purchase Drontal from work and although prices vary from practice to practice, in my practice we sell tablets singularly- £2.60 each- and each tablet treats 10kg of your dogs body weight, so therefore the heavier your dog, the more tablets are needed. For large dogs however, there is Drontal XL, which costs £2.90 a tablet and one tablet is needed for every 35kg of body weight.

Prices are slightly cheaper online, although I do strongly recommend purchasing from a veterinary surgery as you can be sure the tablets are genuine Drontal ones and there is advice available on hand straight away from your vet should you need any help or information regarding worming.

*My opinion*
There are a number of difference reasons as to why I am so hot on keeping up the worming treatment with my dogs. Firstly, we live in a very rural area, surrounded by livestock so therefore worms are pretty easy to the dogs to pick up and seeing as I own so many animals, the thought of a worm infestation doesn't bare thinking about. It would be devastating and even fatal to some of my smaller animals if they were to catch them. Last, but not least, Grace and Benson accompany me to work everyday, so they are around the patients a lot, and I can't run the risk of them passing on worms to the other animals in the surgery, especially the seriously ill ones.

So for this reason, Drontal is a big part of our routine. I have to admit I am not overly keen on giving the dogs medication for a problem they don't even have, but it really is a necessity, and the reason I administer Drontal tablets to the dogs once a month, without fail.

Benson is nearly 50kg and Grace not far behind at 36kg, so it is the Drontal XL version I use. The mutts know their routine- everytime they see that little purple packet, they know it is time for their worming tablets. I use 1 tablet for Grace and Benson will have 1 ¼. The tablets, only around a centimetre in diameter are presectioned into four pieces, which makes dividing the tablets easy and because they are beef flavoured, very rarely will the dogs cause a fuss about taking them. They will generally just chew them like a treat but if they do act up, the tablets are small enough to easy hide in a slice of ham, or failing that, they can simply be popped at the back of the throat.

Another thing I like about Drontal is the fact that they can be fed with or without food. Not so long ago, all worming tablets required the dog to go without food for 24 hours after administration but these tablets can be safely given, alongside food, and they are still going to be effective. I tend to give Grace and Benson their tablets around mid day, only because my lunch hour is the only free time I tend to get on busier days at work and this gives me time to get the tablets I need from the stock cupboard, add them to my bill to be taken from my wages and then give them to the dogs. Grace and Benson would have been fed that morning, around 7am and will be getting fed that evening at 7pm, so it is pretty much slap bang in the middle of their meal times and the tablets still work perfectly.

They are incredibly effective. My dogs have only ever had worms once, and that was around 6 months ago when I fostered a dog that had an infestation, but a quick dose of Drontal to Grace, Benson and the foster dog sorted the problem out instantly. You can tell the tablets are working as you will see the dead worms in the dogs faeces- not pleasant, but a sure fire way to prove the tablets do work and a single does was all that was needed.

That is the only time Grace and Benson have had worms, and I have Drontal to thank for this. I alternate the Drontal tablets with another brand called Panacur, purely because there is talk that worms may become immune to one brand of wormer- this hasn't been proven, I just like to alternate just in case seeing as the dogs not getting worms is something that is so important in my household. The tablets are easy on their stomachs, never have the dogs been sick or suffered diarrhoea after having the Drontal tablets, nor have they suffered any other unwanted side effects. Alfie, my best friends little Shih Tzu, has the most sensitive stomach I have ever come across in a dog, and these Drontal tablets don't even affect him, so that is saying something.

Overall, I cannot recommend them highly enough. They do the job fantastically, quickly, effortlessly and pleasantly- they create no stress or upset for the dog and they are simple to the owner to handle and administer. No measuring out messy liquids, trying to disguise granules or dealing with sticky pastes- a simple tablet, flavoured so can be fed like a treat, is all that is needed to keep your dog happy, healthy and free of worms- protecting both your pet and your family.

Regardless of breed, age or size- Drontal is the only worming tablet I'd 100% recommend to any dog.

*****

As a little side note, the symptoms of a worm infestation are as follows:

- ''Scooting''. This is when your dog drags his rear end across the floor
- A bloated stomach, particularly in puppies
- Sickness and/or diarrhoea
- Nibbling at the base of the tail
- Restlessness
- Worms visible in the faeces
- Blood, a tar like substance or mucus in the faeces
- Loss of appetite

Summary: A fantastic product, essential for all dog owners.