Holy crap, is this the going rate??

Roman got dewormed today with something got Drontal Plus, he's 97 lbs and they gave him 68mg of pills (for two doses, one worming today, one in two weeks).

The 68mg of Drontal alone was $109! That seems like a lot, especially when it only covers worms and I can get enough Ivermectin for a horse for $15!

What do you guys think?

Holy crap! I know Drontal's expensive, but that seems like a lot. Although... Droncit (just does tapes) for a big dog is pretty expensive, even though we stock the generic. (We use Strongid liquid for rounds/hooks because it's cheapy cheap)

It actually sounds average for that drug... Ivermectin doesnt cover tapes though.

Yeah I looked it up, seems that is about average... you're right that ivermectin doesn't cover tapes but you can buy wormers that cover tapeworms and they cost like $20 lol. If Roman were a horse he would've cost $1,300+ to worm!!

Hopefully the horse wormer kills dogs or this Drontal is just amazing safe or there is some other reason to justify the ridiculous difference in price lol!

That's really really high for Drontal. If you order it you can get 68mg tabs for 12.00 each from a reputable online dealer.

I just use the Walmart crap, lol. It's always worked well for me.

OK I think what I have is 7 68 mg tablets? Does that make sense?

I would've wormed him with Walmart stuff before even trying the vet (he's been having diarrhea) but I don't think I can buy canine wormer at our Walmart (maybe online?). I find where I live you don't much in the way of over the counter pet wormers, proper flea treatments, etc (no vaccines!!).

This is why I just get Panacur online through Amazon! It's super cheap and covers just about everything.

Or, I can just go to my local low cost clinic and get the "Premium" deworming which is around $20 and covers rounds, hooks, whips and tapes.

Maybe it's our locale but we never deworm. We get fecals once a year and I've never had one come up wormy (knock wood!).

That is a serious bummer, do you do a fecal first to verify need or just deworm regularly?

My dogs are on monthly heartworm preventative, so technically they get dewormed once monthly. I've never needed to do more than that.

One of the earthworm products, one of Virbac's Iverheart products maybe, covers tapes as well. My FIL uses it since his farms dogs kill and eat things.

Ahhh I forgot that these are probably in conjunction with hw. Makes much more sense.

Cali's advantage multi (or whatever it is) costed at least $150 for only 4 or 5 doses, if I recall correctly.. but it's not just for fleas.

This isn't with heartworm (I don't think we have it around here). Roman's had episodes of the shits for a while, which I originally attributed to people feeding him, for instance, ice cream. However I don't believe they've been feeding him recently and the episodes are pretty violent, hence the vet.

He did a fecal first but didn't find anything. He prescribed dewormers anyways, as it seems to both of us like this is some sort of internal parasite.

If I were doing it over again I would've just said to give me the multi-day crap cup and send it to the lab, because if he has some sort of protazoan that's $100 for nothing.

And it seems I can order Panacur from amazon.com (but not from .ca!)... so yeah, ouch lol. What is so special about this Drontal stuff??

I do not deworm regularly. My parents' dogs do get regular heartworm preventative, but as for intestinal parasites, I only deworm if an animal seems to have symptoms, such as "wormy belly", loose stools, and weight loss, to name a few. You can see some species of worms in the poo with the naked eye (typically tapes and roundworms).

Tapes don't usually show up in fecals, and they may or may not be passing segments, so a fecal checking for tapes is pointless. And that sounds about right for that many pills, unfortunately!

I do hw every other month. With the life cycle of the hw, you actually only have to worm every 3 months.... but I like to stick on the safe side and do every other. lol.

As far as tape worms, I usually get the cheap tapeworm tabs from the horse feed store if I suspect a problem. I've always had good luck with them.

But for Drontal, yeah that appears to be the going rate. At least you know he will be worm free now!

Wow that is crazy. My vet only charged me $10 to worm Lily last time I had them do it. Of course she's a lot smaller at only 47-50lbs at any given time. And we bought a bunch (like 10 pills) for the indoor/outdoor cats the vet to keep on hand for worming the little hunters and it was $30 something.

Alright thanks for letting me know guys! Is there any reason to opt for Drontal? Or if something similar comes up should I just order a dewormer off Amazon?

Although it seems to be exceptionally pricey I'm relieved that the vet didn't rip me off, he seems like a nice guy.

Drontal is a very broad spectrum wormer. It will for the most part, kill everything. He probably gave you that because he wasn't able to pin point what type of parasite it was.

The thing with the hw pill is that it takes care of most internal parasites with the exception of tapeworms. If you suspect tapes, then you can just buy panacur from amazon and you're good to go.

So I generally go that route when I suspect a parasite... if that didn't change it, then I would go the vet route. But, that's just me.