Flea treatment ingredients

[vieshot]

We use ant killer on the horses as the ingredients are pretty much the same as louse powder with a fraction on the price.

Well I just looked at the active ingredient in the ant powder- its permethrin

Then I looked at the active ingredient in Advantix flea treatment for dogs. Five sixths of the active ingredient is also permethrin!

Seeing as you can get a big tube of ant killer for 99p, im thinking maybe these companies selling flea treatment are taking the p*** with the marked up price on what is a very cheap ingredient!

 

[Boulty]

Well first the dose of the active ingredient has been carefully worked out so that the dog is receiving an effective and safe dose for their weight. What is also worth bearing in mind is that the spot on has to be proven safe to apply to a dog's skin, the ant powder does not. The action of the spot on is such that it will carry on working for a month, most ant powders don't have quite such a long duration of action. The spot on is resistant (within reason) to washing whereas most ant powders are easily washed away. Then there's the ease of use and the lack of mess... So in this case you're not just paying for the active ingredient but for all the development work that's gone into making that product safe and effective and easy to use. Also just about any company that wants to can make generic ant powder whereas I believe the patent on "advantix" is probably still active meaning that nobody can copy that specific formulation thus less competition of products with that specific formulation (obv there are a wide range of different flea products licensed for use in dogs, but not made up in quite the same way) thus less pressure to be cheap.