what's the difference..
What is the difference between Advocate and Revolution?
Advocate is a multi-purpose medication that combines Imidacloprid (the active ingredient in Advantage) with Moxidectin. It treats fleas, as well as prevents heartworm, hookworm and roundworm in dogs and cats, plus whipworm in dogs. It also controls other external parasites such as lice and ear mites in cats, and mange mites and lice in dogs. Application is monthly to the skin at the back of the neck. Advocate does not treat ticks or tapeworm. It is recommended to worm with a tapewormer tablet once every 3 months.
Revolution – also has a multiple action. It is an easy to use and effective control for fleas. The main advantage of Revolution is that it also treats heartworm as well as ear mites and intestinal worms in cats and ear mites and sarcoptic mange mites in dogs. It is a very good treatment for cats that do not like taking tablets. Like Advocate, Revolution is eliminates the need to use separate flea and heartworm preparations each month. In dogs it is recommended that you still give an all wormer once every 3 months which treats all of the gastro-intestinal worms, such as the Drontal tablets.
What is the difference between Advantage and Advantix?
Advantage and Advantix are made by the same manufacturer – Bayer. They both contain an ingredient called imidacloprid, which kills adult fleas, as well as flea larvae on cats and dogs for up to a month after application. They both also have a claim to kill lice for up to 6 weeks in dogs. As both products contain the same ingredient for flea control they have a similar activity against fleas. Advantage and Advantix both kill 98-100% of fleas on a dog within 12 hours.
The difference between Advantix and Advantage is that Advantix also contains permethrin, an ingredient which repels and kills ticks, mosquitoes and sand flies for up to a month. Advantix is registered for the treatment and control of bush ticks, brown dog ticks and paralysis ticks. To control paralysis ticks Advantix should be applied every 2 weeks. Permethrin is highly toxic to cats, so Advantix is only for use in dogs.
If you have dogs and live in an area where ticks are a problem, Advantix would be the better product to use. In households where dogs and cats socialize closely it is recommended that you don’t use Advantix due to the serious harmful effects that this product has on cats and Advantage is preferred.
What is the difference between Revolution and Frontline Plus?
Revolution is a topical 'spot-on' parasiticide used in the treatment and prevention of fleas, heartworm and ear mites in dogs and cats.
Frontline Plus is also a topical 'spot-on' type application and is used for the treatment and prevention of fleas, ticks and lice on dogs and cats, however the main difference is that Frontline Plus has no effect against heartworm.
Heartworm is a serious disease spread by infected mosquitoes. Heartworm infection is widely distributed throughout the mainland states of Australia. Treatment is very involved, complex and expensive, therefore prevention is preferable to the cure. When using Frontline Plus pet owners are also advised to use a heartworm preventative.
Both Revolution and Frontline Plus have a rapid onset of action for fleas. Both Revolution and Frontline Plus kill the egg stage as well as the adult stage of the flea lifecycle. Revolution is not registered for the control of ticks in Australia while Frontline Plus is registered for the control of the brown dog tick as well as paralysis ticks. To control paralysis ticks Frontline Plus should be applied every 2 weeks.
Revolution contains the active ingredient selamectin while Frontline Plus contains fipronil and S-methoprene.
Revolution is easy to use and effective against fleas and heartworm, as well as having added benefits such as ear mite control and intestinal worm control in cats. However if you live in an area where ticks are a problem you want to consider using Frontline Plus along with a separate heartwormer such as Heartgard Plus or one of the generic heartwormers such as Nuheart.