Dosing with Advantage-can anyone help?

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Joined
May 16, 2020
Messages
18
Location
Toronto, Ontario
So i am having a flea problem due to my dog & im worried about my rats possibly getting it & wanted to dose all of them. Did lots of research & revolution was the one i most heard being suggested. Now unfortunately because of covid, every place i could order that is warning about delays so i just don't want the headache. I just received something i ordered back in march just this mth-its too unreliable. So from my research i realized that u can dose using advantage. BUT I was sooo confused by the conflicting info i read. One site, this girl goes on about how her vet gave her the Advantage II for extra large dogs & that it was diluted & she was to split it between her rats-unfortunately she didn't mention the dosing that was used.
Then there was the ratguides.com info which contradicted that girl. It again doesn't give a precise dosage, says 1 or 2 drops, which is very vague & unmathematical for my taste. Isn't there only a drop in those packs, how in the world do u split a drop?!? lol
On top of that, ratguides.com warns about using advantage for dogs as it contains Pyriproxyfen & Pymethrin which can cause toxicity in rats. Says to only use advantage for kittens/cats 9lb which only contains the ingredient Imidacloprid.
So again im totally confused. Will using the cat one mean there will be less liquid to split between rats? Im completely unsure which type of advantage to get & how many doses i'll get out of it. I got over two dozen rats so it could get pricey. But that don't matter. I just want to dose correctly & i didnt want to make an appt w/vet when there's no health issues, so i thought maybe i could see if anyone is interested in finding the answer to this question? It would be so informative for other ppl doing searches on same topic & they hit a road block like i did & only find very few sources online, so this post might help others who look this info up. If not, no worries, then i will probably make an appt to see the vet. Thx for your time😁
 
I would honestly put up an ad online asking if someone has an extra tube of Revo you can buy. Dog or cat. The difference between the 2 is dog is twice as strong. You dose at 6-10 mg/kg. A tube of Kitten/puppy can dose up to 5 rats (smallish). So depending on how many rats you have and how big they are will.determine how much/what size Revo you need.
 
I dose by measuring the liquid with the smallest and most accurate syringe I have, after calculating the volume required to deliver the necessary dose. I use a 25g dispensing needle which allows very precise placement on the skin. I try to spread it out between a few spots so it doesn't wick up in to the hair too much, although they say that doesn't matter.

Regarding Revolution - Depending on the packaging you get, it can be better to order the larger/stronger one as you will get more medicine for the same cost. Generally they intend for you to use a whole tube at a time per animal so the tube size is solely for convenience, not value. For example the dog strength revolution, 120mg/ml is the same price as the cat strength at 60mg/ml. If you look up the MSDS you will see it is just Salemectin in an ISA solution, so if you were going to dose multiple animals you should get the strongest concentration and dilute to Rat strength.

Of course selling them in the smallest possible units is better for their profit margins because they count on people being too incompetent to measure liquid and/or dilute a solution 1:1

You are correct that "drops" is a horrible unit and should never be used for dosing- given that each needle gauge gives a different size drop and also simply holding a syringe at an angle will change the volume of liquid that it takes to cause a drop to release to gravity.

I have some Revolution I can give you at cost, if you cannot find a closer supply. (I live in the US)
 
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Sorry took me a while to reply but i was able to get revolution from the vet👍🏼Got the largest size. And the dosing was explained to me. Only thing i’m not sure is how to dilute properly...because the smallest dose is just perfect for my standard rats but for my dwarf rats, the smallest dose is too much & the vet insisted i weigh my dwarf rats & she will “sell me a smaller revolution” to dose them. I guess they figured i was stupid & wouldn’t think to dilute...lol
So to make the dose even smaller i have to add equal amount liquid/water to the dose (for the dose to be half the strength as b4 diluting)..???
 
I've used dog revo for pet mice so you might not have to dilute at all, but getting that 0.01 ml is not fun :p

The range is 6 - 10 mg/kg. How much do your dwarfies weigh?
 
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