Treating your pet for fleas and worms on a regular basis is one of the best preventative measures you can take to keep them in tip-top shape. But just how often should you do this, and more importantly, can you flea and worm a cat at the same time?
Is there a product that treats fleas and worms simultaneously?
The good news is that there are some products you can use to flea and worm a cat at the same time, eliminating waiting periods between treatments or potentially lethal combinations of different products. At the moment, the two most effective products are Advocate and Stronghold, and they are also the only two that treat fleas and worms at the same time
Advocate
Advocate works for the treatment of fleas, mites, roundworms, hookworms, lungworms, and can also help prevent heartworm. This treatment should be administered once a month (every 4 weeks) on the back of your cat’s neck.
Stronghold
Stronghold is also a spot-on treatment that can be used to treat cats for fleas, mites, roundworms and hookworms on a monthly basis.
How often should I administer a flea and worm treatment?
This generally depends on the type of treatment you’re using. Advocate and Stronghold are effective against a variety of worms and fleas, but they don’t cover ALL worms, so you should still deworm with something like Milbemax or Droncit every 6 months.
It’s not advisable to use multiple treatments at the same time. Wait at least 2 weeks after administering a spot-on treatment before you give your cat a deworming product. If you give your cat the deworming product first, you should still wait at least 48 hours before administering the spot treatment to prevent an overdose of the active ingredients.