I know what you are thinking: Why do you have so many pets if you can't afford them? I can afford to give all of them brand name flea drops, but I also love to save money--especially when I can get the same quality item for less. Secondly, all of my critters are rescues. We've rehomed several critters over the years, but these five found a special place in our hearts. We didn't go looking for any of them.
Before I tell you how I saved money on flea drops this year, I want to say that I am not a vet. Talk to your vet about any medications before you administer them to your pets.
That said, I found a generic flea drop called PetArmor. It has the same active ingredient as Frontline, in the same percentage, but at about half the price. This alone cuts the price I will pay this spring, summer, and fall in half.
But does it work?
My little chihuahua is severely allergic to fleas. He will bite himself until he has no hair left if there's just one flea on him. I bathed him two days ago and applied the drops. He was still biting yesterday and I combed a few fleas off of him. But today, I haven't found any fleas on him with the comb. He's not biting either. Hallelujah! This stuff does work!
Now there's another trick to save even more money on flea drops for dogs. The boxes all contain 3 month's worth of medication, and they are all the same price. The capsules for large dogs contain a lot more medication than the ones for small dogs.
The medication goes by weight. To find out how much medication your dog needs, look at the PetArmor box for your dog's weight and see what size the vial is. Then use a non-needle syringe (or a child's medicine syringe) to administer the medication.
Do not use flea medication for dogs on cats! Since cats bathe themselves, they can get poisoned by the dog medication. I buy the PetArmor for cats. It's still cheaper than Frontline or Advantage, even if you can't split the vials.
Photo via nixxphotography / freedigitalphotos.net
