Just did a search and found this post on another website: I'm a drug rep for an Animal Health company. It is the generic of Frontline Plus. You need only look at the active ingredients on the packaging to know. Merial patent for Frontline and Frontline Plus expired in March so there will be over 30 generics hitting the market.
It is just as safe and effective in the generic form. I should say I don't work for any of the companies in question. I have a degree in An. Science and was a veterinary technician prior. The main concern when a parasiticide goes generic like this is that a patent lasts 10 to 15 years. That being said, insects become resistant to them just like bacteria become resistant to antibiotics. Long before the patent ran out, we were starting to hear about problems with resistance in Frontline Plus, especially in endemic areas with lots of fleas and ticks. The product just isn't working as well as it used to.
I know that many people think there vet is only out to make money off of them, but there is a very good reason to go to your veterinarian for these things. They are up on the studies about resistance and what works best in your region. The other main reason is that you totally lose your guarantee of efficacy if you don't buy from a vet. All the major companies guarantee money back plus the cost of treatment if their product fails. And that isn't just for heartworm meds, ticks cause lyme disease, fleas cause anemia and tapeworms, and so many more.
I'd recommend a switch to a new product, with new ingredients, to avoid resistance problems. Vectra seems to be the big one because it has quick kill times and offers a form with permethrin or without. Permethin can bother some sensitive skin animals, so those can use Vectra, rather than Vectra 3D. Vectra 3D has the permethrin and Vectra does not.
There are others out there, like the Scalibor collar by Intervet/Schering-Plough. I never believed in these things until a "real" company came out with this one. I literally used to cut these off of patients in the clinic, put them in a baggie, and hand the cheap little pet store "rip off" to the client with a package of Frontline. But this has serious science behind it, and my hunting Golden wears just it as a sole flea and tick prevention. Two months, no fleas or ticks. I'm a believer.
On that, if your vet continues to do and use and prescribe the same thing for 20 years, that's not consistency, its a lack of continuing education and ability to change. we're putting pacemakers in our dogs these days...
Cheers, Pat Boteze
