Wednesday 20 June 2012

What is the Difference Between Revolution for Cats and Revolution for Dogs?


One of the essentials of being a responsible pet owner is providing your dog or cat with adequate protection from parasites such as fleas and ticks. Now, that may seem like a straight-forward task, but in practice, deciding which anti-parasite remedies to use can be a little tough. With pet supply stores and veterinary clinics offering an array of products which vary from collars to pills to shampoos, it can be hard to figure out which ones are right for your animal companions. Fortunately for both pet owners and pets alike, pet meds such as Revolution have been developed to make it that much easier to give your dog or cat the all-round anti-parasite protection that they need. 

Revolution is an FDA approved pet med containing the active ingredient Selamectin and provides broad spectrum protection from the most common parasites that your pet may encounter. When I first started looking into using Revolution on my dog and cat, I discovered that the brand offers both Revolution for cats and Revolution for dogs. This started me wondering – what is the difference between these two products? I decided to do some research into the differences between Revolution for cats and Revolution for dogs, and soon found that I was not the only pet owner who wanted to know the answer to this question. On some online forums, cat owners asked “Is it safe to use Revolution for dogs on my cat”, while others asked “Can the same Revolution formula be used on all my pets?”. 

In fact, the answer to all these questions is fairly simple – although both Revolution for cats and Revolution for dogs contain the same active ingredient, you should only use these pet meds on the animal that they are designed for. This is because the main difference between the two types of Revolution is the concentration of Selamectin in each dosage. Animals which weigh more, such as larger cat breeds and dogs need a higher concentration, while young animals and small breeds require a lower concentration. Using too high a dosage on your pet, for example applying Revolution for dogs to a 6-week old kitten could cause health problems, while using a lower dosage on a large dog will not provide complete protection. However, knowing the right dosage is not a problem when you use Revolution, as all you need to do is to choose the product according to your pet's body-weight and type. Revolution packaging is color coded and clearly labeled with weight categories, so it is fairly difficult to get it wrong! Although it might be tempting to save money or time by using the same Revolution formula on all your pets, veterinarians advise that you should always use the appropriate Revolution to avoid possible problems.

Hopefully this answers many of the questions that pet owners may have about the differences between Revolution for cats and dogs, and will make choosing the right type of anti-parasite protection easier.


7 comments:

Unknown said...

I have use revolution on my rats. Most people (rat owners), will use cat or bird parasite medicines because of the chemical differences that they often add to dog parasite prevention. However they're very use to the math and constantly change doses that are meant for dogs or cats or even horses when using ivermectin for rats so I don't care about how big the concentration, the package says it all. I can do the math. I'm wondering if there is a difference in the chemical not the concentration in the packages.

Unknown said...

I have use revolution on my rats. Most people (rat owners), will use cat or bird parasite medicines because of the chemical differences that they often add to dog parasite prevention. However they're very use to the math and constantly change doses that are meant for dogs or cats or even horses when using ivermectin for rats so I don't care about how big the concentration, the package says it all. I can do the math. I'm wondering if there is a difference in the chemical not the concentration in the packages.

Sunshine said...

my vet's receptionist gave me revolution for a small or x-small dog for my cat is it safe to use on him or did the receptionist get mixed up yesterday?

Unknown said...

At my old vet's office, the two girls at the front desk gave us a Revolution For Puppies starter kit, for my small cat.

I asked them several times if they were sure it was okay, and they laughed and assured me that it would be fine, it was for small dogs.

It was definitely not fine.

I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH:

PAY ATTENTION TO THE Dosage-vs-Weight RATIO. If you can do the math like that other person in this thread, great. If you can't, don't give your cat the dog stuff, or vice versa. My family adored that cat. And he died slowly, and badly, while I was working the doubleshift I'd picked up to get the cash to take him back to the vet.

If cats and dogs require different concentrations because of the toxicity (how much of the Selamectin they can handle), then an 8lb cat and an 8lb dog should NOT be given the same concentration, so the weight color coding is nullified when you are not using the right product for your pet.

I don't want anyone to go through what we did. Please pay attention or you will poison your best friends. I don't blame this horrible incident on Revolution. I blame the idiot vet techs, and my idiot self, for not using due diligence, and it costing the life of one of my sweetest friends. He used to ride around in the hood of our hoodies, all curled up. He was such a sweet guy, and a rescue.

Please watch out for your pets. You're their guardians and they trust you.

Unknown said...

What was the difference in the weight of your deceased cat and the weight requirement on the packaging. The beginner pkg is for both puppies and kittens. The only ingredient in revolution is selamectin. Each box has the mg for the weight of the dog or cat. They just change in increments. If you gave your cat the correct increments you poor kitty might have died from something else. I wouldn't mess with the dosages unless you know what you're doing and these girls made a mistake for which I hope you got reimbursed for even though you can't replace a dearly loved pet. I also hope they did an autopsy to see what she actually died from. I would always double check dosages to make sure regardless of what medicine it is.

Unknown said...

Dear Saira,

Well said. Thank you for taking the time to detail your painful experience in order to educate people. Hopefully, by sharing, you spared other caretakers similar sorrow by saving the lives of their companion animals.

Although it's been a year since your post, I'm so sorry for your loss.

Unknown said...

My daughter went through the same thing with her cat, thankfully she had Valium on hand. That’s what the vet recommended. 2 cats, only one had a reaction. The Valium worked.

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