Credelio for cats

May 18, 2023 8:19 AM

Have you given Credelio (oral "chewable" flea /tick prevention chewables) to a cat?

My vet carries oral flea/tick preventatives for dogs only. I see this medicine on Chewy and am wondering how effective it is.
And how do you get a cat to chew anything? Does "chewable" really just mean an oral tablet that will also work if they swallow it whole? Seems like a silly question but there are some human pills that actually have to be chewed.
We have an insanely deer tick-laden area and the cat loves to go out. Ticks get into the house constantly from the cat. I don't want to make the cat stay inside.
The topical Frontline does not work at all to keep ticks off this cat. Flea collars also do not work . The oral pills of a different brand work really well for the dog, and I would love this to work for the cat too.
Looking for anecdotes, data or anecdata.

posted by ojocaliente to Pets & Animals (7 answers total)

It's a soft-ish block like a treat, just with meds mixed in. So it's chewable and doesn't need to be swallowed whole, but is fine if they do. Most pets like the taste enough to just eat it the way it comes. If additional incentive is required, I find cream cheese helpful in most situations.

I haven't used this particular brand, but I always found oral meds to be much more effective than topicals or collars.
posted by ananci at 8:46 AM on May 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

Check with your vet before giving a dog flea/tick treatment to a cat. Some dog-specific flea/tick treatments are poisonous to cats.
posted by heatherlogan at 10:32 AM on May 18, 2023

Response by poster: To clarify: this medicine is listed on Chewy (a pet supply site) as specifically for cats. My vet does not carry oral medication for cat tick prevention but Chewy does. Because my vet does not have it and I don't have their recommendation, I want to know if people here have used it and if it is effective.
posted by ojocaliente at 10:45 AM on May 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

Two cats here getting Credelio. They used to get flea drops, but Credelio is now standard for larger cats on their vet's care plan. Anecdata: neither cat has fleas.
posted by automatronic at 10:58 AM on May 18, 2023

I wonder whether the effectiveness of Credelio for ticks is as good as it is for fleas. Ticks are a more difficult target.

Frontline never worked for us even for fleas, so it's not surprising it didn't take care of ticks for you. Revolution Plus or Brevecto are a much better bet, at least for fleas, but they're topicals like Frontline. The Brevecto supposedly only needs to be applied once every eight weeks for ticks (a shorter interval than for fleas), but it's pricy. They are both safer for cats than some of the other topicals Chewy sells, some of which I really don't approve of.
posted by metonym at 11:12 AM on May 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

Our dogs get Frontlined, and we do find ticks on them occasionally, but the ticks are usually dead. Are you seeing live ticks on your cat?
posted by sarajane at 1:56 PM on May 18, 2023

N of 1 but our cat would not eat Credelio so now uses Bravecto (topical) from our vet. Before we used Advantage which completely stopped working.
posted by loopsun at 8:24 PM on May 18, 2023