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Pet's tolerance of medication administration:
Pets who are resistant to needle pokes may do
better with a topical or oral medication, while pets
who develop skin reactions to topical treatments
may have better outcomes with an oral medication
or an injectable preventative. Similarly, a pet who
doesn't easily take oral medications may benefit
from topical or injectable treatments.
Financial restrictions or needs: The family may
need to buy monthly prevention at regular intervals
because they cannot afford the price of an annual
injectable or a year's worth of prevention. On the
other hand, the family may prefer to pay for the
annual injection(s), reducing their need to budget
on a monthly basis.
4
Present a specific recommendation for the pet.
With all the information from the first three steps,
the veterinary team should have a narrow list of
potential preventatives to recommend that meet
both the pet's and client's needs. Pet parents are
more likely to choose a parasite preventative if
it's directly recommended by their veterinarian.
7
Rather than expecting the pet parent to choose
which preventative they want on their own, the
veterinarian is recommending an individual product
or a combination of products that would be safe and
effective for the pet while addressing compliance
and lifestyle factors that may cause the parasite
prevention plan to fail. The end goal for both the
veterinary team and the client is to protect the pet,
and the veterinarian's recommended product(s) is
intended to help achieve this objective.
5
Encourage continuity and compliance.
Unless the clinic is administering long-acting
injectables, the onus of preventative administration
falls on the client. The clinic can play a role in
encouraging continuity and compliance between
visits by developing an easy purchasing pathway and
sending timely reminders about refills or dosing to the
client. Automated reminders can achieve this without
increasing staff workload. The parasite prevention
conversation should also be documented, including
what was recommended, what was declined, and
the reasons for these decisions. These notes will be
useful for revisiting the plan at future visits.
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R
RHIANNON KOEHLER, DVM is a veterinarian and freelance writer
based in the Kansas City area. After graduating with her DVM and
MPH from the University of Missouri in 2019, she entered clinical
practice as a shelter medicine veterinarian. She continues to work with
animal shelters and nonprofit clinics while running her writing business,
Evergreen Medical Writing. Dr. Koehler primarily writes educational
content for veterinary staff and pet owners. Dr. Koehler is a paid
consultant for Covetrus
®
.
Conclusion
When trying to choose the best parasite prevention for
a pet, the right one or the right combination is that which
will fit the patient's health profile, the needs of the client,
and the practice's prevention goals. Veterinary teams
should have a strong understanding of the benefits and
consideration to keep in mind when choosing between
topical, oral, and long-acting injectable preventatives.
1. Companion Animal Parasite Council. General guidelines. CAPC. Accessed April 29, 2026.
https://capcvet.org/guidelines/general-guidelines/
2. Zoetis Petcare. ProHeart 12 prescribing information. Zoetis Petcare. Accessed April 29, 2026.
https://www.zoetispetcare.com/prescribing-information/proheart12
3. Zoetis Petcare. ProHeart 6 prescribing information. Zoetis Petcare. Accessed April 29, 2026.
https://www.zoetispetcare.com/prescribing-information/proheart6
4. Merck Animal Health. Product information (ID 1047592). Merck Animal Health. Accessed
April 29, 2026. https://merckusa.cvpservice.com/product/basic/view/1047592
5. US Food and Drug Administration. Animal drug safety communication: FDA alerts pet
owners and veterinarians about potential neurologic adverse events. FDA. Accessed
May 1, 2026. https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/cvm-updates/animal-drug-safety-
communication-fda-alerts-pet-owners-and-veterinarians-about-potential-neurologic
6. Companion Animal Parasite Council. Parasite prevalence maps. CAPC. Accessed May 1,
2026. https://capcvet.org/maps/#/
7. Bebrysz M, Wright A, Greaves M, et al. How pet owners choose antiparasitic treatments
for their dogs: A discrete choice experiment. Prev Vet Med. Nov 2021;196:105493.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prevetmed.2021.105493
*Examples of active ingredients are provided for context
