The facts about NexGard

There has been a bit of hype recently in social media regarding possible adverse reactions to Nexgard. Fortunately the facts do not support these theories, and we would regard it as one of the safer medications to use. One person's experience and subsequent analysis does not create a fact neccessarily, irrespective of how loudly and consistantly they they profess it. Although Lenin may well have said "A lie told often enough becomes the truth.", in the world of science this is not the case. A more appropriate quote may be from Dragnet "Just the facts, maam."

Subjectively we all want explanations when things go badly with our pets. However, to accurately determine causality we must focus entirely on objectivity. And to date the evidence does not support the idea the Nexgard is a problem medication for your dog. What we do know, in our practice, is that many less dogs are getting tick paralysis and so less are dying.

DISCLAIMER: We have the same markup for all our flea & tick meds*, so do not benefit more from selling Nexgard than any other. In fact we make less off these meds than the old ones, because you don't need to buy as many doses, and we lose money on reduced tick cases. (*we also have a rewards program running for Nexgard which again reduces our margin).

Here are some facts as presented to us by the manufacturer Boehringer Ingelheim.

NexGard is an important and trusted treatment for the control of fleas and ticks on dogs. As you know, tick paralysis is one of the most preventable causes of serious illness, including death, in dogs along the east coast of Australia.


Robust scientific data demonstrates NexGard’s excellent safety profile, which is further supported by our rigorous pharmacovigilance program.


All medicines, including veterinary medicines, carry benefits and risks. In the case of NexGard, the benefits in terms of flea and tick control vastly outweigh the low risk of an adverse reaction. In your clinic, you would have noted that the introduction of these highly efficacious anti‐parasiticides has resulted in a marked reduction of tick paralysis 
cases in dogs.


Our rigorous local and global pharmacovigilance reporting system indicates that NexGard has a very low and very stable adverse event profile.


In Australia, since the launch of NexGard in December 2014, more than 11 million doses have been sold. The overall reporting rate for suspected adverse events for NexGard is defined as ‘very rare’ according to international reporting guidelines (specified as less than 1 in 10,000 doses sold). These rates are calculated including all cases reported to 
Boehringer Ingelheim, regardless of the causality (i.e. they include cases where a diagnosis other than an adverse drug reaction was confirmed).


To put this reporting rate into perspective, for pet owners using NexGard, the pharmacovigilance data collected since launch indicates that the reporting rate for various clinical signs is comparable to, or lower than, the reported prevalence of these signs in the dog population generally.


Specifically, reports of neurological signs, such as seizures or tremors, are exceptionally rare. The weight of current evidence (pharmacological data, safety studies and pharmacovigilance monitoring during development and in‐market) does not support a direct causal relationship between NexGard and neurological signs in dogs.