Really sorry. I tend to stick with natural products and away from drugs where I can. Not everyone agrees with this so rather than start a debate which isnt much help to OP, I sow the seed and leave it at that. Here are some links - my supplier recommends 1 teasp twice weekly for my lil pooch.

http://whttp://wolfcreekranch1.tripo.../diatearth.htm

http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/health/diatearth.htm

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"Life is mostly froth and bubble, Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another’s trouble, Courage in your own”

I was pretty certain Ivermectin was bad for Collie breeds, and somehow from memory I though mylbemycin was too. Rather than give you wrong info, I wanted to double check first.

Milbemax is Mylbemycin. On the Manufacturer Novartis Website is does say
"Studies with Mylbemycin indicate margin of safety in certain dogs of collie or related breeds is less than in other breeds, Reccomended dose is to be strictly observed.

Ivermectin in to be avoided too with collies by all accounts, also Moxedectin seems to be under question with collies too. Advocate and Advantage are both Moxedectin and Imidacloprid.

While I was looking up the various chemicals, also came across this that is up to date research on collies and related breeds and the use of chemical worming and flea treatments. The only thing I would say to collie or related breed owners, is dont look at the product name or brand name actually look at the "chemicals" in it and do your research on that Before giving your dogs wormers of flea treatments to be on the safe side.

Latest information on drug sensitivity in collies

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I didn't know until the dogs had advocate for the first time and reacted badly. Ben obviously has a lot of Lab in him, but suspect there's a bit of collie in there too. No collie in Dory, but Advocate makes her really ill.
Vet should know about these things with Collies though.

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Some dogs do get upset when given veterinary wormers. You could counter this by giving something like a Synbiotic Probiotic Capsule at the same time to help settle their stomach. You can use a prescription spot on but they don't cover all worm types. Some miss out roundworm and others tapeworm. There is a new veterinary wormer called Plerion which you could try, there is no guarantee though that it wont cause a tummy upset. Panacur tends to be more mild but does not cover the flea tapeworm. If your dog doesn't have issues with fleas throughout the year, this may be sufficient for your dog
Ivermectin and Border Collies do not mix

Veterinary Womers

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www.petvetcare.co.uk

Catering for Dogs, Cats, Small Pets and Poultry.

Ooh.. I am now quite concerned as it appears my vet did not give me any warning that Milbemax contains Ivermectin and Ivermectin can be particularly dangerous for collies. Am trying to figure out if Drontal also contains Ivermectin. I'm glad Harry just chucked it and did not get any worse than that, but it seems pretty irresponsible to me to have vets prescribing it in light of the potential problems!?

It's a minority of border collies with a particular gene mutation that can be adversly affected by milbemax/invermectin, and even those with the mutation are usually OK with the correct dose. Some have a stronger reaction, which can be serious or fatal but is usually associated with giving more than the recommended dose.
All that said, I wouldn't give my collie type dogs these drugs when there is a safe alternative (Drontal is OK). With my younger dog, I'll get her MDR1 status checked as one of her health tests if I ever breed from her.

It is rough collies, not borders, where the incidence of affectation is most alarming. In studies done at the University of Giessen in Germany, and Washington State University in the US, among the rough collie population 33% of the all rough collies were affected. By contrast, the incidence among border collies has been seen at 0.3%.

Other affected breeds include:
Long haired Whippets: 15.7%
Aussies: 6.9%
Shelties: 5.7%
McNab: 2.8%
White Swiss Shepherd: 2.6%
Silken Windhound (I think that's a Saluki): 1.2%

In the USA in the Autumn of 2005 over 300 pure bred Border Collies were tested for this mutation and zero have been found to have the multidrug sensitivity gene (mdr1-1Δ). Even if your Border Collie does have this mutation, the heartworm preventive dose has been shown to be sufficiently low to not elicit a reaction in known sensitive Collies.

UPDATE as of 11/15/06: From Katy Robertson at UC Davis, where the test is performed:

"We have tested 362 Border Collies (not controlled for relatedness) to date and have seen the MDR1 mutation in only 1 dog. This dog was a rescue with unknown pedigree; therefore, we didn't include the dog in our findings."

Based on the above information, this drug sensitivity gene has not yet been found in purebred border collies in USA. Since the mutated MDR1 gene is fairly common in many breeds that can look like border collies, dogs with unknown pedigrees should not be counted as border collies.

MDR1 is a problem collie types suffer from some collies will be fine others wont.

Here is the list that was passed on to me.
Its best to avoid any wormers/flea treatment that contains MDR1 sensitive drugs.