Heart Worm PSA
 

Hey guys, I just wanted to remind everyone how important it is to make sure that you are giving your dogs their heart worm preventitve every month, especially outside dogs. And not just round about every month, EXACTLY A MONTH. I was giving my lab hers but some times I would forget and it would be a month and a half or longer. I brought her for her yearly shots a couple weeks ago and she tested positive for heart worms. So now, on top of spending $400, I have to keep her locked up for 2 MONTHS. This is going to be hard on both of us since she is an outside dog. I cant leave her outside in a kennel because its too hot. Walk on leash to use the bathroom and thats it, so she doesnt get too excited. Getting the heart pumpin too hard can kill her while the worms are breaking up. I just dropped her off at the vet this morning and am dreading the next 2 months!

So just wanted to say to everyone to keep on top of treatment. And if you feel like you missed a month or its been a while since they had a pill, go get them tested. Its only $10. They come from mosquitos and we all know how bad they can get here.

This always scares me

As bad as skeeters are around here I know you have to stay on top of dat. I give mine his the 1st of every month.

Don't blame yourself for being a week or two late. I gave mine on the 1st every month to two dogs and they both tested positive for heartworms. The preventative is not so great anymore. I would suggest iverheart injections over the once a month pills.

Thats what I hear is the preventatives arent 100% affective.

Man we never tested or treated our dogs and they lived to be 14. Must have got lucky

I lost my dog of 10 years to heartworms. Thanks for the reminder.

Thats what i use, but remember the medicine expires in 2 yrs so unless you have multiple dogs you wont use the ehole bottle

Not the same thing Shawn, you are talking about Ivermectin and Charlie is talking about the six month intermuscular shot. There have been break throughs on everything except the Proheart but I believe it is a matter of time with it also. My new puppy will be tested every six months for heartworms. That is the only advatage I see with the Proheart shot, they test every six months prior to giving the next shot. One more thing on the Proheart, it was taken off of the market when Fort Dodge originally came out with it because there were deaths on the dogs on it. They say the kinks have been worked out but for my money it will be ivermectin for now.

how often do you give the injections?

1/10 of a cc per 10# of weight, 1st of each month like clock work.
Your dog will still test positive up to two years after the process.
The treatment sterilizes the adult heartworms preventing them from reproducing the larva and the ivermectin or other preventative keeps the dog from becoming reinfected. Adult heartworms have a life span and die at different intervals thus the lag in testing negative.

So is this a prevention or a treatment once getting worms?

Ivermectin is the preventative, but after the treatment you will need to be on a preventative to keep from getting the larva which grow into what you have now.

gotcha

Ivermectin is the same stuff used in heartguard.

Ivomec dosage
 

Originally Posted by Lake Chuck Duck how often do you give the injections?

1/10 of a cc per 10# of weight, 1st of each month like clock work.
Your dog will still test positive up to two years after the process.
The treatment sterilizes the adult heartworms preventing them from reproducing the larva and the ivermectin or other preventative keeps the dog from becoming reinfected. Adult heartworms have a life span and die at different intervals thus the lag in testing negativeBe sure that you realize that the dosage is given orally and not injected!!

Be sure that you realize this is given orally and not injected. After the dosage is in the syringe, remove the needle and give orally.

My bad thats what i get for scimming instead of reading, thanks for keepin me on my toes

There is a whole group of us dedicated "lab" lovers that have dogs test positive for heartworms over the past few years. As Ducktricster stated, the monthly preventative by mouth has not been successful for some reason. I, along with him, and Duckaholic, all had dogs that tested positive, even with a strict monthly regimine. As explained to me by Dr. Ned Fruge of Eunice, the lab experts can not figure out why these dogs are testing positive, but the numbers are horrible in the breed of the LAB. At one point, the ProHeart and others were paying for treatment but you had to sign a waiver if the dog died from treatment. I think they have stopped paying all together now. Dr. Ned personnally knows me and some of the guys listed here, and occasionally hunts/fishes w/ us so he knew how our dogs were cared for. He really went to bat for me, but sometimes he doesn't know if it was an oversight on the owners part.

I think the lab is missing something to allow this one breed to be more at risk than the others. I now give all my dogs the 6 mos shots at the vets office and so far, knock on wood, have not had any more problems. The dog that was positive successfully made it thru treatment, only to break out of his kennel 5 months later in search of love and was hit by a car. SUCKS!!!!!!!

I have heard some people say they like to double up on meds. Give one type of med on the 1st and another on the 15th. Or maybe even the shot every six months and then the monthly dose of another med. Has anyone here tried this?

They still pay. My vet mentioned this however my purchase record wouldnt prove a consistant history of buying heart worm pills every 6 months.