The preventive med thread got me to wondering how many of you dog owners have ever dealt with a case of heartworms in your pet.

I will go ahead and say that I think they use the heartworm prevention as a sales tool and not much more. Yes there is a risk but it is relatively low. I worked my way through college at a vet clinic and can only remember treating one case of heartworms in 3 1/2 years.

In my personal experience most of the time my dogs do not take heartworm preventative. I have 1 dog out of three right now that take it just because it is part of the flea/tick medication that works best on him.

Curious to hear other experiences.

I lost one to HW's, he was 11 & back then the treatment was pretty harsh, the treatment is what killed him. Ivomec not only prevents Heartworms, it also will kill young HW's, so if I ever have another dog test positive, I will just keep giving the Ivomec, just a little stronger, the adult HW's don't live very long & will be gone, then the ivomec will kil the young ones & prevent any more. In Texas, I strongly recommend using some kind of HW preventative, we have way too many mosquitos to chance it. I treat 9 dogs & a bottle ($35-$40) will last me 2 years.

Heartworms are very prevalent in this area. Ivomec is cheap and there is not one reason to not give your dogs heartworm prentative. If you live in town or an area with very many dogs, your dog has a very real chance of getting heartworms. One summer I took back 4 dogs I had sold to someone that was getting out of birdogs and got 3 other dogs from other people. Every one of them tested positive. I am not saying any of this to me mean, only out of love of the dogs. It is only laziness or ignorance that would keep someone from preventing heartworms. There is really not excuse for it.

Tyson

I work for a shelter and we get dogs daily with Heartworms... it costs us about$300-800 depending on dogs size to have it treated HWP is not a joke use it... Ivermectin only kills that microfalaria "baby heartworms"

Also HWt has come along way in since years ago they have changed the drugs also.. We treat every dog here at our shelter haven't had one lost in 6 years..

Understand completely. I am not saying to not use the prevention as it is easier than the course of treatment and much cheaper. I was really interested in who all has actually had to treat their own pet for heartworms. Here lately every vet seems to be pushing more and more routine medication each visit.

I understand at a shelter you would see more than a fair share of heartworm cases.

I had two which tested positive for heartworms. The treatment was tough on them.

Do you get the Ivomec at TSC? It is made for dogs? If not what dosage do you use?

You get it at tsc. It's made for cattle. You use .1 cc per 10 pounds of body weight of the dogs. I put mine on a piece of buttered bread.

Old Ralph was the only dog I've had that got HW, way back when we lived in Houston. The treatment was brutal, but he made it and lived on. He was a great one.

My whole kennel is on HW preventative year round.

Angie

What do you use?

This.Its labeled for cattle but is the same thing used in Heartguard

Ivomec is good stuff just be conservative

that's 1\10th of a CC per 10 lbs of body weight.

My last bottle was a generic. It's about $10 cheaper at TSC. They were out of the generic when I got my new bottle. It's about $40 for 3 years for one dog.

Ivomec mixed with glycol propylene. The glycol makes the Ivomec taste a little better. Then we do a general worming 2x a year.

Of course clients can supply their own. But it's mandatory that all dogs are on HW preventative year round

I had 2 dogs come down with heartworm years ago. One contracted it before he was shipped to me as a puppy. One got the old fashioned arsenic IV... Man that was ugly and very miserable for him. The other had the deep muscle injections. Those are almost as bad.

An ounce of prevention.....

Angie

Yep. Purple stools.

I have been useing ivomec and glycol propylene mixed 1 to 9 and then give 1 cc per 40 lbs of body weight for at least 10 years. No heart worms here.

We use Sentinal year round...takes care of HM, fleas and some other parasites.

Worth every penny, plus if we maintain them on a year round dosage is they get HM the manufacturer will cover the treatment.

I have a good friend that is a vet. He works in Louisiana now but used to be in the metromess. He said the same as the OP. In our region the mosquitoes are not nearly as bad on dogs as most think. The same treatments we use to prevent fleas do a fairly good job or repelling them.
I have owned 20 or more dogs and have never given heartworm preventative and have never lost a dog or even had a dog test positive to them.
I did give them small doses of Ivomec for general treatment of any internal parasites.
Now if you live close to the coast or the swamps of the southeast it is a different matter.

Since when has Ivomec treated general parasites??

Angie

Lots of wrong dosing info on this thread, the dosage for Ivomectin when using for heartworm preventative is 2.73mcg per lb example a 100lb dog would receive 273mcg's of Ivomec monthly (0.1cc = 1000mcg). As per the '05 protocol change...you should rotate your heartworm preventative.

So everyone knows the above is the CORRECT dosing information:

Ivomec dosing

I seriously doubt people that don't give their dogs heartworm prevenative routinely get them checked. Many people have heartworm positive dogs, but don't know it. The dogs dont stand up in their kennel and yell to you that they now have heartworms. Trust me, it is a very real concern in this part of the country. If you live around other people with dogs, your pet is at risk. Mosquito bites dog with hearworms then bites your dog, congratulations, you have a dog with heartworms if you are too cheap or lazy to prevent it.