Does Anyone Here Treat Their Dogs for Heartworm Prevention?

SeaBreeze

SeaBreeze

Endlessly Groovin'
Location
USA
My pup now is the first dog I've ever had who I treated for heartworm prevention. He goes into the vet in early May, gets blood test that results are given in the office right away, and 6 months worth of heartworm meds. Where we live it's not necessary to give that medicine year round. We take him in tomorrow for a check up.

Years ago I never heard of heartworms. Has anybody's dog ever suffered from these worms, do you give the treatment every year?
 

My daughter`s yellow Lab had heartworm last year. It is a very expensive treatment. I think it was $1200.00. And the dog has to be kept very inactive for the 8 week treatment-crated or walked on a leash. No running around the backyard. Autumn recovered completely,doing great now. But definitely well worth spending the $$ to prevent.

My dogs have both been on heartworm preventative since they were puppies.
 
My little fella Hoot (toy poodle) has always been given heart worm meds, as did Annie, our Shih Tzu. Hoot is now 13+ and Annie lived to be 15 1/2. I've used a number of vets over the years (Ohio, Florida and Hawaii) and every single one has recommended this be done. I think it is best to "err of the side of caution" when it comes to their health.
 

Trav is my first dog that is on heartworm meds, but not in the winter months. He's the first of my dogs that the vet encouraged me to give him the meds. He's 9 now and been on them for about 3 years. Heartworm disease was never mentioned to me previously.

Off topic, sorry - In the mid 90's, I took my dog, Nokie, to the beach up north where one of the rivers runs into the ocean. Nokie went potty in the bushes near the river. I don't remember how many weeks later it was, but when he became ill, the vet took a lot of tests and then asked me if we had been in any southern states frecently, such as Alabama, Louisiana/etc., and I told her "no".

She then asked me where we had been outside of my area and I told her up the coastline near the River. She said that someone from southern US must have been traveling with their diseased/infested dog and that my dog must have stepped in some that dog's infected feces because he had Hookworm.

Nokie was treated for the disease and recovered.
 
When I took my older (10 yrs.) yellow lab to the vet a couple months back, I asked about heartworm protection, as he has never had any.
The vet checked him for heartworms because I asked him to, said he was fine, and told me the prevention wasn't necessary where we live. I took him at his word.
I've had other dogs over the years, living here, and heartworm was never an issue with them either. My dogs spend a lot of time indoors.

I do treat them most months with K9 advantix II for fleas and mosquitoes though.
 
We did, and then we didn't, and now we do again. Apparently, heart worm isn't common where we live, so we stopped it for a while. But, we still worried about it so we went back to it. We figure it couldn't hurt.

Don
 
When we had our dogs we always treated them for heartworm. We kept them on year round because it was cheaper to buy the meds for a whole year than to have a blood test each year and then buy the medication. A nice Vet clued us in on that when I complained about the high price of the blood test,besides the price of the visit and stress on our dog who definitely didn't take to kindly to a blood test.
 
Mrs. Robinson said:
My daughter`s yellow Lab had heartworm last year. It is a very expensive treatment. I think it was $1200.00. And the dog has to be kept very inactive for the 8 week treatment-crated or walked on a leash. No running around the backyard. Autumn recovered completely,doing great now. But definitely well worth spending the $$ to prevent.

My dogs have both been on heartworm preventative since they were puppies.
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That's a lot of money, and keeping them inactive for 8 weeks is really hard. Glad Autumn had a complete recovery, I've heard that it's fatal in some dogs if not caught soon enough.

Ruth n Jersey said:
When we had our dogs we always treated them for heartworm. We kept them on year round because it was cheaper to buy the meds for a whole year than to have a blood test each year and then buy the medication. A nice Vet clued us in on that when I complained about the high price of the blood test,besides the price of the visit and stress on our dog who definitely didn't take to kindly to a blood test.
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We had his blood test done and it was negative, and started our 6 month treatment with six chewables yesterday. He's not really food driven, so we broke it up and wrapped it in American cheese. My dog is young and the vet did comment on how he was happy to see such good veins. He's been caring for our dogs for decades, and my last dog was older and very sickly and he was the only one who could get blood from him without hurting him and poking him a million times.

He said there was an option now that he was old enough to give an injection that's time released and good for the whole 6 months, but we passed on it until we research it more. He said that a lot of people were unreliable in giving their dogs the pill every month when needed, so for those people it was ideal.

Remembering to give my pets any needed meds was never an issue, I used to mark things on the calendar, or keep track on paper if needed. My husband and I had a routine because one of my dogs needed certain pills on a daily basis for awhile, we put out the bottles on the table so we would be reminded. Then whichever one of us gave the pill, we then turned the bottle upside down so the other one knew the dog got the pill already. Worked very well, no mistakes.
 
Butterfly said:
SB, I always treat my dogs with heartworm preventative, too. It isn't too common here, but it does happen. Sure is easier to prevent than treat.
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It's not very common by me either Butterfly, and this is the first dog we ever gave the heartworm treatment to. He just turned 2 years today, and I'm trying to keep him as healthy as possible, well worth the price of the testing and meds.
 
Bringing my boy in tomorrow for his heartworm blood test and a full year of medicine. We decided to give it to him monthly for the full year this time, just to be safe, since we take him camping with us in different areas, better safe than sorry.

They told me over the phone that if we gave it to him the full year, he'd only need the blood test every other year, instead of every year like with the 6 month method. I think they still do price matching, so I made a copy of a website that had the 12 chew Heartgard Plus 26-50, for $66.99 and free shipping. The last time we paid $50 at the vet for the 6 chew size. Hopefully they still are prescribing that same brand and will honor the price match.
 
Yes and no. I have two dogs. The Vet gave "Trifexa" to my 11 lb Pom-a-poo, Bella, and it nearly killed her. For 3 days she was super sluggish and disoriented and wouldn't eat or play (normally a playful puppy). Just starred off into space. She had also gotten a shot at the Vets. Then I tried "Heartgard Plus2" and again she had a bad reaction (not as bad as Trifexa but similar reaction and still scary...no shot this time and not a puppy anymore). I had bought a years supply. I'm now trying to figure out what to do for her.

Then I got my 20 lb rescue Beagle, Blu, and decided to try one of the remaining "HeartgardPlus2" pills on him since it doesn't expire until August...no reaction whatsoever.

I read online that certain breeds are susceptible to bad reactions and listed 12. Pomeranians and poodles were not on the list, but like I mentioned, Bella had a very bad reaction. Beagle's were not on the list either and Blu did great.
 
I really don't like giving medicines like that, so this dog I have now is the first to use the treatment. After reading about the severity of heartworm, I decided to take a chance, luckily he didn't seem to have any bad side effects, he's a 35 pounder. Poor Bella, I'm glad it didn't kill her.
 
I just started Hunter on the heartworm meds. I never did it before , and the vet didn't push it . She sold me however many pills I Wanted and I opted to give them in the summer months. Hunter came from Alabama and he also is being treated for Hookworm. His last treatment is this week ,so hopefully he'll be cured soon.
 
Toomuchstuff said:
I just started Hunter on the heartworm meds. I never did it before , and the vet didn't push it . She sold me however many pills I Wanted and I opted to give them in the summer months. Hunter came from Alabama and he also is being treated for Hookworm. His last treatment is this week ,so hopefully he'll be cured soon.
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I understand the HeartGuard Plus also treats hookworms and roundworms, so that's a good thing. I'm in Colorado, and my old vet who retired said the 6 month was good enough for our state, from May to October...but, since we hardly had a winter at all this year, and the warm winter weather affects the mosquitoes and their reproduction, we decided not to take any chances. Hope your Hunter if fully cured of his hookworm.
 
SeaBreeze said:
I understand the HeartGuard Plus also treats hookworms and roundworms, so that's a good thing. I'm in Colorado, and my old vet who retired said the 6 month was good enough for our state, from May to October...but, since we hardly had a winter at all this year, and the warm winter weather affects the mosquitoes and their reproduction, we decided not to take any chances. Hope your Hunter if fully cured of his hookworm.
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Same here with hardly any winter, so I figure ticks may be more of a problem this year also. Do you use one of those flea/tick prevention things? I never did until a few years ago when one of my labs got a tick related illness and it was a very big deal.
 
My sister lives in Tucson AZ and says they never see fleas there. Off topic but, it's also a great state for people with arthritis because it's climate is dry, warm, and consistent.
 
Every month without exception! Don't play roulette with your dog's health. And you also have to consider how your neighbor's dogs are taken care of. If they're not treated then any mosquito biting them will carry that heartworm larvae and then possibly biting your pet. Yes, even indoors! And even in winter, how are you going to absolutely know when the first mosquitoes will be around? If I knew that you were my neighbor and not giving the pills year around, I would be very worried about my cat and dog. Yes, cats too!
 

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