Heartworm Prevention Reminder for doggy owners =)

[troubleinohio]

just thought Id post a reminder for you dog owners who live in the colder states...dont forget to start your doggies on the Heartworm prevention again now! I know states down south where its warm enough all year round that you give them their HW meds 12 months a year. Up here we just usually give May thru Nov or so.  I just bought mine this morning for the dogs here as its been getting warm spells here and there and TONS Of rain which means mosquitos will be bombarding us by next week Im sure. Anyhow just wanted to give a reminder not to forget your furry friends =)

[teko]

Flea and tick season is hard on our pets. They can carry major disease on top of being a nuisance to us and our animals. I learned the hard way that medicines like frontline and program are great for flea controls but you also need a collar for ticks. Dummy me thought that expensive medicine I was giving them took care of ticks too. Not true. In my opinion these and the heartworm meds are more important than all those vaccines we give em except rabies of course. I have found that doing a half dose of frontline for fleas every other month on my wee dog is effective in treatment as well as cost. I do this with my indoor animals, but would not recommend it with those put outside for any length of time. What say you?

[beatingthis]

I used to be a cert. vet tech. Kinda like a RN. Seeing a dog with heartworm was sad. I just knew what was coming. I was the one that wold look at every blood test we do through the day. As hard as you try not to become attached to these critters it happens. I remember Pete a big black lab. I would would spend every free time I had with him. Just sitting in his run. He made it. I had to leave the vet business. I just could not deal with stupid people anymore. I just knew I was going to slap somebody one day. All that schooling and I let it all go. I did it for 9 years. I found so many homes for animals that were just left at the hospital.

Ohhh Ok now I made myself cry.

Terry

[troubleinohio]

yes , giving an animal that already has heartworm the preventative medicine can possibly kill them, but Im not sure what the percantages are on that. A dog i had years ago, had heartworm, and the vet i took him too was a real old guy and very old school. His method of treating it was not by giving the usual meds they use now all the time. He said that since the dog was so young that he would outlive the heartworm (apparently they dont live too long) and he had me give the dog the preventative meds we all use- which killed the new larvae that the main heartworm was producing. So that no new worms would be born and infect him. ANd by god it did work, years later, the dog finally tested negative for heartworm, and he didnt die from taking the meds. I think they say it can possibly cause anaphylictic shock in some animals though..

[lonewolf07]

I was going to say it's good to see other pet owners till I realized we are really owned by our pets  = )  Our dogs get Heartworm prevention from Sentinel, the flea and tick medication.  The cats too.

Yesterday, when we got home, there were two stray kittens and two stray dogs right by our gate.  I guess the strays we took in earlier have been telling other strays that we have a soft place for them.  I'm digressing again .... sorry.

[BaronMunchausen]

You ever try flea bathing 8 cats?

We have a hard enough time flea powdering this group. You'd think we'd broken out the paw-thumb screws and rack. :-)

We're going to try the frontline spray as it's cheaper.

Hey, I just looked around and every cat in this room is sleeping.

What a SURPRISE!!! Cats SLEEPING!!!

Hmmm... maybe I can sneak something to eat without worrying about being mauled...

[avisg]

yeah i do year round here i love my dooggy I dont want to see anything happen to him it would break my whole families heart.

[allaboutmary]

Thanks Sara........It was breaking my heart thinking I was gonna have to take Slippers to the pound.  She is soooo old I figured no one would adopt her. I was just leaving a good friends funeral when I found her. Too much sadness at one time so my family let us keep her. (SUCKERS) lol               .......I'm coming up there with my bolt cutters........gonna set those puppies free.

I don't think Trouble will mind we hi-jacked her post. lol

[dominosarah]

Aww Mary that is so nice of you to take Slippers. It breaks my heart to see all these animals that noone takes care of.  We have many dogs around me in the ghetto and they are so skinny and some are just left on a chain and the only thing the owner does for attention is to come out and yell at them.  Animal control doesnt give a dam here either.  If there is a dish laying in the yard they considered them to be fed and watered.  Oh i guess this has nothing to do with the original post!!!  Good thing it is troubles!!!!

[allaboutmary]

Yes I've heard that too Sara.
Living in Fl they have to have it year round which is beginning to break the bank with us having 7 dogs at the compound.  Luckily Magi bartered with the local vet and painted him a big sign for his new office.  I love my vet's office they are sooooo sweet. They gave me such a deal on the little poodle I found on election night. She is probably 300 years old and no one claimed her. They had to pull all but 4 teeth and took care of an eye infection for next to nothing. I'll have to post her pic. She is such a sweet dog. I'm thinking her owner either died or went in a nursing home. Her names Libby but we call her Slippers. She is 7 lbs and is in love with my sisters Basset Hound. lol

[dominosarah]

The beagle has heartworm meds all year long here.  She takes it once a month.  Both her and the cat get Frontline applied also.  

I heard that if a dog has hearworm and you give them the meds they can die from it.  Anyone else heard of that??

Our mosquitos are the size of pigeons here so who knows what all they carry around!!!

[troubleinohio]

yep ive had a few dogs that had heartworms over the years (never my own pets but adopted/stray ones that came to me with it already) and the treatment IS very bad and expensive. One of the siberian huskies i had, came to me with HW infection. He almsot died from it. He was really sick a long time. After they have the treatment, they still are in danger for a long while and have to be kept quiet for weeks (6 to 8 if i remember correctly-this was many years ago now) because the dead pieces of the worms that break off from the medicine that kills them, can travel in the bloodstream and go into the lungs or brain (much like a blood clot can kill people or give them strokes).

PS fleas arent totally safe though either- they can carry tapeworms and other parasites and sickness

[beatingthis]

Heartworm is given in pill form. It comes by being bitten by a mosquito. The vet has to draw blood and look to make sure there is no lava in the blood stream. The adult worms go for the heart. They look like really long skinny white worms. The will clogg the arteries to the heart and will kill the dog. The treatment is tuff for a dog that has heartworms. Arsenic.
Preventive is the best way to go.

Fleas are 1 thing heartworm is a lot worse!

Terry

[troubleinohio]

yeah that flea stuff is good too except i cant use it on my house dog because he gets a bath at least once a week, sometimes up to 3x a week depending on how stinky he gets himself playing outside (he found a dead deer carcass in the woods recently and decided it would be a fun thing to roll around in it!!! i was mortified!) so anyhow, its a waste of money for me to buy that flea stuff for the dog, i just bathe him with flea shampoo periodically and the rest of the time he gets the flowery girly girl shampoos. he smells like a french ***** most of the time lol

[BaronMunchausen]

We're breaking out the frontline here already in NY for the brood of cats.