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Originally Posted by ladyjane  I would never cut the dose nor would I play with the frequency of dosing. I have seen what happens to heartworm positive pups.
As for referring to HW preventatives as poison, I just lost one of my pups at an approximate age of 16. I adopted her in 1995 and she was estimated to be 2 or 3 at that time. She was given Heartgard every month while I had her...surely it did not shorten her lifespan.
The following website is very informative and may help some of you in your decision making regarding the health of your pup and the risks involved with heartworms: American Heartworm Society |
Great post. I have managed a vet clinic for 12 years and I too have seen what happens to heartworm positive dogs, dogs with lyme disease, rocky mountain spotted fever, etc. I also will not cut the dose or play with the companies nor my vet's recommendations.
We also lost our black lab two years ago at the age of 15 which is very old for a lab. She had heartworm preventative every month of her life and some kind of flea and tick control. Certainly did not hurt her. I have a 12 year old yorkie now who has also had Heartgard and Frontline every single month of his life and he is as healthy as a 5 year old. We just did his senior bloodwork panel two months ago and everything was perfect.
I keep our prices in line with the on-line pharmacies to try and keep people from ordering from them. These products are vet only products and a lot of the on-line pharmacies are getting them on the black market. It is no telling how long they have set in trucks or on shipping docks waiting to be shipped. We have even had people bring packages in that they ordered on-line that were in other languages. I get letters from on-line salesmen at least once or twice a month asking us (as vets) to sell these products to them at cheaper prices so they can sell them on-line. I forward these on to the vendors because it is illegal. By keeping prices similar to the on-line pharmacies we do not make much money on these products at all. Believe me, vets do not get rich selling that stuff.
Thanks for your post.