Chew, shot, or topical? About how much do you pay for them? Do they take the chew or do you have to trick them? Do you give it year round or just in the summer? Should I be doing it year round? I've actually never done heartworm preventative!

I live in southern Cali, and while we don't get a ton of mosquitoes, we do have them on occasion. Uni is not on a flea preventative either. I have only seen fleas on her a few times when she was a pup.
I read you should do bloodwork before giving the preventative in case they are already infected, is this true? Uni is due for her yearly well visit anyway. Any other questions I need to be asking the vet I may forget?