Cut Vet bills by about 95%, Part 1
Posted 11-21-2008 at 01:00 PM by Neil Hartman
When I had 6 Yorkies and two porch dogs my Heartgaurd bill was $700 per year. I began making my own 4 years ago. The cost is only $30 per year and I now have 16 Yorkies and one big dog.
Heartgaurd contains two active ingredients. Pyrantel pamoate also called Strongid which kills most intestinal worms and Ivermectin which kills the heart worms. You can save money by giving these products separatly.
Strongid can be obtained from pet catalogs and if your Vet is nice you can get a bottle from him. Stick with the Strongid version of pyrantel pamoate because some of the generic versions do not work very well.
Ivermectin is sold in feed stores for use with cattle. You will not find it in a pet catalog. You can find it in livestock catalogs. A 50 ml. bottle of 1% Ivermectin costs about $30. This is enough to treat thirty fifty pound hounds for one year. This is enough Ivermectin to treat 150 Yorkies for a year. This works out to 20 cents per Yorkie per year. Compare that to $7 per month with Heartgaurd.
To use it on Yorkies you need to dilute it so that it is easy to measure out. It should be diluted with propylene glycol which sells for about $10 per gallon. Mix one part of 1% Ivermectin with 9 parts of propylene glycol. This is a 0.1% solution of Ivermectin. Measure it into a 1 ml. syringe without a needle. Squirt it into the mouth or put it with some food. Do not inject it.
Ivermectin should be administered as an oral drench. This means that you squirt it into your Yorkies mouth once a month along with the proper amount of Strongid which you squirt in separetly. For the proper amount of Strongid read the label on the Strongid bottle.
At this point you should be asking how much 0.1% Ivermectin should I use. The answer is below:
2 pound Yorkie 0.07 ml.
3 " " 0.11 ml.
4 " " 0.14 ml.
5 " " 0.18 ml.
6 " " 0.21 ml.
7 " " 0.25 ml.
8 " " 0.28 ml.
9 " " 0.32 ml.
10 " " 0.35 ml.
Do not give Ivermectin or products that contain it such as Heartgaurd to pregnant Yorkies. It will kill the developing pups in the womb. It does not tell you this on the Heartgaurd box. Yorkie breeders know this to be true. I lost several litters by killing them in the womb with Heartgaurd. This resulted in at least $10,000 of lost revenue. I bet that the Vet from which you have been buying Heartgaurd never told you this happens.
Heartgaurd biscuits are about $7 each.
Happy savings,
Neil Hartman
Heartgaurd contains two active ingredients. Pyrantel pamoate also called Strongid which kills most intestinal worms and Ivermectin which kills the heart worms. You can save money by giving these products separatly.
Strongid can be obtained from pet catalogs and if your Vet is nice you can get a bottle from him. Stick with the Strongid version of pyrantel pamoate because some of the generic versions do not work very well.
Ivermectin is sold in feed stores for use with cattle. You will not find it in a pet catalog. You can find it in livestock catalogs. A 50 ml. bottle of 1% Ivermectin costs about $30. This is enough to treat thirty fifty pound hounds for one year. This is enough Ivermectin to treat 150 Yorkies for a year. This works out to 20 cents per Yorkie per year. Compare that to $7 per month with Heartgaurd.
To use it on Yorkies you need to dilute it so that it is easy to measure out. It should be diluted with propylene glycol which sells for about $10 per gallon. Mix one part of 1% Ivermectin with 9 parts of propylene glycol. This is a 0.1% solution of Ivermectin. Measure it into a 1 ml. syringe without a needle. Squirt it into the mouth or put it with some food. Do not inject it.
Ivermectin should be administered as an oral drench. This means that you squirt it into your Yorkies mouth once a month along with the proper amount of Strongid which you squirt in separetly. For the proper amount of Strongid read the label on the Strongid bottle.
At this point you should be asking how much 0.1% Ivermectin should I use. The answer is below:
2 pound Yorkie 0.07 ml.
3 " " 0.11 ml.
4 " " 0.14 ml.
5 " " 0.18 ml.
6 " " 0.21 ml.
7 " " 0.25 ml.
8 " " 0.28 ml.
9 " " 0.32 ml.
10 " " 0.35 ml.
Do not give Ivermectin or products that contain it such as Heartgaurd to pregnant Yorkies. It will kill the developing pups in the womb. It does not tell you this on the Heartgaurd box. Yorkie breeders know this to be true. I lost several litters by killing them in the womb with Heartgaurd. This resulted in at least $10,000 of lost revenue. I bet that the Vet from which you have been buying Heartgaurd never told you this happens.
Heartgaurd biscuits are about $7 each.
Happy savings,
Neil Hartman
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