Major Heartworm Med Rant!!!!

[Lovetodream88]

Originally Posted by BrooklynBlues

False and wrong. Before replying just for the sake of saying something, you would greatly benefit from reading the actual research paper, Clinical Techniques in Small Animal Practice, linked above. If you are unable to comprehend a 6-page research paper, you are not qualified to comment on the issue, or any scientific issue, for that matter.

When did you become a moderator? She can comment on anything she wants to! You could be showed many studies showing your opinion is wrong too! You first linked to a guy who just wants to sell his stuff period! My vet dosent work for any of these company's or get massive kicks backs and is where I get my info from first and who I trust! She is not biased and your guy is. So who is really sounded like they don't know what there talking about now? Certainly not Ladyjane!

[ladyjane]

American Heartworm Society | FAQs

From the above link:


How do monthly heartworm preventives work?

ANSWER Whether the prevention you choose is given orally, topically, or by injection, all approved heartworm medications work by eliminating the immature (larval) stages of this parasite. This includes the infective heartworm larvae deposited by the mosquito as well as the molted fourth larval stage which develops inside the animal. Unfortunately, within 2 months, immature heartworm larvae can molt into an adult (fifth) stage, which cannot be effectively eliminated by preventives. Because heartworms must be eliminated before they reach this adult stage, it is extremely important that heartworm preventives be administered strictly on schedule (monthly for oral and topical products and every 6 months for the injectable). Administering prevention late can allow immature larvae to molt into the adult stage, which is poorly prevented.

----------------

There are always people who will believe the Jim Jones type folks. I personally do not care for purple kool aid.

[BrooklynBlues]

Originally Posted by Lovetodream88

When did you become a moderator? She can comment on anything she wants to! You could be showed many studies showing your opinion is wrong too! You first linked to a guy who just wants to sell his stuff period! My vet dosent work for any of these company's or get massive kicks backs and is where I get my info from first and who I trust! She is not biased and your guy is. So who is really sounded like they don't know what there talking about now? Certainly not Ladyjane!

I didn't say she couldn't comment, I said she wasn't qualified. She can comment all she wants, at the risk of sounding ludicrous.

And yes, your vet gets very real financial incentive from the pharma companies in the form of PROFITS they make by selling the heartworm medication. The study quoted is published in a medical journal. You can pick and choose to attack any blogger you want. These are hard facts. Any vet, if pressed, will admit that the monthly dose is only "needed" so that people won't forget to give it to their dogs. Read: it's not needed at all, unless you don't know how to use a calendar.

Originally Posted by ladyjane

American Heartworm Society | FAQs
....
I personally do not care for purple kool aid.

So you consider medical journals kool-aid, and a FAQ written by the pharmaceutical companies not kool-aid. You basically admit that you can't read a real piece of research (or maybe you can and are afraid that you'll be proven wrong). All is clear with you, Ma'am. Good night.

[chachi]

Wow it is crazy not to use heartworm preventative might as well play russian roulette with your dog. They are at some point going to get heartworm and there is no way i would want to put my dog through heartworm treatment now that is poison

[107barney]

I don't bother with holistic quacks who sell things like Hair IQ tests for epileptics. Doesn't that alone speak volumes?

[107barney]

Originally Posted by BrooklynBlues

I didn't say she couldn't comment, I said she wasn't qualified. She can comment all she wants, at the risk of sounding ludicrous.

And yes, your vet gets very real financial incentive from the pharma companies in the form of PROFITS they make by selling the heartworm medication. The study quoted is published in a medical journal. You can pick and choose to attack any blogger you want. These are hard facts. Any vet, if pressed, will admit that the monthly dose is only "needed" so that people won't forget to give it to their dogs. Read: it's not needed at all, unless you don't know how to use a calendar.





So you consider medical journals kool-aid, and a FAQ written by the pharmaceutical companies not kool-aid. You basically admit that you can't read a real piece of research (or maybe you can and are afraid that you'll be proven wrong). All is clear with you, Ma'am. Good night.

Hair IQ test. Real scientic. And all is clear with you. Good morning.

[kjc]

FYI:

Humans can be infected: From the CDC:

CDC - Dirofliariasis - Biology - Life Cycle of D. immitis

CDC - Dirofliariasis - Biology - Life Cycle of D. repens

CDC - Dirofliariasis - Biology - Life Cycle of D. tenuis

[107barney]

Originally Posted by ladyjane

I have no time for this. You go do what you want when you get your dog. Hope it works well for you and your pet.

I know what the scientific facts are and I am not going to sit and debate with you based upon a few people's written thoughts. I will continue to provide my pets with heartworm preventatives...I have sadly seen dogs die because of people like you who refuse to listen to the real facts. One of them was a foster of a friend and she suffered needlessly because someone did not use prevention.....horrible. I have also seen the vast numbers of dogs go through the horrible treatment to kill heartworms. Not going to happen to my beloved pets.

Conspiracy theories are of no interest to me.

She has her dog and he has ear mites.
Just had his distemper shot too.
Some drugs are ok I guess. Vet doesn't sound holistic prescribing gentomycin so hopefully he will talk some sense into her on this topic.

[ladyjane]

Originally Posted by 107barney

She has her dog and he has ear mites.
Just had his distemper shot too.
Some drugs are ok I guess. Vet doesn't sound holistic prescribing gentomycin so hopefully he will talk some sense into her on this topic.

I also noticed that this morning.

Yes, I hope he does. She does sound very confused. She started out with no heartworm prevention and tests every four months to a recent post saying it does not have to be given monthly (which most people are very aware of). So, I suppose there is hope.

[ladyjane]

Originally Posted by 107barney

I don't bother with holistic quacks who sell things like Hair IQ tests for epileptics. Doesn't that alone speak volumes?

I believe that there is a place for some holistic approaches as long as they don't exclude all reasonable traditional treatments; but, I went through that guy's website and shuddered at some of his thoughts...hard to understand how people like him have followers.

[margaritaville]

I don't really see much RESEARCH there. What I see is a lot a statistics re:heart worm prevalence,a lot of opinions, scare tactics and product promotion.

The last dog we had was on heart worm prevention, monthly. He died at 17 1/2yrs. I feel sad to think, I poisoned him all those years, he may have lived to be 100

So, even in light of this "research", I choose to continue with the heart worm medication And Im out of this thread. . <----- 2 healthy yorkies on heart worm protection

[107barney]

Originally Posted by ladyjane

I believe that there is a place for some holistic approaches as long as they don't exclude all reasonable traditional treatments; but, I went through that guy's website and shuddered at some of his thoughts...hard to understand how people like him have followers.

I am ok with some complimentary things as long as the modality is related to the problem. For example, acupuncture in an old dog who has arthritis and already takes tramadol would seem ok. Chiropractic adjustments and Hair IQ testing for confirmed idiopathic epileptics is quackery. I can't imagine what our neuro would say if I asked him this. I'm sure he doesn't wheel and deal in Hair IQ tests.

[Euro]

I live in the Caribbean and I never skip heartworm meds. I do however
Cut the for 22 lbs heartguard in two, as my yorkie is 4 lbs and my
Chihuahua is 4 1/2 lbs. This was my vets recommendation. it seems to me
that testing every 4 months would be much more expensive and certainly
much more stressful to both dog and owner. Hey, that's just my thought.

[ladyjane]

Originally Posted by margaritaville

I don't really see much RESEARCH there. What I see is a lot a statistics re:heart worm prevalence,a lot of opinions, scare tactics and product promotion.

The last dog we had was on heart worm prevention, monthly. He died at 17 1/2yrs. I feel sad to think, I poisoned him all those years, he may have lived to be 100

So, even in light of this "research", I choose to continue with the heart worm medication And Im out of this thread. . <----- 2 healthy yorkies on heart worm protection

Exactly why I laughed at the idea that I cannot read. The only thing I derived from that paper is that the author suggests that the reason vets encourage year round prevention is for money. Most of the paper is spent commenting on when to recommend heartworm prevention. He acknowledged that heartworms are a real threat....he was making a point that prevention is not needed year round (a fact that is already known). The author of that paper did NOT say to test your pups every four months and then, if positive, give a heartworm preventative (that clearly will be too late). So, in my mind, I am not the one who is having a reading comprehension issue and sounding ludicrous.

What people fail to think about is that it is extremely difficult for vets to get people to bring their pups to them. Many times by the time a person gets a pet to the vet is it often extremely ill because it was not taken for routine check ups. I have spoken with my vet about this issue and she was clear about the fact that it breaks her heart to see pets come in sickly when it could have been prevented or at least picked up sooner had the owner not skipped routine check ups.

BTW, we all know that some vets are motivated by money; but I choose to believe that most of them truly love animals and act in the best interest of those animals.

[ladyjane]

Originally Posted by Euro

I live in the Caribbean and I never skip heartworm meds. I do however
Cut the for 22 lbs heartguard in two, as my yorkie is 4 lbs and my
Chihuahua is 4 1/2 lbs. This was my vets recommendation. it seems to me
that testing every 4 months would be much more expensive and certainly
much more stressful to both dog and owner. Hey, that's just my thought.

I would read more about Heartgard and then speak with your vet again. This is not really acceptable use of Heartgard because the medication is not dispersed evenly throughout.

http://www.heartgard.com/SiteCollect...s-for-Dogs.pdf