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What heartworm med do you give? 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! :eek: :blush: 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? |
Ellie gets Interceptor or Sentinel (these might be chews, but she wouldn't eat them, so I just pill her). Rylee gets Heartgard Plus (a chew - he gulps it). Yes, you should test before and every year after that. Lots of people don't give it in CA. I'd be giving it. Yes, year-round. The shot is highly questionable. |
I use Heartgard Plus for Riley once a month, all year round. Riley knows what it is and he literally does circles!! It is Beef Flavored, and He LOVES It!! LOL!! My vet does a heartworm test at his yearly exam....The results are back before I even leave the office. I get it from Drs. Foster and Smith. They call my vets office and verify his presciption. From them, you can get: 12 pills for $44.88 and 6 pills for $25.80 or a single pill for $5.56 Heartgard Plus for Dogs I also use Frontline Plus once a month, all year round, for fleas and ticks. I always do the Heartgard Plus on the 15th of the month and the Frontline Plus on the last day of the month.... Hope this helps!! :) |
Yes, bloodwork is a must before starting preventative. ZoE is on Interceptor. It's the only heartworm medication I've ever used on my yorkies. She's on it year round because she travels with me, and while she may be ok off it in winter in Michigan, she wouldn't be elsewhere, so it's just safer to keep her on it year round...not to mention that it also protects against hookworm, roundworm and whipworm. I buy it directly from ZoE's vet and it's cheap....$30 for a 6 month supply. |
I use Heartguard plus once a month for Louie. |
we use Sentinal year round and advantage during warm months |
If you asked your vet how much it would cost to treat your Yorkie for Heartworm and how long it would take for them to recover (I won't even get into the risks involved with treatment), that alone should convince you that you are always going to be better off giving a preventative. My dog is 12lbs and I pay $45.00 for 12 months of Interceptor, purchased from Drs. Foster and Smith. You will want to get a blood test done to verify your pet is HW- and make sure your vet has records of all prescriptions he has given you for preventative. The reason you want to do this is some of the HW preventative manufacturers carry guarantees that state, if your pet has been tested negative and ever becomes positive for any of the parasites it covers while your pet is on the medication, the company will pay for the pet's treatment in full. I do not know of the details of this type of guarantee for Interceptor, but to the best of my knowledge, HeartGard does have this guarantee. Ask your vet for details. I also would never give a shot. I want the drug out of my pet's system as quickly as possible. |
I use Heartgard Plus and give it year around. She won't eat it from my hand, so I just crumble it on her food and she eats it fine. I don't remember what it costs.:rolleyes: |
So seems like Hartguard plus is the yummiest and easiest to give. :thumbup: |
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the guarantee is interesting, thanks for bringing it up. I will def be talking to my vet about that. |
Chew, shot, or topical? Chew - Sentinel ( It also sterilizes fleas) About how much do you pay for them? I think they are about $10 a month??? Do they take the chew or do you have to trick them? Trick - there is no way my girls are just going to chew them up. :D Do you give it year round or just in the summer? Year round. I read you should do bloodwork before giving the preventative in case they are already infected, is this true? Yes, when I got Mikki they tested the blood before she could start taking them. I think it cost me $60 for the test. |
Kiko takes the Heartguard Plus, a chew, once a month, all year round. She thinks it's a treat and scarfs it down. She is also on frontline plus for fleas and ticks. The vet here has tested Kiko both times (initial new puppy visit and 1 year visit) for heartworm before issuing a prescription for Heartguard. It is a very quick blood test. I would ask your vet if Uni should be on a preventative, and if so whether she should take it year round or seasonally. I would also ask which one he/she recommends and why (pros/cons compared to the other options). |
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Forgot to add - A 6 month supply of heartguard plus cost me $25.00 and the frontline plus was $65.00, also a 6 month supply. |
Thanks guys! :) |
Jackson gets Interceptor - a pill. He won't chew things so I figured pill was easiest! Oh, and we rotate between Frontline Plus and K9 Advantix for fleas/ticks. But if I didn't have to use these, I wouldn't. I went for a few months this summer with nothing because I just never saw fleas/ticks. For some reason now, I've seen more ticks than ever... |
I give mine Sentinel year around. It cost me $62.00 for a 6 month supply. I put it in Low Fat Cream Cheese and they think they are getting a treat. |
I use heartgard plus chewables, they are so tastey the dogs take them without a problem. Also they treat other type of worms that are pretty common if your dog ever goes to dog parks. If you've ever seen a picture of a human with worms, you'll either give up kissing your dog, or give your dog worm meds. I've never used flea meds for them, we've never had fleas on any of our dogs, except one I got from the pound and the vet treated him and we never had another problem. So knock on wood. |
That is why I alternate along with just being indecisive.:rolleyes: I never give Sentinel in the winter. It is a difference of $5 or $14, so.... Ry takes Heartgard Plus bc it was free. He'll probably go on Interceptor soon - not because I think it's necessarily better for heartworms, but because it covers one more type of worm, so why not... |
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Callie is on Interceptor all year. In order to get heartworm meds you have to have a prescription and the vet wont give one with out a recent test for heartworms. Callie takes hers with no problems I just put my hand out with it in there and tell her to get it and she does and looks at me like more please. For 12 months is coast me $45.00. |
Yes, rounds and hooks are much more of a human issue. Some dogs (mine ;) ) can't take Heartgard Plus bc they are allergic to beef... I also like to be able to flip-flop to Sentinel easily (and would prefer to give teh same heartworm drug year-round). I really like lufeneron. There are some concerns about Frontline failure here. Sentinel is a major deal now. Also though, none of it is a totally trustworthy dewormer. If I wanted a dog to be "kid safe" (knowing they weren't going to pass worms on to kids in the house), I'd be using a different product entirely. And because Heartgard adds two drugs instead of one (ivermectin and pyrantel), I guess I figure why not just replace pyrantel with something that is more thorough. ..although Interceptor/Sentinel is a 4/5 overdose just so it controls intestinal parasites. It's really a matter of what you prefer. All of them are very good drugs. |
We use Heartguard too for Katie Scarlett. She absolutely loves her chewable. She gets what we call the Heartguard Zoomies after eating hers. She runs around the house for about 10 minutes. It is so funny! We have been just buying them one at a time from our vet, but I need to get a 6 pack. We do one on the 23rd of each month. |
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I've been questioning Frontline these past two months. I swear - I put one dose of K9 Advantix on him at the end of June and saw no ticks the WHOLE summer (which is VERY odd for Maryland). By October 1st, I realized he had not had flea/tick meds since June. So I bought Frontline, applied it, and suddenly we've had, like, 5 ticks since then. Two were attached (one was HUGE on his head that I picked off), the others were teeny tiny and crawling on strands of his hair that I just happened to see. Thinking I have to go back to K9 Advantix for a bit. I also notice that it seems like when I first put the Frontline on, don't have any problems. Then maybe two weeks in is when I see them... I'm wondering if the effectiveness wears off before the month is up. So annoying and frustrating. Paying all this $$$ for a product that's seemingly not working. |
I think it's very similar to what is being reported other places - some of the drugs seem to be losing effectiveness (failing). I'm not sure how big of an issue that is here yet. ...apparently enough of one for some vets to go a different way with things. Frontline is still used extensively here. It's a good product. But one of the go to's now is Sentinel with Capstar as needed (which wouldn't work for you because of the ticks). If Advantix is the only thing that's working, that's what I'd use. I'd try to get away with spacing the doses out more though. I'm just happy with we don't really have ticks to worry about and Frontline seems to be working good enough because I can't stand the smell of Advantage. Couldn't imagine that stuff on my dogs. |
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I do try to space these drugs out as much as I can, and it seemed Advantix worked longer than a month, whereas Frontline is losing effectiveness after two weeks or so. As much as I prefer Frontline (the permerthin does worry me - however Jax has never had any adverse reactions to it), I would prefer if I could get away with Advantix every 2 months or so and not dealing with ticks. *sigh* Guess I'll buy some Advantix, as he's due in a few days for next dosage (got tick off him yesterday already though). |
I don't like permethrin either. As long as he isn't reacting to it though... So many dogs get skin crawly feelings from it that my vet office doesn't stock it. That said, your only other solid choice is a product with Amitraz and I wouldn't go there... |
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