The heartworm prevention is no hoax!
It is not that expensive and is great insurance for your dogs. Chances are, if your dog is not on them, he will get heartworms. The pills also kill other kinds of parasites too. Go to your vet though, do not try and use stuff from the feed store, just to be sure.

Ted

Regarding annual vaccinations, I was pleasantly surprised a few years ago when the vet told me there was no need to keep vaccinating my 12 year old Lab at his advanced age. That was the first time any vet had ever said that to me. On several occasions his staff had told me my dog was overdue for shots and when I responded that the vet said the dog didn't need them any more, the staff would always accept that.
I'll be interested to see if he's as progressive about vaccinations when I bring in a future pup for his first visit.

Regarding heart worm medicine, there are lots of folks here on eastern Long Island that have had dogs infected with heart worm. Over the past decade or so, I've had local vets advise me to use the preventative medicine only if I kenneled my dog outside, or if I lived in certain nearby marshy or wetlands areas. I have used the medicines with previous dogs but not with my last one, and I never discovered a heart worm problem. Maybe we were just lucky, but I don't like having my dog ingest unnecessary medicine or poison.
Any thoughts about flea collars and squirt-on stuff like Frontline?

If you live in the South, and don't treat for heartworm, there is a high probability of infection. Especially if the dog is kenneled outside.
In my opinion, the benefits of the heartworm meds far outweigh any risks.

It is a mistake to lump heartworm medication in the same catagory and vaccinations (although some people may disagree with this).

These are two totally different types of treatment.

When dogs get vaccinated they are being exposed to diluted viruses that cause the sickness. The idea is for a dog to devlop antibodies against the desease that is injected into them. Many many dogs have develop adverse reactions to viruses that are injected into the dogs (ie.e allergies, thyroid problems pancreaus problems etc etc)

Heartworm medication on the other hand does not put heartworms into the dogs. The meds are chemicals that kill the worms. Two different concepts. Everyone who lives in areas where there is a risk to heartworm should treat their dogs.

NO ONE should vaccinate their dogs on a yearly basis after the dog have had puppy vaccinations.

If you want to learn more about this important issue, get the book I sell titled <a href=://www.leerburg.com/945.htm">WHAT VETS DON"T TELL YOU ABOUT VACCINES</a> (Click on the title to read about it)

Could someone please explain to me what shots they should or should not get& how long after there puppy shots should they have shots again 2,3,4 years? I would think they should have there regular Rabies shots to prevent Rabies and a possible legal case! Thank You!

Another misconception that I have run into is that people think the heartworm prevention sticks around in the dog for a whole month. It only works for about a day. The protection is retroactive, it kills the immature heartworms that the mosquitoes have left in the dog (I can't think of a better way to explain it).

If you ever forget a dose, give it as soon as you remember, don't worry about having the vet test the dog first if it has been less than six months. The heartworm test only detects worms that are six months of age or older. Give the prevention for six months and then take the dog in to be tested so there isn't the possibility of a false negative test result. Heartgard is effective for 45 days, Interceptor is effective for 60, so if it has been 50 days since the last dose just get a simgle dose of Interceptor from the vet and the dog will be fine, even if you used Heartgard previously. In South Carolina it is almost to the point were the dog is either on the medication or they have heartworms, so the prevention is very important here.

I was suprised last week when my vet told me they only do vacinations (parvo, distemper, etc...) every 2 years now. This is the vet who always lectured me on the perils of no vacinations. I have done my puppy series and the 1 year later shots and that will be it for my guys.

As for heart worm, if its in your area, try to prevent it. I know of a breeder who never used prevetative and his whole kennel got infested with heartworms. Lost 3 dogs and had 5 dogs to treat at the cost of $900. each. Those dogs still do not have their health after 6 months of being clear. However I do stretch out my doses to every 6 weeks instead of 4. The vet said this is fine.

Nancy

I thought the link below was interesting because even the teaching hospital does not give the vaccines every year.

http://www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/vth/savp2.html

Nancy, that's so sad <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> . Heartworms are so bad here that I even give the cat Ivomec (I did check with the vet first and she was fine with it). I don't know about in your area, but I have heard of vets that would give asprin to the dogs after the treatment (but only for the first six weeks or so) to help the dog while the worms were dying off. Maybe I should start a new topic on heartworm prevention.

I talked to my vet again last week and he is telling me to vaccinate puppy's regular and again at 1 yr old and then every 6 years, and Rabies according to state law, ours is 3 months, 1 yr and then every 3yrs. I have trusted our vet for many years and he is so worried about those that over vaccinate, his only worry is for my show dogs, he still vaccinates them yearly, but is worried again about the effects it has on them, Ed, what do you think about this?? My only concern is those that don't vaccinate. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />