All Myne are on it i live in texas and we have mosquitos year around all my girls are on it.

Minamal shots but they are on heartgaurd

If there not here they will have it

I think better safe then sorry in the south at least

 Quote: Sarah Ward

I'm curious to know where Jenni found information on dogs getting heartworm while being appropriately dosed with a reliable preventative? Every vet I've known over the years has treated heartworm cases, and every one of them has told me it was due to the dog either not being on a preventative during mosquito season, or going too long between doses.

Sarah, I work at a vet clinic in the south and we have seen an increased incidence of dogs on preventative contracting hw's. One of our doctors now teaches and comes to the the clinic once a month for a few days and they are seeing it there also, as well as in the Mississippi delta where my nephew lives. Now that said we were informed early fall that they have found that Heartguard if not chewed by the dog is not as effective and are suposedly going to be changing labels to reflect this. Maybe this is the reason for the suposed increase in hw+ dogs but somehow I don't think dogs not chewing completely is a recent phenomonon either.

All your thoughts and links have been great food for thought.I am convince the cancer that stole my Dobe, the best dog ever, was indeed caused by overvacination but at the time I thought I was doing what was best for her. Jerri will be very minimumly vaccinated and while I will leave her on hw preventative because we are in a high risk area I will stretch the doses out to every 45 days. She also gets one raw meal a day now. Maybe more in her near future.


Lisa

Lisa,
Interesting. I have access to the veterinary research library at my university, so I ran a search last night and did find one paper published in the journal Veterinary Pathology in 2005 describing cases of heartworm in dogs that were on preventatives. They were all in the south, just as you said. It sounds like down there in heartworm central some of the parasites may be starting to develop resistance, which I guess shouldn't be surprising given the widespread and long-term use of compounds like ivermectin. The authors of this paper did note there is not a good national system in place for reporting such cases, so it is hard to tell how frequent they are. It would certainly be something to watch. I plan to keep using ivermectin or milbemycin for now as no failures have been reported in the Rocky Mountain region, but I'll be getting my veterinary research colleagues to keep reporting to me on this!

I sympathize over the loss of your dobe to cancer. I lost my best dog ever to hepatic lymphoma a while back, and I do think it was caused by years of over-vaccination and feeding kibble. It's a hard way to learn, and I'll always regret my ignorance. Against all predictions he did get a good year of remission following chemotherapy and a switch to raw diet with lots of supplements. He was treated by a wonderful veterinary oncologist who was very supportive of feeding raw, stopping all vaccinations, not exposing him to chemicals etc. BUT she was quite firm about continuing heartworm preventatives (she clued me in to the 45 day schedule to reduce the overall dose). Just thought I should mention that.

A cancer patient certainly does not have the immune system to fight parasites. I think this is different than suggesting that all animals be on preventatives year round forever and ever amen. It's the resistance that scares me. The more we think we "defeat" the more resistance we create when it mutates stronger. Not to start another topic, but let's all remember when Parvo first reared it's ugly head...

I use Interceptor on my dogs.

Mandy

Not all rescue dogs are unhealthy. Some have had excellent care but unfortunately become too old to breed and the breeders no longer want them because they are no longer useful. Worrying about your own is selfish and irresponsible. Attitudes like that are why thousands of animals are needlessly euthanized every year.

 Quote: colleen safarowicz

Worrying about your own is selfish and irresponsible. Attitudes like that are why thousands of animals are needlessly euthanized every year.

Then call me "Dog Killer." I keep my dogs away from America's pets as much as possible....for their own protection. I don't let them play w/others, I don't let people touch them, the county thinks they're all dead, and my next door neighbors don't know how many I have. I think the world has bigger problems than the poisons my dogs haven't been exposed to. JM^irresponsible O.

Nice attitude. Just think, your dog/dogs could end up in a shelter one day due to some unforeseen circumstance. Luckily there are people that care about all dogs to save those that aren't lucky enough to have a good home or end up in shelters through no fault of their own.

 Quote: Colleen Safarowicz

Worrying about your own is selfish and irresponsible.

Excuse me???

 Quote: Colleen Safarowicz

Luckily there are people that care about all dogs to save those that aren't lucky enough to have a good home

That's funny! You just described Jenni.