Lori Hall Webboard User Reg: 06-12-2007
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Our vet is a doctor at a VCA Veterinary Center Hospital (Veterinary Centers of America). They have over 500 vet hospitals in the country, so it's a big operation. I go there because I like one particular doctor at the one close to us.
Anyway, they used to use a name brand heartworm med, and supposedly they were having trouble with that company and started giving us a new heartworm med called Vethical (when you google it, it says it's made for VCA). They also make other pet meds and vet products.
The active ingredients are ivermectin/pyrantel pamoate/praziquantel. It is for heartworm, roundworm, hookworm and tapeworm.
Would you have any problem using this product? or would you order one of the brand name Rx's online and get vet approval? If so, which one is best?
Connie Sutherland Moderator Reg: 07-13-2005
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Loc: North-Central coast of California
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Quote: Lori Hall
Our vet is a doctor at a VCA Veterinary Center Hospital (Veterinary Centers of America). They have over 500 vet hospitals in the country, so it's a big operation. I go there because I like one particular doctor at the one close to us.
Anyway, they used to use a name brand heartworm med, and supposedly they were having trouble with that company and started giving us a new heartworm med called Vethical (when you google it, it says it's made for VCA). They also make other pet meds and vet products.
The active ingredients are ivermectin/pyrantel pamoate/praziquantel. It is for heartworm, roundworm, hookworm and tapeworm.
Would you have any problem using this product? or would you order one of the brand name Rx's online and get vet approval? If so, which one is best?
From what I found when I received this same info (also using VCA because that's where my vet is), ivermectin/pyrantel pamoate/praziquantel is also Iverhart Plus/Iverhart Max:
So here's the thing, as I saw it, and I hope Dr. Betty (or someone) will correct me if I'm wrong: unless you were giving Heartgard PLUS, then you are adding other de-wormers that you were not using before to the heartworm med.
I would prefer to use other wormers only as needed.
However, I also prefer using meds from my vet because of the warranty, the record-keeping, and just ... you know, because. And this price compared (at the time, at least) to online Heartgard.
I would really like to see a discussion about this. I am using the VCA product, but still thinking about it too.
Lori Hall Webboard User Reg: 06-12-2007
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Loc: So. California coast
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Oh yay! Glad you're using it too. I've used one box of it, and need to get another box so I just wanted to make sure I should get this again. I too am questioning the addition of the other wormers that are in it. None of the adult dogs I've owned have had any of those parasites, so I hate to give him things he doesn't need. But wondered if it's necessarily a bad thing.
With a baby around though I don't think that you can have too much anthelmentic.
But I'm not a huge fan of praziquantel. It came out in a formulation for horses just around the time that I was leaving practice. I felt it did not preform as expected and I made one mare sick with it. That's one negative experience, perhaps if I had treated many hundreds I'd have had no other complaint.
The heartguard plus formulation with the pyrantel+ivermectin is I believe a good safe product. Pyrantel pamonate is a super safe effective anthelmentic, it has a wide margin of safety.
I really am out of date here, so what I say should be taken with a grain of salt. It is good to eliminate tapeworm, and some tapeworm can be picked up by children, so if your dog gets along fine with the product, I guess I'd keep using it.
Lori Hall Webboard User Reg: 06-12-2007
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Loc: So. California coast
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Betty, this is the dog that started having those yucky burps. Wonder if that drug that made the horse sick could be causing upset with Kasey's system? Come to think of it, he didn't have this problem before we started it - could be a coincidence though. How long would that drug stay in their sytem, do you know?
I don't think these drugs stay in the body long at all. The praziquantel I bet is gone in 24 hrs along with the pyrantel pamonate, basically I think these medications remain in the GI tract and exit with the stool. 2-3 days max. The ivermectin I can only speak from my cattle knowledge---cattle poured with ivermectin will not have maggots develop in the manure for about 10 days post dosing. So in a cow, with a huge dose, about 10 days.
The heartworm meds don't "last a month". I think the concept is to kill off any L3 larvae from mosquitos, prevent them from developing, kill any very immature heartworms once a month.
I could be wrong about this tho.
Connie Sutherland Moderator Reg: 07-13-2005
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"The heartworm meds don't "last a month". .... the concept is to kill off any L3 larvae from mosquitos, prevent them from developing, kill any very immature heartworms once a month."
Exactly. It kills the tiny larvae that have accumulated in the time since the last dose.
When ivermectin was approved in the 1980s, as I know Betty knows, it was the first time monthly instead of daily "prevention" med was available. ("Prevention," of course, is sort of a misnomer. It kills off an infection before the larvae can grow big enough to do damage.)
Betty, you are also correct, of course, about the extremely fast elimination time of praziquantel --- a matter of hours, although I don't recall how many.
I'm not a health professional. What I do know about how swiftly these drugs leave the body (exactly as Betty says), makes me unable to think of a way that an ongoing burpiness can result.
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Heartworm med advice?
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