Seems to spread every year. What is everyone using?

I buy small tablets of ivermectin from Australia.

I give both dogs Hearguard (ivermectin). Its a chewable tab that's beef flavored. Buy it at the vet and the dogs think you're giving them a treat once a month.

A buddy of mine uses Trifexis which is supposed to stop fleas, ticks, and heartworms. He claims it works but it seems fairly expensive.

I had one dog get heartworms while on a DOUBLE dose of Heartguard.
Another one got infected while on Bayer Advantage.
Both were treated, now I have them on Pro Heart ingections, every 6 months. I don't expect that to work either. They now sleep inside at night.
The Mississippi Valley has changed in the last few years. The Vets won't admit it but the worms are getting resistant to the preventive.

quote:

Originally posted by Tex21:
I give both dogs Hearguard (ivermectin). Its a chewable tab that's beef flavored. Buy it at the vet and the dogs think you're giving them a treat once a month.

A buddy of mine uses Trifexis which is supposed to stop fleas, ticks, and heartworms. He claims it works but it seems fairly expensive.

I looked up the label and ticks are not covered.

quote:

Originally posted by brad may:
I had one dog get heartworms while on a DOUBLE dose of Heartguard.
Another one got infected while on Bayer Advantage.

Both were treated, now I have them on Pro Heart ingections, every 6 months. I don't expect that to work either. They now sleep inside at night.
The Mississippi Valley has changed in the last few years. The Vets won't admit it but the worms are getting resistant to the preventive.

I've heard this also. Google; heartwormHeartgard product failure?

All I can say is do what your Vet thinks is best.
Bayer put on a slide show at one of the Grand's a couple of years ago and showed in red where heartworms have taken off in the last five or so years. The Mississippi Valley starting in around southern Tennesse was solid red.

quote:

Originally posted by brad may:
The Vets won't admit it but the worms are getting resistant to the preventive.

I think that everything is getting resistant. Mosquitos, ticks, fleas, what have you. We switched to Advantix this year for ticks because the Frontline just didn't seem to be cutting it. Mosquito sprays don't seem to work like they did a few years ago either. The only defense seems to be full body cover or 100% deet which will probably also start to lose its effectiveness.

I use the 1% injectable Ivomec. dosage of 1/10 cc per 20lbs. I don't inject, just draw up enough in syringe and squirt it towards the back of the mouth once a month. Kills all blood sucking internal parasites and I believe it helps with the external parasites as well.

Just came back from the Vet and I was informed the drug that was used to treat heartworms, Immiticide, has been taken off the market.
This is not the preventive, but the treatment to kill the worms in an infected dog.
This is not good.

@ Brad: Advantage isn't labeled to prevent heartworm disease so saying the product didn't prevent it is misleading at best-it's strictly for flea/lice control. Heartworms are spread by mosquitos and even the various preventatives don't prevent your pet from getting infected, they just kill the little worms before they turn into big worms.

What a lot of vets. aren't telling their clients is that their pets need to be on heartworm prevention year-round regardless of where you live as that's the only surefire way to prevent it. Is it possible that a dog could get infected while on preventative-yes, but the likelihood is very low and likely related to the dog not absorbing the med. very well, or spitting it out after you give it to them.

In strictly controlled environments involving 1000s of dogs where dogs are on preventative year-round across the US, heartworm disease isn't being seen which says it's likely a compliance issue (or an economic one) but no vet. will accuse their clients of such things. PM me if you would like more details.

Immiticide goes on and off the market all the time so we can only hope this is a short-term issue and not a long term one. Also reinforces the need to keep your pets on prevention year round.

Jarod Hanson, DVM

Jarod
You have your meds mixed up. Bayer Advantix is the topical for fleas only. Advantage Multi is for heartworms.
For what I have in my three males I could have bought a new Ford F-250 King Ranch. They are all hunt test dogs. Believe me, I never skipped a month on heart worm meds to try to save a few bucks.
Down here in South Louisiana, it is SOP to keep the dogs year round on heart worm preventive.
I will admit I'm not sure Hammer got the worms on Advantage. He had been on a double dose of Heartguard and was determined clear so I put him on Advantage Multi. A year later on his check up he was positive. If I had had him checked after 6 months and he had the worms it would have been the fault of Heart guard not working. I now have them all checked every 6 months instead of every year.
Bayer has a map of the United States showing where heartworms are showing up. The Mississippi Valley is solid red. I couldn't find this map on the internet, I saw it at the UKC Grand where Bayer had a rep to tell every one what was going on.
I never trusted Advantage because the dogs are in the water so much. Glad they put Proheart back on the market.

Brad,

I didn't mix up my meds. as there is plain Advantage (which does what I specified) and Advantage Multi which does prevent heartworms as you indicated. My assumption was that you were referring plain Advantage which was incorrect so thank you for clarifying. I honestly have seen the most heartworm positive dogs come in on Advantage Multi and generally regard any of the various preventatives that "offer it all" in terms of flea/tick/heartworm to be suspect, especially the topical ones because as you pointed out if they're in the water a lot that can make them ineffective.

With Heartguard, even in LA, it works if they take it but a lot of dogs will act like they swallow it only to spit it out or vomit it up later which then means they're not protected. Keep in mind the Bayer rep. is trying to sell product so they'll show you a map where heartworm disease is endemic (normally found) with all kinds of fancy colors and it isn't any different than the one Merial has other than in a different color. To date there is little if any convincing scientific evidence that dogs given heartguard or any of the other preventatives as labeled will actually get the disease due to the as yet unproven and undiscovered "drug-resistant" heartworm.

I like Proheart 6 but too many people believe they only need to get it once a year like other "vaccines" and it gets them into trouble.

ProHeart 6 has had a past. Used to be,as I was told, you were supposed to run a blood panel before giving the shot to check for any renal problems before. It went off the market for a spell due to this (I think) but is now back on. I saw two dogs this summer in my internship that had been given the shot and had liver and kidney failure within two months of the shot. Any vets or pet owners seen anything of this? As for heartworms, I saw enough and parvovirus as well to last me a lifetime. Such a sad thing that most cases are due to owner uneducation, disinterest, and/or financial strain.