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Heartworm injection

vanessa0305

Well-known member
My vet wants me to start Bailey on the heartworm injection (12month) when he is desexed at 6 months. Has anyone done this? I know for some breeds its not safe but I dont' find any cautions for Cavaliers.
 
Why is he recommending this? Does your dog need year-round protection in your area? I imagine they do in Australia.

Only areas where the temperature stays above a certain level year round require year-round heartworm protection. And many recommend using every 6 weeks rather than every 4 weeks for treatment, as the medication is very strong and will cover a 6 week period safely (but cannot be guaranteed longer than that). The best advice I have heard is to give heartworm medication as minimally as possible. However even the Whole Dog Journal, an advocate of many holistic and natural approaches to dog health, says heartworm medication is the one area in which people should always choose commercial heartworm preparations and not try to deal with this any other way. WDJ had an article on this around the start of summer.

The 6-month injection from one manufacturer was recalled by the FDA in the US due to adverse reactions. There seems to continue to be considerabel controversy with both the 6 and 12 month injections, with some vets recommending the injection only be used when no other form of heartworm treatment is possible for a dog at risk. Personally I'd not want to use this option and I'd especially not want to use it on cavaliers.

I'd suggest googling the actual name of the injection used and reading up on the pros and cons.

For example: http://www.bichon.org/medications.htm

This is from the AKC bichon club.
 
We give our dogs heartworm medication once a month in pill form. We only give it from April until November, since there are no mosquitos here during winter and early spring.

I have never heard of a heartworm injection and therefore know nothing about their safety. If these shots are not safe for some breeds, I would not want them. The pills are a safe and acceptable alternative!
 
I actually found a homeopathic heartworm prevention that is an oral liquid form...I had King tested b4 putting him onto it..and 5 months after being on it, and I can honestly say that its works. It's easy for me to administer to King and he likes the test....It made by a vet in Huntington,Ny who specializes in homopathic remedies and treatments
 
hey there vanessa,
well my dogs are 10 mnths now but they have been having a heartworm tablet every month since i brought them home and 2 mnths.. they actually started at 4 months... but then when i got my two desexed at 6 mnths the vet offered to give them a yearly heartworm injection so that they wouldnt hve to take a tablet every month - it had to be either option here. in the end i agreed to the injection because my previous dog had the yearly injection and everything was absolutely fine plus it was easier/ cheaper. nothing at all seems to be wrong with them. i live in australia so i guess it is kind of a must around here but im not sure where you live so i dont know the living conditions there..but the injection has worked out very well for me and i havent heard anything about how they shouldnt agree with cavvies as a breed..anyway your decision! :p
 
Kingofthehouse86 said:
I actually found a homeopathic heartworm prevention that is an oral liquid form...I had King tested b4 putting him onto it..and 5 months after being on it, and I can honestly say that its works. It's easy for me to administer to King and he likes the test....It made by a vet in Huntington,Ny who specializes in homopathic remedies and treatments

what's it called Aaron? Sounds good to know about. What is the test for? I mean, what is it that's tested?

where i live, heartworm is not a risk thank goodness. the vets don't recommend heartworm prevention. My vet said that this is something that's continuously monitored, it can be a problem in some regions and not others, but this can change over time, but for now, they aren't seeing heartworm around here. I'm grateful for that. The fewer meds the better.

After i just wrote this, i did a search on incidence of heart worm in my area, Los angeles county, and interestingly, i found an article written by my vet in 2001 and last revised in 2003

(click here)

saying that there is a risk of heartworm becoming more of a problem here, based on a particular study and on experiences elsewhere. I think this is intersting because she has been my vet for many years, for my cat, and that was the first vet i took Zack to when i first got him. I didn't see her on that first visit, i saw the other vet who is in the practice, wendy brooks is the senior vet and i saw the younger newer one. but i assume they share the same practice philosophies on heartworm and other things, and probably practice a local standard. Zack has been seen by Wendy subsequently and the subject didn't come up. So it's interesting that i found this article by her suggesting that there may be too much complacency in LA County about heartworm. But this year at least, they did not recommend testing or prevention, and an explanation was offered that it was not considered to be a risk at this time, although that could change.
 
I can only say again that even the Whole Dog Journal considers it dangerous to rely on holistic treatments for heartworm rather than the conventional medications. This is a very, very important consideration -- the WDJ takes a holistic approach to most medical conditions and gathers together what it considers to be the best current opinion. It stated that people should not rely on holistic heartworm preparations as none are reliably adequate in preventing heartworm. If your dog gets heartworm, it may well die from heartworm. Killing the adults living in the heart involves a treatment so harsh that the treatment alone can kill the dog. The worms fill the heart compartments and cause extreme distress (and death).

Here's the relevant comment from the article:

An excerpt from the article:

Heartworm: Don't Take it Lightly

This is one aspect of canine healthcare for which conventional medicine offers the best -- and perhaps the only truly reliable -- prevention and treatment protocols.

Some argue, but...

As the co-moderator of an e-mail list on dog health and nutrition, I frequently see people allege that as long as you have a healthy dog, feed a raw diet, and do not over-vaccinate, your dog will not get heartworms. If only this were true! These measures may help to some degree, but they are not foolproof. The only way to know for sure that your dog is protected is to give heartworm preventatives.

Whole Dog Journal: http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/

The full article ran in Feb 2006 and is worth buying from the WDJ website if anyone has any doubts about why they make this recommendation.
 
Judy it's called "liquid heartworm prevention" lol... its made my dr. burton miller...I'm not sure if u can buy it online...I actually got it through work, cuz we deal a lot with his vet office getting all out prevention for the pups. so my boss got it to use 4 her dogs and asked me it I'd like it for King. It's only $15.99 for a yr dose, and the pills are $7.99 per pill I saved myself a lot of money, plus I read up on the success first and found it really works...so I use a lot of his products the nutra drops, eye solution (tear stain remover) Then there are his chinese herbs/vitamins (an immune booster) that I give King once a month...so I really like this guy, never met him in person, yet, spoke wit him and he's really cool
 
I also live in Oz and my dogs have had the porheart injection for heartworm twice now. I was not sure whether I would get it done again next year as the last 2 years they have been fine but both been left with an egg sized lump at the injection site that takes a long while to go down.

However foolish uneducated me had both their c5 and heartworm
injection done at the same time in a similar area :oops: and I have never really been certain that the lump is from the proheart and not from the c5 but I lean toward the proheart as when thay just had the c5 thay never got the lump (I think) but will admit I have not been giving this the attention it deserves.
Next time round will be different as I am now more aware about the vacc debate and SM link etc etc.
Hope this makes sense. Did you feel around the injection site and notice any difference ?
 
Heartgard, the most frequently used heartworm med in the US, is just ivermectin. The half-life is only 24-36 hours so it leaves the body quickly (in feces). The doses used for heartworm prevention are quite low, and there is very minimal risk except for some sheepdogs because of a mutated gene. Click here for more info. The drug is used in much higher doses for other parasitic infections.

I know the heartworm injection was recalled here, so we stick with the pill.
 
Where we are in Florida, year round heart worm prevention is a must. Our vet recommends HeartGaurd in the chewable form. My pups think it is a treat and love when the first of the month comes around.

I don't think injections are done anymore in the states or at least not much
 
vanessa0305 said:
My vet wants me to start Bailey on the heartworm injection (12month) when he is desexed at 6 months. Has anyone done this? I know for some breeds its not safe but I dont' find any cautions for Cavaliers.

They pulled the proheart 6 month shot off the market here in the USA. If your dog has a reaction-- there is no way they can take it out (unlike the heartgard chew that is only in the system a short time. Also where I live it didn't make sense to drug a dog all year. fwiw Sandy
 
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