Required to give heartguard?

I just found out you're suppost to give your dog a pill called heartguard every month. Anyone even heard of this before? I've never given one to mine before, but I may start, especially after I found this sweet offer below:

TreasureTrooper pays $15 for every person who does the PetCareRX offer. To complete this offer, just make a purchase of any price. What you may not know is that every dog owner is required to give their pet a pill called "heartguard" every month. The veterinarian usually sells this chew to the dog owner at an inflated price. People can actually save over 50% on their heartguard medication by purchasing it at PetCareRX. Add the $15 that we pay you to do it through us, and you practically get the medicine for free.

Check it out:

http://www.treasuretrooper.net

You don't necessarily have to buy heartguard, you can buy another brand of heartworm prevention, heart guard is pretty pricey. Your dog should be tested for heart worms first, starting prevenative treatment in an untested dog could lead to worse illness if heartworms are present.

I've honestly never heard of heartworms before. Is it a new disease? Is it a risk to all kinds of dogs? Is it in all parts of the world, or what's up with it?

Monthly heartworn protection is VERY important. My dogs have always been on it all their lives. Heartworm WILL kill your dogs. It is spread through mosquitoes. I recently rescued a stray with heartworm. The treatment, if caught in time, is very hard on their bodies. You can't just give you dog the pills. You need to get he/she tested because if he/she already has it the pills won't help and your dog will die. Heartworm is literally worms that grow in the dog's heart. The 'babies' are in the bloodstream and a simple blood test from the vet will find out if your dog is negative or positive. Years ago a positive almost always meant your dog would die, but now there are better treatments. My little patient, Jimmy, is doing really well and he will get retested in January to see if the worms are all gone.

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Originally Posted by Rage

I've honestly never heard of heartworms before. Is it a new disease? Is it a risk to all kinds of dogs? Is it in all parts of the world, or what's up with it?

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It's not a new disease. My childhood dog used to take heartguard. DO NOT GIVE YOUR DOG THE PRO-HEART 6 SHOT! I'm not even sure if it's still on the market, but it killed a lot of dogs. It's bad. Just ask Kimmy about Kia. Kia almost died from it.

I think some parts of the world are worse than others for heartworms, but pretty much anywhere there are mosquitos there are probably heartworms.

Here is a heartworm map:

http://cal.vet.upenn.edu/merial/hrtw...orldcolorF.gif

We have alot of mosquitos here in Florida. Heartworm preventative is a must. It's a very ugly disease that no one wants to witness. I lost my Pittie, Bully, to it many years ago. He had it when I found him wandering through my yard one day. I rescued him, got him the treatment, but still lost him to a miserable death. It was awful. As others have said, do not give your dog heartworm preventative without proper testing beforehand. Whatever you do.....do the test first. It could lead to more severe problems or possibly death. Thank God for the newer cures for the disease. As My Peanuts said, years ago your dog would almost always die if they had a positive test. Please have your dog/s tested and start the treatment as soon as you can. It will be well worth it :)

Weird, I'm from Saskatchewan and I have 3 German Shepherds that basically live outside because I'm on an acreage and I've never heard of this. I'm deffinately going to look into it though. Thanks.

From this it looks like you may not have heartworms in your area:

http://www.avma.ab.ca/animal_health/...th8.htm#point5

Oh, well I'll be damned, no wonder I've never heard of it. I'm still gonna signup at treasuretrooper.net though and buy like a $2 toy for my puppy and then I'll get $15 back. $15-$2=$13 profit! :D

Just thought I'd share the offer with you guys. Can be used to buy anything at that site.

Let us know how it works out and if you DO receive your $15 rebate (or, in your acse, the $13 profit hehe) ;)

I'm sure I will. If you check the forums at this site you can see that have been paying out thousands of dollars to members for months. There's a tone of other offers as well, credit card offers, $35 for signing up for a credit card. There's casino offers, one pays you $120 for depositing $50 into a casino. Got some mad money making deals :P Hopefully this one works well for me :P

I think our vet charges $12 per dog for a 6-month supply of heartguard. We get the chews.

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Originally Posted by caseysmom

From this it looks like you may not have heartworms in your area:

http://www.avma.ab.ca/animal_health/...th8.htm#point5

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Ticks and Lyme disease are bigger concern in Saskatchewan than heartworms. I grew up there and we always treated our dogs for ticks and heartworm, despite the lower risk. I also did heartworm protection when I lived in Alberta. We don't do it anymore. My vet doesn't even carry the meds as he's never seen a case up here.

Glacier, thats be couse it's too cold up there. We have mixed vet opinions here some think we should and so say we get cold enough for the worms to die here.

It does make sense that maybe heartworms wouldn't exist in certain parts of the world. I didn't even think about it but I think it's great that some areas don't have to worry too much about their dogs contracting it. Thanks for that information :)

Yea, I was kinda worried today when I first heard of this threat, lucky I'm in one of the few parts of the world that doesn't have to worry (or am I lucky that we get -40C weather in the winter?)

I give my dogs Ivermectin.

My one dog will not eat the heartworm meds that the vet says all dogs love. He had to give me liquid to give her every month. So now all three dogs get the meds every month. I was relieved when we rescued Mrs. Magoo last week she came out negative for it. I had given peaches the shot for the six month treatment she got so sick from it I thought I was going to loose her. I will never ever give her that again. My vet says it was taken off the market but they are coming out with a diffrent one. I will wait and see how it affects dogs before ever giving it to one of my babies.

My girls get the chewable Heartguard. Delilah eats it like candy and Daisy spits it out on the floor. She eventually eats it but it takes a good long while. She can be pretty picky sometimes anyway LOL :)

Interesting...I always thought every single dog had to have a heartworm pill no matter where they live. Thanks for the map link.

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Originally Posted by caseysmom

You don't necessarily have to buy heartguard, you can buy another brand of heartworm prevention, heart guard is pretty pricey. Your dog should be tested for heart worms first, starting prevenative treatment in an untested dog could lead to worse illness if heartworms are present.

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I just wanted to add that you should always consult with your vet before choosing what brand to give.

Heartguard has ivermectin in it which can cause some serious side effects. It should not be given to Collies, Shetland sheepdogs, Australian shepherds, and Old English sheepdogs, though some individual animals that are not members of these sensitive breeds may also be prone to side effects.

Revolution contains selamectin, which is a closely related cousin of ivermectin. To be on the safe side it shuold also not be used on the above mentioned breeds.

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You can't just give you dog the pills. You need to get he/she tested because if he/she already has it the pills won't help and your dog will die.

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Yes that is true but heartworm meds are also avail only by script. and you are required to have your dog tested before putting him/her on the preventative.

So if your vet doesn't require a test chances are it's not a very reputable vet at all. And also not complying with state/government laws.

Another thing to be careful about is the place you are purchasing them from. If they don't require a script from your vet chances are it is a scam. A lot of internet drug sites that don't require scripts are selling fake drugs. Which is also against the law.

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Originally Posted by elizabethann

Interesting...I always thought every single dog had to have a heartworm pill no matter where they live. Thanks for the map link.

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Yes they should. The map just shows you where it is more common. If you were to look at a heartworm map 10 years ago you'd be VERY surprised how far it has spread! It spreads fast & you never know when or where it will turn up. If your neighbor travels somewhere, accidently gets a live heartworm possitive mosquito trapped in the luggage or what not, makes it's way back to your area... boom you've heartwoprm in your area now.


And winters make no difference. Sure the colder it gets & the longer it stays cold helps keep them at bay it is still no guarantee. We get some nasty cold winters up here & heartworm is pretty common in my parts.

My mom just had to put down her 3yr.old black lab because of heartworms.He had them so bad the vet wouldn't even consider treatment because he was so bad.Putting him down was her only option.Needless to say she's heartbroken and the guilt she feels for not having him on a preventative is overwhelming.My Kujo gets it faithfully every month.No matter what brand you and your vet decide on it should definitley be given especially if you live in an area where mosquitos are a problem.It's horrible the way dogs suffer from it.