Quick Question About HW

[lv4dogs]

This is all I could find...

Heartworm Locations

Well you're doing better than I am, at least you found something. lol It's still not what I am looking for, the one I have seen before is more detailed than that. You can zoom in & out and it also states the "known" possitive cases of heartworm for each area as well.

[My Peanuts]

Around here if a dog is on year round Heart Guard then they test every 2 years. My dogs are only on Heart Guard from May-December (no mosquitoes in Chicago in the freezing cold) so we test every year.

The test is cheap. At my vet it’s $26 I believe. It’s better to be safe than sorry. Jimmy had heart worm when we got him. The treatment is terrible and makes them VERY sick.

[wolfsoul]

Around here, no one tests for heartworm. The dog is either on a preventative or it's not.

[IRescue452]

I would love to find a place where you can just buy the preventative all year round. As far as I know about laws, dog medicine doesn't need a prescription here, so why do only vets carry this stuff?!! Its a freakin' monopoly so the vets can get money, but there is no legal reason that only vets can sell it. If your friends dogs has heartworms then I think you should test.

[lv4dogs]

I would love to find a place where you can just buy the preventative all year round. As far as I know about laws, dog medicine doesn't need a prescription here, so why do only vets carry this stuff?!! Its a freakin' monopoly so the vets can get money, but there is no legal reason that only vets can sell it.

Actually if a dog is heartworm positive and takes the preventative it can be deadly. Therefore I totally agree that only vets should carry the product and also make it mandatory to test before giving the preventative.

[bckrazy]

I agree with Sue.

If a dog that has heartworm is given preventative, it does more harm than good. People would just be sporatically giving their dogs preventative with no idea whether they were HW positive or not, which is very very bad.

[cyber-sibes]

Our vet suggests a test every year, but since mine are on it all year long, we only do it every couple years. Star's first vet, in Illinois, was very insistent on using heartworm prevention meds. He had this gross model of an infested heart that he kept in his office --- after seeing that, I don't want to risk my babies getting it!

Sue - don't know if you found the heartworm map yet, but there's a US tick infestation map out there too. Wish I had bookmarked it

[Danegirl2208]

i once a year, heatworm is not a big problem here, but i test just to be safe.

[Aurie]

The adult worms live in the heart. If the dog is infested with heartworms and giving a medicine to kill the worms (the preventive), the worms can strangle the heart. It is a very bad situation. When I was a girl, my mother didn't understand this and got one dog tested and split the meds with our other dogs. Apparently one of the dogs was positive and died very painful. It was horrible to watch

When we were in Ohio, if the dog was on prevention year round they tested every two years. Here in Louisiana, they test every 6 months unless on prevention year round and then once a year. Our vet informed us that even on year round prevention, many dogs will still test positive here. It is extremely bad in this area. Those preventions are guarenteed. If your dog becomes positive, their treatment is paid for. Our dogs won't be missing any treatments

[IRescue452]

I didn't think of that. We do get our dogs tested yearly, I just wish I didn't have to buy so much direct from the vet.