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by cbaird on 27 June 2016 - 16:06
Maybe a year ago, I asked my vet if he had ever seen a failure from someone using Ivermec at the 1cc/110pound dosing (which is what I still use) & his answer was "Yes, so far 2-beagle kennel & someone with labs".
The ones of mine I have had tested in the past couple years have been negative.
Candace
by bubbabooboo on 27 June 2016 - 16:06
All of the heart worm poisons presently in use target exactly the same biological pathway ( chloride channel ) .. resistance to one is resistance to all and there are multiple possible resistance modes some pests will be resistant at any and all dosages that don't kill your dog and some pests will respond to increased dosage levels ( and increased toxicity to your dog ) .. however there is no way to determine which type of resistance is present in your locale. The long term year use of these products in pets as well as their higher use rates and year round dosing in cattle and other farm animals contributed to the development of resistant pests to these control pesticides including heart worms. The active ingredient in Bravecto and other newly introduced products, ProHeart ( moxidectin ), and all of the others will be just as likely to fail with resistant heart worms as the oldest products such as ivermectin. Proheart is the least safe product for heart worms that I am aware of but any of the 3 or 6 month products are less safe than the single month products at the lowest use rate for your breed and weight of dog. Also spreading the treatments to once every 6 weeks as Melba stated is just fine and reduced overall toxic load on your dog's nervous system. Katrina had nothing to do with heart worm resistance other than increasing the species of mosquitoes that carry the heart worm pathogen during a time of the year when the disease could develop. The heart worm treatments currently available have never been 100% controls and since most of the time they are doing nothing due to the conditions for infection not being present they appeared to be nearly perfect until the infestation level of possible disease carrying mosquitoes increased after Katrina. Not all mosquitoes are capable of harboring and developing the heart worm juveniles and not all mosquitoes capable of harboring the infectious growth stage of the heart worm are infected with the viable heartworm development stage. Even those mosquitoes capable of carrying the heart worm L3 stage that infects dogs and are also infected with the heartworm pathogen can not infect dogs when daily minimum temperatures drop below 56 degrees farenheit once in a two week period. Katrina merely exposed the inefficiency of the "miraculous" heart worm poisons by greatly increasing the numbers of the particular host mosquito at a time of year when infection was possible. As is the case of most resistant diseases and pathogens the harder to control biotype was always present in the general population but with a higher selection pressure over time the resistant biotype gains competitive advantage and becomes a greater subset of the overall population. Heart worms resistant to this family of insecticides were not created .. just found and increased by the insecticides used to control them.
by hexe on 27 June 2016 - 19:06
You're wrong regarding the function of heartworm PREVENTATIVES--they most certainly DO prevent heartworm from becoming established in the animal receiving the product, as they work to kill off the pre-adult stages of the parasite, which prevents them from maturing into the adult heartworms which attach themselves to the dog's heart and lungs, breed and start producing the next generation of the parasite. No adult worms = no heartworm infection.
But by all means, drape the crepe a bit more.
by Vom Mager on 27 June 2016 - 20:06
by anawd on 27 June 2016 - 21:06
I'm all for saving money and using less or more natural products, but in this area I do not skimp on Heartworm prevention. We saw a ridiculous amount of Heartworm positive dogs. At minimum one per day, often times many more. And some were on no prevention, some with very spotty history, etc. Many were too far gone to do anything about as they were too sick to even try treatment. It is a very real issue, definitely not one I would take lightly. Just my two cents...
by bubbabooboo on 27 June 2016 - 21:06
Killing an insect at any growth stage is not prevention. Likewise products like Bravecto do not prevent Lyme or other tick borne diseases in dogs. KIlling the tick after it has already fed on the dog can not prevent Lyme disease. Let me say this one more way for clarity. A mosquito does not bite a heart worm infected animal and then immediately bite another animal and pass the heart worm immature to the second animal. The mosquito must bite a host animal which has L1 (larval 1) and then incubate and grow the L1 to L3 growth stage in it's gut before it can pass the heart worm L3 to another animal which takes about two weeks and minimum temperatures above 56 degrees F continuously inside a female mosquito's gut that can live at least two weeks as an adult after the initial blood meal when the L1 was ingested . Despite all of the paid for postings on the Web by industry trolls and paid for research papers published for the corporate scum the biology of the heart worm makes it difficult for mosquitoes to transmit the immature L3 stage that can infect dogs. The industry scum had a bunch of craptastic papers published all across the South claiming that all sorts of different mosquito types had heart worm immatures in their gut. Even the bought and paid for researchers went along with the BIG LIE that the industry scum drew from these studies ... Gotta have 12 month a year heart worm poisons for dogs. The truth is that very few mosquitoes of any type live long enough to develop a L1 heart worm immature to an L3 which is the only stage that can infect a dog. Only a few mosquito types live long enough ( at a minimum two weeks ) to develop an L1 heart worm into an L3 in their gut and pass it into a dog host through their mouth parts. Many mosquito types don't live two weeks as an adult and can not transmit L3 heart worms to dogs. Most female mosquitoes don't get their first blood meal until they have been in the adult stage for 2-3 days assuming they can find a host. Many mosquito types can not transmit heart worm to dogs because the female lays her eggs and dies or is killed before she ever has a chance. All of those paid for research papers claiming 23 types of mosquitoes had immature heart worms in their gut failed to mention that 21 of those types had a life span too short for them to ever transmit an L3 heart worm immature.
by bubbabooboo on 27 June 2016 - 22:06
by hexe on 27 June 2016 - 23:06
You're making a big assumption that the wildlife go unaffected...few wolves in the wild live beyond 8 yrs of age, the fox's lifespan in the wild is 2 to 4 years, and most feral canines aren't celebrating birthdays beyond a couple of years, either.
Never said that all dogs need to be on a preventative year 'round--just qualified my comment to the OP that MY dogs always have been thus. Guess what? I continue to vax against lepto, too, both my dogs and my cows. You do you, booboo, and I'll stick with what has worked for me and mine for better than 30 years.
As for your question of what constitutes heartworm positive, that's simple--a positive test result. That doesn't mean the dog is infected, as you've pointed out, which is why diagnosis isn't made until further investigation is done to confirm or negate the initial test result.
by dragonfry on 28 June 2016 - 14:06
I live in Florida were the heartworm vector mosquitoes live 27-365 days a year. In the last 3 or 4 years we haven't even had a frost hard enough to the the little sucker back.
So my dog stays on heartworm treatment. because i worked for a vet and saw hundreds of heartworm cases mostly from outside dogs, yankee owners, or low income areas.
It's a horrible thing to see a dog suffer from. And it's completely preventable down here.
I've never had a dog with heartworms, or a false positive or negative. And i intend to keep it that way.
Fry
by Zenit2010 on 28 June 2016 - 14:06
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