HEARTWORMS IN DOGS//DOGS TESTING POSITIVE CONCERN - Page 1

Have any of you had your dogs tested latley for HEARTWORMS???  It is now recommended to test every 6 months where if you were on a prevention program it was not necessary to test as often.

These dogs have been on medication to prevent Heartworms.

There appears to be an increase in cases in Louisiana, USA.

I'm tryng to see if this a localized concern or is it a concern for all dog owners.

Please reply with any incidents aor information regarding this concern,

Thanks,

I have been told by a vet, because of so many dogs rescued and reclocated from Louisiana, USA, we are going to see an increase of Heartworm in our dogs. I never use to put my dogs on the meds for it. I have now done so under his advise.

     I live in new york where heart worm has really not been a problem(thank god), I worm my dogs quite often with Ivermectin injectable, plus I use horse wormer with Ivermec and parazinqual, Have you used the injectable Ivermec, My pups always come back negative for any worms on their initial vet visits after a sale. I start worming at two weeks old, and I worm the mother prior to mating.

I have never had heartworms, and hopefully never will. If there is but one thing that I do not fail to do, that is I never fail to administer the heartworm preventative. During the winter months I increase the time between doses, but never stop it completely.

I don't know how much stock I would place in the veterinarian's statement about the Katrina dogs since that was now long ago. No doubt it might have increased considerably due to unintentional neglect by owners, but that was quite some time ago.

Regards,

Bob-O

I have always been told by vets that you can kill your dog by putting it on Ivermectrin if it already has heartworms. Which is why they tell you to test it first. But my sister had a lab mix that she never gave the meds to and it tested positive. Then the vet gave the dog huge doses of Ivermectin to kill them??  Has

A money making project sounds like   Once your dog is on preventative and I use the Ivermic Injectable and have mosquitos by the boat load and for 29 years have never had a pup or dog come back with heart worms  and I dont test them either..unless I sell them...no need to test. 

And if you are wondering,,,if a dog has heart worms you will know it , so the not testing is because I know they dont have heart worms , I look at them everyday and they are all healthy horses in dogs bodies......thats the one preventative I dont neglect here in Texas...

Vets scare people all day long over these things.....The mosquitos in Lousianna have been there for hundreds of years and here in TEXAS TOO....

The injectable is given in the mouth with a meat treat , also, in case you are not familiar with it  ,,,and I only give Shepherds this   ,,I do not give my cockers this med...I use the regular Heartguard or Interceptor ...

Once the Ivermic is in the system , the blood carries it and it stays in dog even over the time period that you use to re give....Ivermic is a sure prevention...I cant speak for any other drug given 

Never miss your dosage and you have to increase as your dog ages or gets heavier,,,hopefully not too much weight.....

You can test if yu want,,,,I dont fall for that bunch of malarky.......

Crap.

Has anyone heard of this? Frankly, I don't totally trust vets or pediatricians. I don't think they are above trying to keep you reliant on unnecessary tests and in this case it makes no sense to me to say your dog will die from the same treatment that cures the problem?

My vet is 70 some years old. She has taught me alot over the years. She tells me, beleive it or not, that the vet mags that come out are all about "How to pump up your bill", granted, some tests are necessary, but WHY TREAT OR TEST for What is not there! I beleive if you know your dogs, asnd how you treat them, there is no sense in throwing money away. Yes, there are many people that are a one dog family and not familiar with what's what, that is who the Vets "count On".

yellowrose, you will not know what you can't see. poor condition of a dog can be from many things other than heartworms.

i know personally of someone who bought dogs for hunting, one of them was heartworm positive. he was an older well trained dog and you wouldn't know anything by looking at him. someone else i know sent their GSD off with a trainer. he was also in excellent condition but came back positive.

when i was a kid we had a black lab and she was put down due to heartworms at age 13. i'm sure she had them for a very very long time and was an active pump girl until the end. frankly her reasons for not getting around and eating may have been due to something else but i remember clearly one result of her bloodwork was she was heartworm positive. she was a house dog.

as far as not having pups come back with heartworm, well that's because it takes 3 months for the heartworm to develop to show up in a test and i may be wrong, it might be 5. that's why vets start pups on heartworm meds without any tests.