ProHeart 6 - Page 1

Hi all!

I am doing research on ProHeart 6 to use for my dogs. Although there are some awful horror stories online, some stupidly ridiculous(like dog jumped out of back of truck in traffic after receiving shot and died), my vet says both her and her staff use it, and that she has given over 600 shots with no side affects other than occasional swelling. 

Anys thoughts, opinions, or experiences would be welcome. 

Thanks!

Fort Dodge the maker of ProHeart is a serial maker of shoddy and unsafe products .. I will never use their products.  I also will never use a vet who uses Fort Dodge vaccines or products.  Any vet who claims to have given 600 treatments of ProHeart 6 with no side effects is a liar or an idiot or both.  The side effects were there but they chose to explain them away or ignore them.  Vets also claim that vaccines are perfectly safe and that oral heartworm and flea meds never produce side effects.  As a biologist with two college degrees, 50 years of experience in animal medicine, 30 years as a scientist in research and development with international pesticide corporations, and having raised over 60 GSD personally none of this is true.  Money is what the practice of medicine is about .. ProHeart is not safe but it is very profitable, vaccines are not safe but they are very profitable, and heartworm meds are not safe but they are very profitable.  You need a new vet or a new job promoting ProHeart.  I have one of my dogs get very sick from the one and only time she or any of my dogs got ProHeart.  Vaccines have damaged kidneys and made my dogs very sick, and the oral flea and heartworm meds have made my dogs very sick as well.  The long term effects of many of these "safe products" has never been studied.  Vets run a business and you are their customer but your dogs are the patient .. they can kill the patient without losing a customer which is a dangerous situation for your dog.  There is virtually no effective regulation of veterinary pricing or practices .. they self regulate through professional boards run by vets or they are regulated by understaffed agencies controlled by politicians.  The rise of veterinary corporations and chain veterinarian clinics such as VSH has only made vet care worse and more expensive.

Excellent points, bubba. Pet insurance has caused vet care to skyrocket as well.

So the entire veterinary profession and the pharmaceutical researchers are a sham. I really don't think so. We would have thousands of more dead animals without them rather than the minority that might have a detrimental reaction. Never mind that there must be a variety in levels of skill and art between those bearing DVM in their name.

The fact that so many do rely on vets and vaccines for the health of their animals is the reason for such great profitability. Profit in itself is not a bad thing. Trust your vet or not? That is what one should determine and use as a base for a decision on the type of care to embrace, especially with preventatives.

Why would a person be interested in allowing a drug to be injected into their dog , which requires a FEDERAL consent form to be signed prior to adminstration? Sounds like "jump at your own demise". But unfortunately the dogs have no say so in the matter. Any one considering using this drug on their dog should do a test drive on themselves first...you know, to see how safe it is.

What form are you taking about? I don't use that brand myself. If you can, post it here. That would be good to see.

Nevermind. I found this. There is no form ... any more. I can see what bothers you DIY'ers. You would need to be certified to administer it.

The changes, which are part of the product’s updated risk minimization plan (RiskMAP) with the FDA, are as follows:

> The product may be used in healthy dogs over 7 years of age.

> The product may be administered by a trained, certified veterinary technician or assistant.

> Clients are no longer required to sign a consent form before administration.

http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/dvm/Parasitology+Center/Risk-requirements-eased-for-ProHeart-6-injectable-/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/821519?contextCategoryId=45701

I am not a fan of ProHeart 6... Though supposedly they made the drug safer after it was taken off the market around 2004. I don't like anything that lasts that long. If a dog has a reaction, there is no way to take it back. Heartworm preventative is important though and there are much safer monthly drugs to use. The dose of ivermectin for heartworm prevention on a monthly basis is 4-10x less than the daily dose for the treatment of mange. You can use milbemycin daily      for a month for the treatment of mange safely. Depending on where you live in the country, there is the possibility to stop the preventatives for the winter months. I elect just to keep them on year round anyway. There is a balance between the need for pharmaceuticals and not over working a healthy system. Certain vaccines are necessary...certain drugs are necessary whether in dogs or people. Believe me...no one goes to vet school for the money...and it gets old reading that on every dog forum. If you are unhappy about your current vets recommendations, ask some local people who they like and feel comfortable with. 

Make NO MISTAKE, administering something that toxic is not on my wish list. I don't care who gets to inject it,it won't go into any dog of mine. ....so pick something else to use as an insult to us DIYers. What "bothers" ME about the crap, is that it's a poison which stays in the dog's system for at least SIX months.....BTW, I do administer heartworm preventative to my dogs myself, and I do administer tape worm dewormer to my dogs myself if they eat a wild rabbit or squirrel,. Snake bite?, I take them to my vet who I've been using for thirty years., my twenty nine year old horse had a stroke for second time and could not recover.......called my vet to put him down. So what's with the DIYer insult above? PS. BTW, bee, it cost $200.00 for the vet to put my horse down, a horse that lived with me for twenty six years,. If I was a diyer, a ten cent bullet would have been cheaper and much more efficient.

bee I understand what you are saying.  I trust my Dr. and I trust my Vet.  But ultimately I am responsible for my own health care as well as that of my family and dogs.  It is up to me to be educated on all the details.  Such as reactions and risks.  It isn't up to my vet to determine if a particular risk is acceptable to me.  That is up to me to determine. There may be certain risks that you might think are fine but because of my past experience in a particular area such as seeing a dog go through something that was associated with a particular reaction to a prescribed medication that I no longer find that risk acceptable because of what my dog went through.  I know a lot of people who give their dogs shots and perform certain other health care measures on their dogs all the time.  Some do so for an obvious monetary savings.  Some just have always taken care of this aspect of their animals care because of being raised in such an environment such as a farm.  My Grandfather was a farmer, I also when I was younger worked at an animal shelter and took care of those same duties there.  (shots, fecal cultures, heartworm check, etc.) so for me there wasn't a whole lot of difference in taking care of those same things for my own.

 

Reggie