Heartworm

I often wonder just how necessary Heartworm medicine is for dogs in Wisconsin. It's fairly expensive. If it's necessary I certainly want my dogs protected but if the risk is extremely low I might forgo it. So is this necessary or is it a scam. Are the chances of a dog getting heartworm 1/100, 1/1,000, or 1/million? If you have information or statistics please share. Also if you have a cheap source for the medicine or a way to order it without a vet prescription that would be useful.

I have been doing it the same way as rookie for many years. Year round as well. Not only does the the ivomec take care of the heartworm. It takes care of everything else except for tapes. Although I do it year round. I will go to about every 2 weeks from July through October. When the dogs are being hunted hard. Since this is when they are most likely to come into contact with something in the field. Which is also why I worm for tapes in October, and again in April. These are the times after the dogs may have had a chance to get infected from contact with game. Hard to believe they would come into contact with fleas in January, but they can. Although it has come to our attention recently. That the dose for ivomec when it comes to heartworm prevention can be about half of what we are talking about here. We are only talking about a few pennies. So I dont see a need to drop the dose as a result. No need to be exact either. When I do it. I will try to adjust the dose a bit per dog. Mostly on the bigger ones. For the most part .5cc per dog. If my wife is doing it. I dont want to confuse or make it more difficult. Just give the .5 cc. It takes a heck of a lot to overdose a dog with ivomec. Thick the current cost at revival and kvpet is about $38. Farm and fleet should be real close. That's 100 doses at .5cc!! WARNING! Do not get the plus!!! This will make the dogs sick. Just straight ivomec. Can even get the generic forms of it at about $10 less a bottle. Or, if you get lucky can catch a sale on stuff just about to expire. Got some last year at $20 a bottle! Big box of needles are cheap at fleet farm as well. Dont need one for every single dose. Heck, we keep the same needle in the bottle until it is used up. Really it is much easier than trying to force a pill down your dogs throat. Just squirt over their food and it's done. The most common worm in WI seems to be the roundworms. After dosing you will know if they have them. By the pasta they are crapping. If this is the case. Another round in 3-5 days is necessary. I always go 2 rounds. Just to be sure. Attached is a pic of our current bottle in use. Don't be afraid to worm this way. It is perfectly safe, and effective. Except if your dog has heartworm, and in some shepard/collie breeds.

Depending on the temperature, I'll start sometime in June and go through September. Year -round dosing is unnecessary. Here's a good article on the subject. http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2008/05/billion-dollar-heartworm-scam.html If you don't want to read the whole blog, I've highlighted the pertinent parts. The short story here is that heartworm is a kind of nematode (dirofilaria immitis) spread by mosquitoes (and only by mosquitoes). The lifecycle of the nematode involves six stages, and a dog can get infected with heartworm only if two of these stages are fully completed inside the body of the mosquito, and those stages can only be completed inside the body of the mosquito if the temperature stays above 57 degrees for at least 45 days straight, both day and night. If the temperature drops below 57 degrees even once during that 45-day period, the lifecycle of the nematode is broken, and heartworm cannot be transmitted to your dog. What this means, in simple terms, is that a year-round program of Heartgard (sometimes spelled 'Heartguard") or some other "preventative" medicine is NOT needed in most of the country outside of Florida, the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. There is no "preventive" medicine for Heartworm. Despite what your veterinarian may have told you, there is NO "prevention" for heartworm infection; there is only heartworm treatment. ALL heartworm medicines work the same way -- they kill heartworm microfilaria present in the body of the dog.

...if you have a cheap source for the medicine or a way to order it without a vet prescription that would be useful... I have been using Ivermectin (Ivomec) for a couple years now. I purchase it at Fleet Farm/TSC and with multiple dogs (or just ONE dog) it is inexpensive and lasts a long time. Approx $40 for 50ml bottle. One ml (milliliter) = one cc (cubic centimeter). Here is the scoop... Use the Cattle/Swine injectible 1% Ivomec (see pict.) every month: 0.1cc per 10lbs of body weight. For example, my English Setter is 50lbs. He gets 0.5cc of Ivomec every month. So that bottle has 100 doses at that weight. Basically $0.40/50lb dog. If you have 2-3 dogs, this sure helps! Squirt it over food, if they will take it that way, or I squirt it on a piece of bread w/ a little butter.