Do you give your pets Heartworm Preventatives

[dkpeters]

I'm finding such mixed opinions on this, even from vets! I'd love to know what everyone here thinks.

[Joolye]

Jyra used to get the monthly Heartgard tablet, but now she gets a yearly heartworm vaccination

I don't give my two boys heartworm here. The vet told me that it is not a problem in this part of the country.
;0) If it is working well, don't bother to fix it.

[dkpeters]

I think that's where I'm running into the mixed messages here from vets. I'm in North Dakota (Hi neighbor Gaily!) and some vets push it and others don't.
Very confusing. I think I'll go see if I can find info on reported cases in my state just for the heck of it. [img]graemlins/headscratch.gif[/img]

[aja sedona]

Both girls get Heartgard monthly, all year. A dog on the other street in my development had heartworm disease (probably because the moron owners didn't bother to do anything for this dog) so I will not take any chances...

They also get the Lyme preventative vaccination, another dog on my street (black lab) tested positive for Lyme last year and had to be on meds for months...

[NYCdoggie]

We do Interceptor May through Nov.

[JeanKBBMM]

No, that's not some strange pasta dish, it is a heartworm infested heart. I feel compelled to share that picture whenever I can.

I do not give heartworm preventative to Jewely. I did have her tested when I adopted her not knowing her background or previous location..she tested negative.

According to my vet there hasn't been a case of heartworm in this area.....yet.

[spiritsmom]

I give the fuzzybutts either Interceptor or Heartgard May-Nov. Around here I have far too many HW+ dogs at the shelter - just put 2 of them down for that reason on Tuesday (we usually treat but one dog wasn't temperamentally sound and the other had already been with us 1 month raising her litter and had begun to go kennel crazy).

Anyone here do the Proheart 6 months shot? We just started using that at the shelter for all the dogs but I was concerned about using it for my own dogs - seems like too much meds all at once.

[mehitabel]

Lucy gets the yummy heartworm treat once a month and always will. Here in the South you just can't take chances, even when they're on the flea meds.