Do you give your pets Heartworm Preventatives

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.

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've heard bad things about the shots. There's even talk about class action suits due to all the dog deaths. My friend's perfectly healthy golden retriever became ill and died from heart problems 6 mo. after getting the shot.

All of my animals are on heatworm preventatives and I will tell you why. I worked for a vet for two years and I saw a LOT of dogs diagnosed with HW disease. Some of them, by the way, were not diagnosed until after they were dead--a horrible way to die in case your wondering. Others were diagnosed when the owners brought them in for a complaint like coughing or exercise intolerance, or when an owner came in for a routine annual exam and requested a HW test. The animals who were treated had to endure a round of poison to their system about 10 times as bad as any HW prevention out there. We kept them overnight because it often made them very ill--some dogs with the worst cases of worms would even go into seizures. Even the ones who handled it well had to endure a lot. HW treatment is a time consuming process that involves treating, testing, retreating, retesting for several weeks, during which time exercise must be restricted. It involves blood draws--not just the tiny amount needed for a standard Occult test, but a testtube full (what they call a "knox" test, which was once the only way to diagnose the problem.) Dogs with HW disease are not always healthy even after successful treatment--the worms can permanantly damage the heart, causing complications which last for the rest of their life. A life which, by the way, may now be shortened significantly.

I had the unhappy experience of watching a dog die from HW disease once. The owner was playing ball with the dog (a boxer) when he just keeled over and began gasping. By the time he reached the clinic the dog had foam and blood pouring from his nose; he was choking; his tongue was blue. We put him on oxygen, but his lungs were so filled with fluid from his heart failure it didn't help. He died. When the doctor performed a necropsy he found a heart completely filled with worms--like the picture Jean posted. The dogs owners requested that we keep the heart and put it on display...to educate people.

Originally posted by griz:
The vet even surmised that the adults would eventually die a natural death, and being on the preventative was like being on birth control for the heartworms.

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Okay, if they have found that HW prevention isn't harmful to a positive dog then that's great. That doesn't mean, in my opinion, that testing isn't necessary. The adult worms could be damaging the dog's heart while they wait to die of natural causes. I am willing to go the 3 year route with vaccines, but I've seen too many people take the gamble with HW prevention and lose.

Also, I was under the impression that it was illegal to dispense HW prevention without a prescription and that the prescription could only be legally obtained if a dog tested negative of heartworms no longer than 12 months before. But maybe that is a state, not a federal, law.

I'm surprised you call my posts old school--I only stopped working as a tech 3 months ago and these were the guidelines we followed. And my current vet (a different one than I worked for) is adament about yearly tests and year-round prevention for dogs. But I supposed every vet has his own opinions on matters like this. Bottom line is it's up to the owners to educate themselves and make choices they are comfortable with. I would be comfortable with nothing less than a tablet once a month, year round (we live in a high risk area) and a yearly blood test. Obviously others feel differently.

[ April 20, 2004, 11:08 PM: Message edited by: Unbridled Brunette ]