What's your thought on heartworm pills?

[KleineP]

So, I have to admit that I'm lazy. I try, really I do, to remember the heartworm pills. I'm good for that once-a-month pill for about three months. Then I forget, despite the red sticker heart on my calendar.

So, for our last two dogs, we just decided not to give them the heartworm pills. In 8 years, we never had a problem.

Now, we've got two new dogs (4- and 6-year-old black labs) and I've fallen into the same pattern - three months of coverage before I forget. We just got a clean bill of health (no heartworm) on the dogs, and I'm at a crossroads.

Do I give up on the idea of heartworm medication, or do I try - yet again - to actually remember to give them the meds.

[Dkorman]

I give my dog the medication on a monthly basis. My dog is part of the family and I treat him like I treat my child. I make sure my child does not miss her medication or doctors appointment, so why should my dog.

Just my 2 cents

[UNiRAC]

worms are not a pet for me nor children. I'm no Dr. but I have ingrained in my head that doggie-Doo with worms in it , is not good for children and their dirty lil' hands. Just like Cat-Litter and pregnant women will carry the worst parasite known to mankind . if you are here and looking then, GOOGle your worst fears sometime. Be Scared, be VERY scared !:eek:
ps: it was against the law to expecterate in public to stop TB [consumption]from spreading last century or two or three.

[Deb]

I am very faithful in giving my dog heartworm medication. My mother lived in Hartford and her dog got heartworms. This was 2 blocks from downtown Hartford. I used to feel somewhat safer in a city environment but no more. Heartworm is spread by mosquitoes and they are everywhere. The treatment for heartworm is pretty drastic, dangerous and expensive. Her dog did survive thankfully.
I have a reminder set up in my Yahoo calender so it sends me a text message on they day the heartworm pill is due.

[KleineP]

I once got a vet to admit to me that, in some cases, the heartworm pill isn't really necessary. Still, I have developed enough guilt (or fear of guilt, really) that I'll try again.

I like the idea of adding it to my computer calendar. So, I'll take out the red heart stickers again, put those on my kitchen calendar, but I'll also add it to Outlook.

Here's to hoping.

[urban dog]

An alternative to heartworm pills is a homeopathic pill called a nosode. (There are also nosodes for Lyme disease, as well as all of the major canine viruses.) It is safer than the standard (commercial) heartworm pills. The way you give it is as follows: once a day for a week, once a week for a month, then every six months thereafter. Most people are not familiar with nosodes. If you are interested in alternative medicine, you might want to check this out.

Here is one link I found about preventing heartworm:

http://www.preciouspets.org/newsletters/articles/heartworms.htm

Below is a quote by Dr. Jeffrey Levy, DVM, PCH (from the above link):

"There are basically three choices with regard to heartworm prevention: drugs, nosodes, or nothing.

"There are currently a variety of heartworm preventive drugs, most of which are given monthly. I don't like any of them due to their toxicity, the frequency of side effects, and their tendency to antidote homeopathic remedies. Incidentally, the once-a-month preventives should be given only every 6 weeks.

"The next option is the heartworm nosode. It has the advantage of at least not being a toxic drug. It has been in use it for over 10 years now, and I am reasonably confident that it is effective. It is certainly very safe. The biggest problem with the nosode is integrating it with homeopathic treatment. But at least it's less of a problem than with the drugs.

"The last option, and in my opinion the best, is to do nothing. That is to say, do nothing to specifically prevent heartworm, but rather to minimize the chances of infestation by helping your dog to be healthier, and thereby less susceptible. This means avoiding those things that are detrimental to health, feeding a high quality homemade diet, regular exercise, a healthy emotional environment, and, most of all, constitutional homeopathic treatment. Of course, this will not guarantee that your dog will not get heartworms, but, under these conditions, even the worst-case scenario isn't so terrible. If your dog were to get heartworms, s/he shouldn't develop any symptoms as a result.

"For what it's worth, I never gave my dog any type of heartworm preventive, even when we lived in the Santa Cruz area where heartworms were very prevalent. I tested him yearly, and he never had a problem."

I hope this gives you some useful info. You may do more research on your own if you feel it is worth your time. It certainly wouldn't hurt to look into this stuff further. You can find out more about nosodes from Wikipedia.

Here is what they say:

A nosode is a homeopathic preparation made from a disease or pathological product. Substances such as fecal, urinary, and respiratory discharges, as well as tissue and blood products, are used in the fabrication of nosodes. The origin of the word nosode is the Greek word nosos, meaning disease.

The use of nosodes originated as part of the doctrine of isopathy, which replaced Hahnemann's law of similars with the law of sameness ("Aequalia aequalibus curentur"), according to which a disease could be cured by diluted preparations of itself. The term isopathy was probably coined by veterinarian Joseph Wilhelm Lux in the 1830s. The first known nosode was prepared from the venom of the bushmaster snake by the isopath Constantine Hering in the 19th century.

The 20th century saw the publication of two books on nosodes, namely The Materia Medica of the Nosodes (H. C. Allen, 1910) and Materia Medica der Nosoden (O. A. Julian, 1960.) Nosodes are extensively used in homotoxicology.

As with other homeopathic remedies, nosodes are prepared by taking very high dilutions of the original material—for example,12X (10-12), 30X (10-30), or 30C (10-60)—in accordance with Hahnemann's principle of the minimum dose.

[hank freid news]

I have a beagle and it is hard for her to take pills like that. I deception her and she falls for it each time. I now and then cut a hotdog in half and shove the pill in the hotdog, and she doesn't even know. You can also wrap in in balogna. But forever keep in mind to manage a situation like that to make positive it doesn't choke or cough it back up. If you don't feel comfortable doing things like this I would go back to the VET and get them to tell you the "proper" way to give it to him. There are a variety of habits like crushing the pill, but with that you have to make sure he drinks the whole thing. There is nothing wrong with tricking the dog. You have to remember the dog is going to act different with your doctor than yourself, he knows the doctor is someone that is for business and wants to do what he says, your doctor is also skilled and does this probably 50 times a day so knows how to do it in a snap. You have to remember when you get home your dog is going to want to play and not act the same with you. I can never get my beagles nails cut at home. When I go to the VET. she lets them do it within seconds. Its all about his mood. Try those tricks and if they don't work. Go back to the VET, because obviously he needs the pill. Good luck and you should be proud for caring enough for your dog enough to ask about these things.