You Still Use Heatworm In Winter?

[APBT]

i use the dimitrol daily, in summer i usally give everyday, what about in wnter tho, i havent been using it since it got cold.

Edited May 21, 2010 by APBT

[nickojoy]

It would probably depend on the area you are in and if there are still mozies around. I have seen the odd one still here.

[megan_]

I have never heard of this being done. That said, I have normally gone for the annual jabs. I have now switched to monthly tablets. I live in metro Melbourne, is heartworm an issue here?

[Bullbreedlover]

since being in Aussie(3 years now) my furkids have always had monthly heartworm tablets. I have not stopped them because the temp has dropped.

[Erny]

I have never heard of this being done. That said, I have normally gone for the annual jabs. I have now switched to monthly tablets. I live in metro Melbourne, is heartworm an issue here?

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirofilaria_immitis

... The worms require the mosquito as an intermediate stage in order to complete their life cycle. Development in the mosquito is temperature dependent, requiring approximately two weeks of temperature at or above 27 °C (80 °F). Below a threshold temperature of 14 °C (57 °F), development cannot occur, and the cycle will be halted.[8] As a result, transmission is limited to warm months, and duration of the transmission season varies geographically. The period between the initial infection when the dog is bitten by a mosquito and the maturation of the worms into adults living in the heart takes 6 to 7 months in dogs and is known as the "prepatent period". ...

Apparently there was a period recently here in Victoria where the night-time temperature did not go lower than 14 degrees celcius, so going by the above, that would be when the life cycle of the heartworm might reach the infection stage of development. Then you need a mozzie who is a carrier of the heartworm to buzz its way over and bite your dog. So 14 days straight of temps 14 degrees and higher is not a given that any mozzie bite will infect your dog, but it is the higher risk time.

Because of this, I don't heartworm. To me, the affect of the constant preventative drug in the dog's body -vs- the heartworm infection risk doesn't weigh up sufficiently for me to follow the heartworm preventative regime. Even with the period of 2 weeks of 14 degrees and ^ that Victoria supposedly had, I wouldn't have heartwormed, simply because my dog is not out of the woods health wise anyway and I had a surer chance of the preventative drug doing harm than I did of a heartworm mozzie making its way to him. It was a calculated risk that I opted to take. But regardless, I would not bother with heartworm drugs during our colder months.

What I've not been able to get my head around, and I know someone has tried to explain it to me but I just don't 'get' it, is if the maturation of the worms into adults living in the heart takes 6 to 7 months in dogs, why should be need to administer heart worm preventative drugs more than once every 6 months (or even 5 months, if we want to be on the safe side)? Does the heartworm drug only affect mature heartworm lava or something?

From the enquiries I made when I was trying to decide what to do (when my boy was a pup), Dimmitrol Daily heartworm preventative was the 'kindest' of the drugs available for the purpose. The down side is that you do need to remember to give them daily.

Edited May 21, 2010 by Erny