Heartworm advice

[Dogdragon]

Hi all,

Last week I had one of my Rotties down the vet for his yearly heartworm injections. He is due for worming also, so today I went and got some worming tablets. After buying them and getting home I read on the pamphlet inside that it also does monthly heartworm. My question is am I able to use this product for worming since he has already had his yearly heartworm injection? Will it be too much?

[Dogsfevr]

you need a product that doesn't do heartworm ,The vet should have made that very clear if you are using the injection which most of us will never use or recommend 

[sandgrubber]

No one can answer this question without knowing the actual medications used.  If it's Ivermectin, as in Heartgard, and your dogs are not intolerant of the drug (unlikely with rotties, and if they are, they'd probably be dead by now) then there's little harm done by additional doses.  The DIY heartworm  prevention measures, using feedstore Ivermectin, often end up giving doses that are five or ten times the dose in Heartgard, with no ill effect.

 

However, showdog is right.  No advantage to doubling up.  And really, no need to worm monthly unless you are in some unusual environment where worms are extra abundant.  In the long term, I'd ditch the annual heartworm jab and just use the monthly dose.  It's not unknown for dogs to have bad reactions, sometimes very bad reactions, to the annual heartworm.

 

Btw, what meds for worms really depends on what worms your dogs have.  Tapeworm does not respond to many wormers.

[Dogdragon]

16 hours ago, sandgrubber said:

No one can answer this question without knowing the actual medications used.  If it's Ivermectin, as in Heartgard, and your dogs are not intolerant of the drug (unlikely with rotties, and if they are, they'd probably be dead by now) then there's little harm done by additional doses.  The DIY heartworm  prevention measures, using feedstore Ivermectin, often end up giving doses that are five or ten times the dose in Heartgard, with no ill effect.

However, showdog is right.  No advantage to doubling up.  And really, no need to worm monthly unless you are in some unusual environment where worms are extra abundant.  In the long term, I'd ditch the annual heartworm jab and just use the monthly dose.  It's not unknown for dogs to have bad reactions, sometimes very bad reactions, to the annual heartworm.

 

Btw, what meds for worms really depends on what worms your dogs have.  Tapeworm does not respond to many wormers.

thankyou both for your replies. the product I purchased (and haven't used yet) is Milbemax Allwormer For Dogs Over 5kg 2 Tablets . The active ingredients are 12.5mg milbemycin oxime (dose range 0.5-2.5mg/kg) and 125mg praziquantel (dose range 5-25mg/kg)

 

During my search on the internet to see if its safe to use with proheart I have read a lot on the issue of using yearly heartworm protection - mostly negative. The poster at my vet says in the majority of dogs presenting with heartworm it is those on monthly treatment. The poster is the "not on my watch" poster. What views do you have on this?

 

Combining the two appears to be safe in reverse ie you can switch to the yearly at any time from monthly but doesn't say anything about the other way around. There doesn't seem to be any warnings at all on overdose.

 

Sorry I edited this because when I posted it I was in a rush and later read it back and did not make any sense. I do genuinely want your vies on  both the yearly injection issue and the combination of milbermax and the yearly injection. Just for the record, I am inclined not to use the yearly injection due to all the negative remarks about it but would like a little more info about it.

Edited February 26, 2017 by Dogdragon

[Dogsfevr]

I would ask your vet to show you the evidence to back up there poster .

Vets want to lock you in to going to them,most charge a ridiculous price for the injection .

we do not recommend it to our puppy owners and if they do it's at there own risk .

 

We no longer heartworm as the risk is low ,we only used daily when we did and no issues at all .

 

[teekay]

I think the reason vets push for the annual injection and maybe the explanation for the poster is, people forget to do the monthly worming so protection is compromised. 

As long as you are reliably dosing with the monthly tablets ( although I don't do monthly. I do every 45 days. Dogs are still protected for heartworm with that schedule. ) you will have nothing to worry about.

 

Sorry I don't have any advice on your initial enquiry about doubling up 

[Staff'n'Toller]

It's fine to use Milbemax every three months in combination with the Proheart injection. 

 

Monthly heart worm treatment is retrospective, so if you want to switch back, you just resume monthly medications one month after the Proheart would have been due. 

[Dogdragon]

Thanks everyone - all great advice. Showdog, I have had dogs for 20+years and never used heartworm treatment. This is a first for me. In that time we have never had a case of it. The only reason I am using it now is that its been quite hot here lately (like everywhere) and I don't want to tempt fate.  Having said that I think that after learning a little more about it over the last few days I will probably go with the oral meds. Makes sense that vets would encourage the option that brings you back to the clinic.....Much appreciated everyone!