Heartworm Prevention

Hi! Today we are going to talk about heartworm prevention. This is one of the other thing some dog owners are not aware of. Heartworms are worms which live in a dogs heart and major blood vessels surrounding it. A dog may have up to 200 of these worms. Heartworms are transmitted by mosquitoes. The mosquito drinks the blood of an infected dog and takes in larvae with the blood and they are passed on to the next dog bitten. The larvae then developes and destroys the dogs heart. This is one of those things where you will only see signs when its about almost too late...so why take chances? Protect your dogs from heartworm! Speak to your vet about it. If you havent started on heartworm prevention, the dog should get tested first before putting them on any heartworm prevention. Speak to your vet about it and he will tell you what should be done.

There are a few brands/ type of heartworm prevention.

1. Heartguard - Is a monthly oral chewable tablet given to prevent heartworms
(not suitable for shelties/Collies/Border collies/Australian Shepherd)

2. Heartguard Plus - is the same funtion as heartguard with the added benefit of controlling roundworm and hookworm.

3. Interceptor - This is also a given orally, monthly, is safe for shelties, collies etc and it controls roundworm, whipworm, hookworm and tape worm!

4.ProHeart - For ProHeart, there are two options, given orally, monthly or injectable(Yearly by vet) ProHeart only protects dog from heartworm and not other worms.

Apart from giving our dog heartworm prevention, we need to deworm them too. All dogs will have worms and there is no magic to get rid of it. Thats why we continuously deworm them.

For me Interceptor suits my dogs best, it is complete and less complicated, and safe to be given to young puppies from two weeks of age.

If you opt to use ProHeart, you still need to deworm them every 3 months and most people forget.

I feel Interceptor is the best, it is complete, and given on the same date monthly. Whatever it is, if in doubt, the best person you should speak to is your vet.

Oh yes, I forgot to say, the reason why Heartgard and Heartgard plus isnt the recommended choice for Shelties / collies etc is because it contains an ingredient called IVERMECTIN. Some of the Shelties / Collie etc are sensitive to this ingredient.

I received some pictures from Mrs Tan, the owner of Caledonian Wild Fire (King #3)