# Heartguard ??



## Jay Dufour (Jan 19, 2003)

Ok.On the MS Ducks board there are constantly people posting that their dogs are contracting heartworms while religiously being on Heartguard.My own Vet has told me of concerns he has for it....yet he sells it too.My clients provide it for their dogs here at the rate of 90 %.I have only heard of the problem on that one forum,so I guess what I'm wondering is why.Could the heartworms in the misissippi delta be differant than anywhere else ? I use self mixed ivomec for my dogs and never have had one with it.I have had two or three students that had them over the years,all on Heartguard,but I cant vouch for the dog having it constantly because they went home on breaks.Heartguard in paying for treatments in many of the cases,which to me , shows some cause for concern.Should I make sure my students are switched to Advantage Multi or something else while they are with me.


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## mjh345 (Jun 17, 2006)

Jay Dufour said:


> .Should I make sure my students are switched to Advantage Multi or something else while they are with me.


Why not stick with the self mixed ivomec, since your dogs have never gotten a case?

It could be that the Ivomec which is the active ingredient in Heargaurd is somehow being compromised by a parasite or fungus or something in the little beef flavored biscuit they use in Heartguard to make it more palatable.
I know I've always used straight Ivomec shot in the back of their mouths. They HATE the taste of it; but I've never had any heartworms. Additionally it is 100 X's cheaper this way, and I know they got the medicine based by their funny faces at the taste of it


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## Jay Dufour (Jan 19, 2003)

Because these are other peoples dogs,and home mixed meds are not a good idea to administer to client's animals. I was hoping to find a more reliable monthly that I could recommend to them to supply for their stay here.


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## Jay Dufour (Jan 19, 2003)

Just got a call from the owner of a student that has been here since birth.She has been on ivomec all her life....Heartworms.......


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## granger (Nov 26, 2007)

Off the record my vet tells me that a heartgard pellet for a dog 51-100 lbs. contains roughly 3 drops from an eye dropper of Ivomec. Therefore I give my dogs one tenth of a cc per 10 lbs body weight. I have been using this method for nearly ten years and have never had a dog test positive since starting this form of dispensing. I even self treated an 11 year old setter that had been diagnosed with heart worms. I gave her one tenth of a cc the first two months, then increased by one tenth per month until I reached .50 cc. There were no complications and she lived to productively hunt for four more seasons.

I don't think they put enough medicine into the pellets. Less medicine equals more money


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## cucklebur (Nov 11, 2007)

Ive got a buddy who gave heartguard on the first and ivomec on the 15th and his dog has had heartworms twice now. I give iverhart max on the 15th and we got heartworms last summer. Taken my boy to the vet tommorrow for the prohart 6 shot and gonna keep giving the pill on the 15th.


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## Kirk D (Apr 3, 2005)

I live in the MS delta. Almost every lge breed dog in my area has contracted HW's. Hart Guard for a 50-100lb dog has .25cc's of ivomec in it which is just ridiculous. I don't think it is a cost situation for the company as much as a product that is safe for all dogs. Herding dogs such as collie's have adverse reactions to ivomec. .25cc's will not hurt a collie or HW's, atleast around here.

I have dosed both my 60lb labs with .8cc's of liquid ivomec twice a month for some time now with no HW's. My vet and I discussed the matter last month when my dogs were checked. The vet was totally against what I was doing 3 yrs ago but this time he said, "what ever you are doing, keep doing it." The vet said the HW microfillia are maturing at about 4 times the rate as they were a few years ago. He agreed that a 15 day window of microfillia maturing was about right and agreed that dosing twice a month was the thing to do. Ivomec stays in the dog's system for a very short period. At 1.6cc's of ivomec per month, my dogs are getting almost 6 times the amount of medicine that is in Hart Guard or Interceptor with no adverse reactions(administer at your own risk). Thats pretty bad when a vet agrees that what he is selling is not working but legally thats all he can do. The mosquito's around here are out of control and have built quite a tolerance to ivomec. I am hoping, with all the research being done they can come up with an effective preventative.

Good luck to all. This is a bad situation.

Kirk


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