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Yearly heartworm injection

Discussion in 'Drugs & Medications' started by Hannah, May 8, 2014.

  1. Hannah

    Hannah Forums Enthusiast

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    I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience or thoughts on the yearly heartworm injection. Whenever we go to the vet he tries to push it onto us, because he says the heartworm/intestinal worm monthly tablet we give our sheltie is only a partial protection against heartworm and they can build up a resistance to it. Our breeder is against the injection because it may not be safe for a sheltie and there is no undoing a yearly injection if there is an adverse reaction. When I questioned the vet about it being safe for a sheltie he said there is only a risk to merles (Honey is a sable). I'm not keen on the idea of the injection at all, but I also don't like the idea of her possibly being only partially protected against heartworm either... so feeling a little conflicted. We have a new 8 week old sable pup now too, so feel like I just want to get it right. I'd really appreciate any opinions :smile2:
     
  2. Caro

    Caro Moderator

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    I think you'll find the views in Australia to the heartworm are much different to the views in the US. It's much more commonly given here - not sure if that's because of a higher rate of heartworm mozzies or because the vaccine was first introduced here.

    Mine have always had the heartworm injection. We get the heartworm injection done separately, not at the same time as any other injections. However, we spend time in high heartworm rate areas so I decided that the benefits made it worth it (and for various reasons I don't trust my reliability with the heartworm tablets). It's definitely worth checking out what the prevalence rates in your area are. Do you have an issue with mosquitos?
     
  3. Hannah

    Hannah Forums Enthusiast

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    Thanks Caro, that's really interesting... I'm so ignorant, I didn't even know that heartworm was spread by mosquitos! We don't get a lot of mozzies here, and after some cursory Googling it doesn't seem that South West WA is a heartworm hotspot, so maybe I shouldn't be too panicked about it. Good to have your perspective on the injection... food for thought.
     
  4. ClantyreSheltie

    ClantyreSheltie Forums Sage

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    <citation needed> There is nothing color related that would have anything to do with this. I have no idea what he is talking about.

    No. There is absolutely no need for a yearly heart worm injection. It was pulled from the market once already, that should tell you enough right there.

    Heartguard and other drugs work just fine in 99.99% of cases.
     
  5. Hannah

    Hannah Forums Enthusiast

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    Thanks Rachael... I didn't think what he said about the risk only being to merles sounded overly convincing.
     
  6. Fasb's Owner

    Fasb's Owner Forums Enthusiast

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    Our vet(s) have never mentioned a heartworm injection to us. I had no idea there was such a thing.

    The idea that coat coloring would make an drug safe/unsafe sounds absurd.
     
  7. Sheltie4

    Sheltie4 Forums Enthusiast

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    Pro-Heart, an injectable HW prevention was recently re-introduced in the U.S., after being pulled from the market.

    I questioned my vet as to why she was pushing the injection, after it was recalled. Her answer was that it is safer now and the company has improved its standards. (Or maybe my vet is getting a good percentage of sales?)

    I feel that we expose our dogs to enough vaccinations without introducing a HW vaccine too.

    Although Heartworm is prevalent here in the Midwest, my dogs are inside most of the time, and we live in suburbia, so I give Heartgard Plus.

    With that said, the bottom line is that dogs definitely need to be protected from Heartworm in whatever form.

    My vet has seen an increase of HW positive dogs of 66% over one year, and 110% since 2010!

    Our little rescue takes in 3-4 HW positive dogs a year - it is scary and so preventable.
     
  8. Fasb's Owner

    Fasb's Owner Forums Enthusiast

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    I've wondered for awhile how many times this is the answer. Years ago, when we first got Fasb, someone recommended we use Comfortis with Fasb, instead of Frontline. We asked our vet and were told in no certain terms that he didn't trust Comfortis because of some chemical in the makeup (forget exactly what) and would never give it to his dogs. I think Comfortis was fairly new at that point.

    At some point, not long after, he began selling Comfortis. I was going to ask for an explanation, but never did. Part of me suspected it was simply a matter of percentage of sales and I was probably going to doubt any explanation he gave me. Guess I didn't want to go there.
     
  9. Caro

    Caro Moderator

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    Actually I hadn't thought of it but in the Americas (not sure about Europe) do seem to have a lot more vaccines available. Being an island we don't have a lot of diseases found in other parts of the world (like rabies or Lymes), there's no injections for snakes (I was fascinated by that discussion recently as I wish we did). That's not to say the country is full of little bitey dangerous critters - we've got an over-abundance of snakes, spiders and paralysis ticks, but there's no vaccines. So other than the usual C4, the only other injection people would get is the heartworm.
     
  10. Hannah

    Hannah Forums Enthusiast

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    A snake injection! That would be good! Thanks for the thoughts, its good to get some different points of view.
     

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