# anyone heard anything about this?



## jamie lind (Feb 19, 2009)

*******************MEDICATION ALERT*****************
It is more important than ever to keep your pet on year round heartworm preventative (Interceptor, Heartgard, Iverhart, Sentinel, Revolution, etc.) because the one and only medication used to treat heartworm disease is no longer available. *THERE IS NO LONGER A TREATMENT FOR HEARTWORM DISEASE, PREVENTION is all we have to rely on.*
Please contact us today so we can help keep your pet protected.
Buffalo Companion Animal Clinic

i got this email from my vet today. anyone hear anything about this?​


----------



## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

It's the lead article in the October _Whole Dog Journal. _



Also http://www.veterinarypracticenews.c...eartworm-management-during-drug-shortage.aspx

http://www.lifewithdogs.tv/2011/08/treating-heartworm-disease-another-immiticide-shortage/


----------



## Ryan Venables (Sep 15, 2010)

Do we have to worry about this in the cold weather areas?


----------



## Katie Finlay (Jan 31, 2010)

I think heartworm is everywhere now. A girl I know just had a heartworm positive (sent out for extra testing) dog come in that hadn't left the area. I'm in Orange County, CA. No one thinks we have heartworm here.


----------



## rick smith (Dec 31, 2010)

first, i'm not a vet 

second, i've put a number of HW positive dogs thru a treatment plan that did NOT use the drug that is not currently available, and the dogs went negative and never lost a step in the process; and lived HW free lives after that. meaning, there IS more than one way to treat HW than with a shot to the muscle with an arsenic based drug that can be prescribed in more than one way depending on the vet's preferences and protocols based on the stage the condition has progressed.

third, and most important, prevention is pretty easy, and those drugs are readily available

which to me means that article is not necessarily cause for panic


----------



## rick smith (Dec 31, 2010)

Katie, be careful when you say "no one"  
....my brother does, and he lives in Huntington Beach which is not too far away


----------



## David Frost (Mar 29, 2006)

I posted about problems with heartworm sometime back. There is an area stretching from eastern AR to western TN and south to Mississippi where dogs have tested positive for heartworm, even though they were on year-round prevention. I know there were some Vets from Auburn and I believe UMiss that were doing studies of infected blood of some of the dogs. We've been on a twice-a-month program of preventative for the dogs west of the river, in TN, for some time now. 

The treatment prescribed by one Veterinarian, using a preventative to treat an active infestation, almost cost me a dog. I know I won't allow it to be used a second time. 

I did find this thread, there were a few more; http://www.workingdogforum.com/vBulletin/f25/heartgard-triheart-not-working-18503/

DFrost


----------



## Brett Bowen (May 2, 2011)

My vet told us about this a while back when we had a rescue in the house for a few weeks that was positive. She basically told us that due to the medication shortage (no longer being made) they were only using that medication when they were showing symptoms. If they just test postive she puts them back on HWP and she said she's never had a dog test positive again within year (I think that's the time frame she said). It's called the slow kill method, lots of shelters were using it due to cost.


----------



## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

I think where the "slow kill" method falls flat is with dogs that got the HW while on the year round prevent method.


----------



## rick smith (Dec 31, 2010)

sounds like the little worm bastards are winning the war :-( :-(

would seem like if the dog is showing external symptoms it is a pretty severe case.....i have seen pics of it so bad they had to be surgically removed but never known of it firsthand......my wife told me how she lost a dog many years ago to HW......bad way to die

for some reason, in Japan, the same brand preventative (heartguard plus ) for the same weight dog has a different med mix ratio than the usa label. Neither the Army vet nor any Japan vets i've talked to know why 
.....can't remember which is which (ivermectin or pyrantel), but it's the general wormer (for ascarids, etc) that people also can take......in Japan that one is much much higher...a little weird to me


----------



## Laura Bollschweiler (Apr 25, 2008)

Katie Finlay said:


> I I'm in Orange County, CA. No one thinks we have heartworm here.


Not no one. We at least have positive test results here.

Laura


----------



## Brett Bowen (May 2, 2011)

Bob Scott said:


> I think where the "slow kill" method falls flat is with dogs that got the HW while on the year round prevent method.


Agree. Just relaying what was told. If I remember correctly the HWP doesn't prevent them from getting infected, just kills it before it can establish itself. But a vet would be a way better source of information than I.


----------



## Katie Finlay (Jan 31, 2010)

It was just a general statement.

Rick, I'm in HB as well. The HW was found in Foothill Ranch.


----------



## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

I had a dog with heartworm some 35-40 yrs ago when it was considered just a Southern state problem. 
I've kept all my dogs on HW preventative ever since and still had a case of it 6 or so yrs ago when Thunder was two.


----------

