What's the best heartworm medicine brand?
Friday, January 21st, 2011 at
8:42 pm
The ones I’ve seen are Heartgard, Iverhart, and Interceptor. Does it really matter which one I use? Are they all equally effective?
Also, will my dog need to go to the vet before I start her on heartworm medicine? I would rather order from 1-800-PetMeds than the vet, but I wasn’t sure if they’ll need to test her for heartworms before I start giving it to her.
Yes, the dog will have to go to the Vet to be tested first. I heard Revolution is a good one that controls fleas too….but I’m not a vet so I don’t really know. TALK TO YOUR VET.
In the U.S., heartworm meds require a prescription from a vet. Of course, vets want to do a heartworm test.
All the brands have been tested and are equally effective. You can read the studies at the government’s website.
There are possible side effects, liver and kidney damage.
If the vet you go to finds that your dog is heartworm possitive, you can request that you want the "slow kill" method. There’s a lot about it on the net.
Also look up Ivermectin used instead of Heartgard. It can be bought at a local feed store. You do need to mix it correctly. Ivermectin is the same as Heartgard.
PetMeds still needs a prescription authorized by a licensed veterinarian, with a DEA license and a DVM. Said DVM will only Rx heartworm prevention if the pet is under 6 mo age without a test, and tests negative for heartworm disease if older than 6 months.
All 3 "heartworm preventions" are effective against heartworm larva (microfilaria), which is what it’s actually killing. It’s an older microfilaria stage, after their bloodstream is infected by earlier stage microfilaria via the infected mosquito’s proboscis during "blood sucking."
Heartworm prevention is really treatment for heartworms, as it doesn’t prevent a mosquito from infecting a new host. There is no way to prevent a mosquito from sucking a host’s blood, or to prevent intestinal worm eggs or larva in the environment or intermediate host from infecting a host dog or cat.
Iverhart and Heartgard are ivermectin based heartworm treatments, and have a "Plus" formula, with pyrantel pamoate, which also kills intestinal parasitic worms, hookworms and roundworms. However, the Heartgard Plus and Iverhart Plus have no effect on whipworms, another common intestinal parasitic worm. Worm eggs (ova) live in soil for long periods, and are easily tracked in on shoes, dog feet, etc.
Ivermectin is safe to give to dogs that have a light positive heartworm test, meaning they have very few adult worms infecting the heart and a high population of circulating microfilaria. Even as a "slow-kill" method, it is still far from ideal, as the risk is too high re: damage to the lungs and heart, and a worm could dislodge too quickly and obstruct the pulmonary artery, which causes suffocation and the heart to stop (cardiac arrest).
The best disease treatment option is still a series of injectible Immiticide (melarsomine) therapy when heartworm disease is present, given under veterinary observation and pain management for 2-3 days following the injections. This has less side effects and kills more adult worms than "slow-kill" or previously used injectible heartworm disease treatments. Immiticide does not affect the liver and kidneys either, as former heartworm treatments did. Dogs should still be kept inactive and calm at home for 8 weeks after the first treatment. Heartworm infestations should not be treated by owners at home.
Ivermectin should be carefully and accurately administered to collie breeds, including Border Collie, Rough Collie, Smooth Collie, Australian Shepherd, etc. Compared to other breeds, collies are at greater risk of toxicity, and they suffer neurological side effects. If the appropriate dose is followed for any dog, Heartgard and Heartgard Plus should be fine, as these are VERY low doses of ivermectin, but do not try dosing injectible ivermectin by weight as some multi-dog owners attempt. We can overdose ANY breed on ivermectin, when we try to do conversions of weight to quantity of micrograms, then milliliters, to administer..
Interceptor and Sentinel are Novartis products. The heartworm treatment ingredient is milbemycin oxime. It kills heartworm microfilaria (juvenile stage before it reaches the heart), hookworms, roundworms, AND whipworms. Sentinel has an additional ingredient, lufenuron, to kill flea eggs and interrupt the flea life cycle. For this reason, Sentinel is much more expensive than Heartgard Plus or Interceptor, so its value as flea control combined with heartworm prevention must be considered.
If intestinal worms are already present it can take 3 treatments, 30 days apart, to effectively kill all worms, as the parasiticide only kills adults, so any eggs left in the GI tract will mature and need to be killed by the next dose of "heartworm prevention." This is another reason to give intestinal parasite dewormer every month, as in Heartgard Plus and Interceptor.
Milbemycin (Interceptor and Sentinel) is very risky to give to dogs with unknown heartworm status and positive for heartworm disease. The fast kill of microfilaria causes the detritis of these dead bodies to infect the bloodstream, and toxins from their bodies’ breakdown are absorbed, causing neurological symptoms (i.e. seizure or ataxia), shock, lethargy, vomiting, etc.
Milbemycin is the better heartworm prevention, as long as heartworm status is known to be negative. A heartworm test should be done once a year as long as a dog stays on heartworm prevention. If it misses 2 or more doses, it should be tested 6 months from the last day it received prevention, and discuss with a DVM which prevention to use after lapsing for 2 or more months.
More chemicals are added as the price increases.
Heartgard and Iverhart have the same active ingredient.
With Heartgard you are paying for advertisement.
Look at the ingredients at 1-800 PetMeds to determine
if you want or need the extra chemicals in your dog’s body.
I live in the south where heartworm meds are a necessity
and give Iverhart.