Year round Heartworm prevention?

That depends on where you live and the climate -- if the ground is soft enough for parasites to thrive it can be really beneficial if you use Interceptor (which will kill hooks and whips which can breed in soil).  I live in Florida so I **DO** treat for heartworm all year round  - we get mosquitos ALL the time and the ground is a breeding place for other parasites I'd rather avoid.
 
If you live in an area where there is a solid hard freeze for a good share of the year, then it's up to you.  But even city streets can be a breeding ground for parasites and if you get a good thaw that can bring living stuff round, then it would be enough for ME to do it.

Well, we had an unusual winter up here in NY and we had some warmer days.  I just thought it would make more sense to treat it yearound beccause you never know how the weather will be.  My mare is on strongid C2x daily to prevent worms yearound...so my other thought was if I do it for my horse why not my dog??!?![]

When I have lived in areas that DON'T have a good freeze, I've kept mine on year round meds.  But, I'd rather NOT give them chemicals that they don't need year round, so where I am now, I wouldn't do it.  My son is in Upstate NY and he said the same thing about the warmer winter this year.  I would have GLADLY traded....by Christmas we'd already had over 100 inches of snow!!

[font=arial]The importance of temperature: While the larvae are developing in the mosquito, development continues only when the temperature is above 64 degrees F. Further, the temperature MUST remain above 57 degrees Fahrenheit at all times, day and night during the entire mosquito cycle. If at any time during the development into the L3 stage, the temperature drops below 57 F, the development is aborted and must start over. Remember, it is only the L3 larvae which are capable of infesting your dog.

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This statement comes from [linkhttp://www.bullovedbulldogs.com/gpage.html]http://www.bullovedbulldogs.com/gpage.html[/link]
 
No way would I give my dog a pesticide year around knowing this. Yes, there is a chance of a dormant mosquito flying around during the winter months but according to this it can't give your dog HW!     If I lived in the warm states I would not be able to have this attitude, but I live in Ohio.  To be honest... I hate giving them a pesticide monthly even for a few months,,,,,,,,I'm doing it this year, but I may just go to testing for HW twice a year instead of giving them monthy preventatives.

I thought that the getting heartworm and the treatment was long and hard on dogs....Isn't preventitive better then the disease and treatment of the disease?
My dog just got Heartgard and I have a 9 month supply currently.....I think preventing a problem is better then taking the chance of them getting it and dealing with a long road of recovery![]

I think you have to look at potential risk of HW vs potential risk of the meds.  In NW MI there isn't an icecubes chance in heck of a skeeter surviving the first hard frost.

This year in NY was warmer then usual....thats what got me to thinking about it.  The vet said heartworm is huge up here!  Just trying to figure out if it is a warmer winter again if I should do it or not.

I have no choice here--we had several days up in the 90's in Jan. and Feb.  And you are right, heartworm treatment is harsh on a dog and some don't make it.  Honey was a year old give or take a month when we adopted her and already heartworm positive.  The hardest part for her, tho, was being in that wire crate for 6 weeks to give the dead worms time to be absorbed. For that entire 6 weeks she was let out 5-6 times a day on LEASH to go into front yard and do business.  At the end of the 6 weeks,  negative HW test, she was set free in the back yard and she ran, ran, jumped, ran and ran.  This was 3 years ago this past jan. and I dont' think she has stopped running!

I'm sure not going to suggest to someone else to not give the monthlies, but I can't help to think of one thing, and that is that HW pills are pesticides, they are not meant to prevent HW, they are meant to kill the HWs IF the  mosquito that carries the larva of HW (which if you read that article above - not all do) bites a dog.  So if your giving your dog this poison that is meant to kill larva in his system,, how can it NOT cause some kind of long term problems in dogs?   I just can't help looking at it that way.  If it were something meant to help boost his immune system, then I wouldn't feel so strong about it,,,but they are not, they are meant to poison larva.    I know that paints an ugly picture, and again, I'm not saying to not give it, but I'm not sure we should be.      HW is curable. And if it is found early, it does not take a lot out of the dog to cure it, that is the reason for people suggesting HW testing twice a year.  I really am thinking about doing that, shoot, its not any more expensive!!! 

I use the once a month pill Sentinel for HW prevention which also includes Program all year long.
 
Yes, HW is cureable but lots of dogs die from the treatment.  I wouldn't want to chance that.
 
[linkhttp://www.thepetcenter.com/gen/hw.html]http://www.thepetcenter.com/gen/hw.html[/link] 

Hmm -- I lost a dog to parasites a few years ago.  Whips and hooks -- and they killed him less than a month after her was infested.  The vet gave him the treatment for hooks/whips but Mike didn't make it.  He was older and he was a bit weak.  Never in my wildest dreams did I think he'd even been exposed ... much less did I think I'd missed "symptoms".  But I did because it was hot and he was OLD and I just assumed he was tired from the heat. 
 
Heartworms don't hit that fast -- but I'm including hooks and whips here because that's why I use Interceptor -- it kills all three.  HW, hooks and whips. 
 
I've also lived thru/with the heartworm treatment of a positive dog.  The treatment itself is VERY risky and anyone who tells you it isn't hard on the dog is lying or just doesn't know.  Any treatment to kill heartworm (whether adults or JUST microfilaria) is risky.
 
You might want to actually research, Dyan, how the 'preventives' do what they do and NOT kill the dog.  That's honestly the big deal here. 
 
Something systemic like Revolution DOES literally have a 'pesticide' living in the dog for the whole month (which I don't like in a BIG way).  But the whole point of ivermectin is that it crosses the semi-permeable brain membrane of the parasite to get in the brain to disrupt it's nervous system.  The point being that in most breeds it CAN'T cross that semi-permeable brain membrane so it passes from the system.  Milbemycin (Interceptor) does something similar (but not as easily explained) and again only affects the parasite.  Both of those pass out of the body in 24 hours.
 
The point being it's almost impossible to keep good enough track of your dog to be able to treat while it is 'no big deal'.  I know I have hooks and whips in MY yard so I give Interceptor EVERY month simply because I don't want my dogs getting them and having them active in their bodies at all.  I have mosquitos all year round so all somebuddy's gotta be is unlucky once and I don't want to 'wait' to catch it. 
 
Dyan, I'm not telling you that you're crazy cos you aren't.  It's a tough decision -- and one that almost has to be made according to the risk you are willing to accept.
 
However -- you might truly consider using the old Fil-ar-a-bits  and then still do a test a couple of times a year.  Fil-ar-abits simply works by letting the immune system trigger a response and if your dog's immune system is relatively healthy it might be a really good choice for you that is low risk and not risky. 
 
The 'risk' in the immiticide and other treatments for positive dogs really isn't in the drug.  The 'risk' is in the dog's body being unable to re-absorb the dead parasite material without becoming compromised.  Meaning -- how much "gunk" sailing thru the blood stream will shut down the kidneys, liver or cause a stroke? There's no answer to that.  Not one that isn't based on hindsight anyway. 
 
 

However -- you might truly consider using the old Fil-ar-a-bits 

 
You know Callie, a couple of years ago I took Ollie for a HW test to my old vet that I used to go to,,, while there we discussed HW and its treatment, and she did shed a different light on it for me, BUT I did ask her about Filarabits because there were perfect for me, as I give my dog a treat everytime they go out and "be a goodgirl" so the Filarabits was always their first treat in the morning.. but she said "they quit making them!"     I'm always surprised now to hear someone suggest them because of it. 
 

[font=arial]The most popular heartworm "preventives," Heartgard and Interceptor, are not really preventives at all; rather they act by killing the microfilariae, L3, and/or L4 larvae in an infested dog. Interceptor kills the L3s, and L4s, while Heartgard will kill the L4s and some of the youngest L5s. In other words they're poisons, as are all of the other popular HW ?preventives.? None of them kills the fully adult or L6 heartworms in the dosages prescribed for ?prevention.? At higher doses, however, some of them will.

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This is from the Beloved Bulldogs website.    
 
You know, we spend so much time talking about food and what it can do to our dogs, and finding the right one that won't cause cancer or diseases down the line. With that in mind, how can these HW drugs possibly NOT affect our dogs health?
 
 

I think (at least last I knew) you can still get Fil-Ar-A-Bits but they aren't at all common.  And they aren't exactly what they used to be -- now maybe they've taken them off the market recently.  Not popular because they aren't as effective.
 
Interceptor will kill far more parasites than HeartGuard because of the size of dose in the packages (they've simply packaged HG to be so ultra low dose that it supposedly can be given to herders without problem *sigh*). 
 
But ivermectin will kill almost anything, in the right dose.  But actually you can give the preventive dose of ivermectin *long term* and kill both hw microfilaria and adult parasites.  It takes a long while to do it (it took us a year to get a clear occult on Ms. Socks -- meaning no adults as well) and she was so positive she was literally nearly dead when we took her in.  They didn't expect her to live the month out and the heart and lungs both were terribly damaged by the adult infestation of hw.
 
I went ahead with the daily preventive dose of ivermectin (she was a boxer/pit mit -- not any sensitive to ivermectin breeds) because my vet essentially told me no way could she tolerate the immiticide - it would kill her.  So he had a "it can't hurt & might help" feeling about it.
 
Not only did she make it a month -- she lived 6 1/2 more years with us (to 17) -- yep, the heart/lungs were a mess but we dealt with it.  That was 8 years ago now and now rescue groups all over the country are using the same method of giving the preventive-dose of ivermectin daily (sometimes weekly, depending on the group) to deal with hw positive dogs.  Here in the South it is such an enormous problem -- they say that like 80% of the dogs that come thru some rescues are hw positive and groups just can't afford the immiticide and often the dogs are SO positive the dog wouldn't survive anyway.
 
I try hard not to just actively 'promote' this -- it has side effects (you're absolutely right -- they are poisons to the parasites).  IN the case of ivermectin, **long term** if used daily it has a serious dampening effect on the immune system and when you begin the wean-off period you have to seriously boost the immune system or the dog is a sitting duck to any infection.  It works.  It's not easy, but it does work.
 
It's not something vets promote because they can't control it.   It requires a lot of dedication on the part of the owner/guardian.  But it's widely widely done down here simply because the hw problem is so enormous.  It's just not even a statistic that people in the rest of the country can understand that about 80% of the dogs that come thru Animal Control are THAT positive.  *sigh*
 
I just happen to have a ton of experience with it.  My old vet was originally on the team that did research and development on ivermectin -- greyhound people essentially.  So he taught me a lot before I took Ms. Socks.  (or I'd have been terrified to take her on)
 
Unfortunately this is one of those things where the pesticides and chemicals we have become so dependant upon have turned against us and allowed mosquitos to so proliferate down here and carry so many diseases that we wind up using more chemicals just to exist.  (Says Callie who reluctantly had to Frontline the dogs again this morning cos the fleas/ticks are already so thick -- shoot I haven't even HAD a tick in several years, but dang -- got them this year and I've got 3 mosquitos buzzing around inside that came in on the dogs this morning *sigh*). 
 
 

Yes there are toxins in the preventitive, but what about the household cleaners and fertilizers and all the other chemicals are animals are exposed to daily?  What about people in the city giving their dogs chlorinated water?  I think the preventive is better for me then playing Russian Roulette.