Heartworm

I am lucky in that I don't live in an area where heartworm exists. I think in southern Alaska perhaps, but that's far away.

I'm glad I don't have to give those pills to my dog, but I would if heartworm were around. It's just not something you want to mess around with. That is, you want what you use to prevent it with as much reliability as possible.

I give it once a month.  Heartworm is in a lot of places in CA and for me it's just not worth the risk. If you're sure there is no heartworm where you live, then you probably wouldn't want to give it.

Joyce & Max

I live in Florida, in a HW indemic area, so I give it religiously.  I give Interceptor every 6 weeks, and at a lower dose that only protects against HWs.  I feel this is less stress on their systems, but since HW disease is deadly and the treatment itself can kill them, the meds are a necessary evil.  Since you can easily test for and treat intestinal parasites, I chose to give the lower dose that doesn't provide intestinal parasite protection and just check them every 6 mos.  We've been doing the low dose Interceptor over a year now and all 3 had negative HW tests.  (Negative for worms too, even though we travel all over the state to dog events).  []

My dog was tested this year and I put him on heartgard plus one tablet monthly.  I prefer prevention rather then treating Heartworm infested dog.  But everyone has their opinions and ways.  I don't think there is one perfect method its what you decide is best for you and your dog.

We have about 2-3 heartworm positive dogs a DAY and these owners just cant believe it... oh the excuses...
 
I would say the monthly pill is absolutely necessary.

We use Heartguard monthly for four of the dogs, but Sequoyah gets Interceptor, since she's an Aussie and hasn't been tested for the mutant gene that makes ivermectin toxic to them.

We give our dogs Iverhart once a month every month.  But they're taken off heartworm pills in the winter, since it gets PRETTY cold up here.

I also wanted to use a natural hw prevention, but couldn't find one. Looks like I'm going to start Gingerbread on Heartgard this month.

Hopefully I'm not hijacking the thread (but figuring the OP would also be interested in this) does anyone have opinions on which is safer- ivermectin based hw prev like Heartgard/Triheart or Interceptor? And that question is in general with most dogs- excluding Collies which are known to have sensitivites to ivermectin.

I think right now my dogs are on Heartgard, but we also have a bunch of Triheart Plus that they'll get when the Heartgard is gone. They were off of it for the winter this year (from December to Mid-March), although now we have a few years worth Tri Heart Plus, so i'm not sure whether or not they'll go off it. The likelihood is we won't give it to them again this winter though because it's unnecessary, and we really, especially for Millie, want to avoid anything unnecessary. Anything different in her diet causes stomach problems, so why cause problems when there doesn't need to be any.

I use interceptor.
 
I believe there were a few recent threads about interceptor vs. heartguard.  Do a search and you'll probably get a bunch of info.  I believe most preferred interceptor because I was considering switching and decided not to.

Essentially Heartguard is ivermectin -- but in order to make it 'safe' (which my personal opinion is that it is truly not 'safe' ever for herding breeds -- if it is a dog 'sensitive' to it, it WILL cross the semi-permeable brain membrane -- the dog just may not be able to TELL you how yucky it feels).  But in order to make it theoretically 'safe' for ALL dogs they have reduced the dose so seriously that it's sometimes not even effective on microfilaria of heartworm.  But it's defnitely not effective for any other blood parasite.
 
Interceptor, because it's safer for all breeds (there has been SOME problems but very few compared to the risk that the parasites bring) is dosed a bit higher, so it actually protects not just against heartworm but things like hooks and whips (not if you are reducing the dose tho, altho some of us do that). 
 
I'm in Florida too -- I've seen what heartworm does to a dog, and I've also seen how horribly traumatic it is for a dog to be TREATED for heartworm.  Heartworm is now in all 50 states, including Alaska and in Canada.  I treat 12 months a year because it's an absolute must here.
 
There are some "natural" methods (and that is SUCH a 'loaded' word it's almost a glittering generality) -- but they all involve things like black walnut (which is a plant derivative) -- but that IS a poison.  I know a lot of folks use these alternative methods but I won't/don't.  For a couple of reasons:
 
1.  I don't think they are AS safe as the Interceptor.  All the 'herbals' used ARE toxic to a great degree and I think it's too hard to dose them safely.  And what's the difference in giving an herbal 'poison' and giving a pharmaceutical one? 
 
I use herbs ALL the time -- herbs, homeopathics, Chinese herbals, and other alternative 'stuff'.  But I try to be really safe and really informed about them and I've never come to the conclusion *I* knew enough about these heartworm 'preventives' (NONE of which truly 'prevent' -- they simply kill microfilaria after the dog has been bitten by a heartworm-infected mosquito) to feel nearly as safe with them as I do with Interceptor.
 
2.  With Interceptor it's been tested enough and has enoug longevity that we do at least know what organs it might be problematic to -- so I KNOW that after my dogs get Interceptor for a few days after I give them milk thistle so it helps detoxify the liver.  I don't feel comfortable knowing what the danger points are with the various natural options out there. 
 
I guess, bottom line, even as much as I *know* about herbals -- the herbal options scare me.  A good friend of mine (actually a gal who occasionally posts here and often 'reads') tried one of these 'herbal' heartworm remedies and wound up in some real trouble with her dog.  That's not the only time I've heard of it going awry.  I think the size, metabolism and general health of the dog has an enormous amount to do with how 'well' they do on the herbal options.

the boys get Sentinel once a month, year round.  We've had some really funky winters lately..literally one week it went from 30 to 75 in the span of 4 days[8|]  which is why I went to year round prevention.

Willow gets Interceptor year round. The weather changes ever 5 minutes here so I can't go by the seasons.
 
I was giving her Heartgard which is so much easier to give because she likes it.  But, the Interceptor kills one other intestinal parasite that it did not.  So, we switched. 

heartworm is never talked about where i live in western washington.  when asked about it, vets dont recommend prevention because theres simply not a problem with heartworm here.  however if we were to travel out of state or even to the other side of the mountains we would need to use prevention.