Heartworm Medicine Do's and Don'ts - Part Two

Here at Heartworms, Dogs and Cats we are keen to get pet owners to protect their animals from the threat of heartworm disease. With treatment of infected animals being dangerous, costly and difficult we believe, just as The Heartworm Society does, that all pet's at risk should be given preventative heartworm medicines.

However, the responsibility of protecting your canine and feline friends from the disease doesn't end when you buy heartworm medicine. These are important treatments which need a little understanding, care and attention to ensure you get what you pay for: i.e. fully protected pets.

Nothing about your pets med is difficult to do, but you do need to understand a little about how they work so you administer them correctly. So, following on from our first heartworm medicine rule here is...

Heartworm Medicine - Rule #2 - Keep Up To Date

Heartworm medicines come in daily and monthly forms for you to adminster. Alternatively in some areas there are six-monthly or yearly injections available working in exactly the same way, but providing a longer period of protection. As the heartworm injections must be given by your vet we will assume they will remind you when treatment is due, but put it in your calendar anyway just in case.

Our main concern here are daily and monthly heartworm meds as these are much more common choices used to protect our cats and dogs. The both work in the same way. In effect they provide protection backwards. Rather than preventing your pets becoming infected with larval worms, they eliminate any transmitted previously.

As you can guess, the daily heartworm pills are only able to destroy larvae transmitted over the previous 24 hours. Once the only option for heartworm prevention most pet owners prefer the newer, more long-lasting options. Monthly heartworm medicines (pills and topicals) are all able to destroy larval worms which have been in the animal's system for the previous 30 days.

If you miss a treatment you should use one immediately but it will not be guaranteed to be 100% effective. Once the guaranteed time-span is past each medication shows deminishing returns, able to destroy many but possibly not all larvae. The ivermectin based products have the longest period of success. In tests, animals not receiving meds for 4 months showed a larger proportion of larvae destroyed with ivermectin. But it still isn't 100% effective.

If you fail to administer heartworm meds at the specified time span you reduce their effectiveness and increase the chance of some larvae progressing to adults and causing fully blown heartworm disease. If there is any delay in giving the meds, it is worth switching to an ivermectin based product to increase the chances of success.

If switching from a daily heartworm med to a monthly one ensure the first monthly dose is given within 30 days of the last daily dose to ensure 100% protection.

It can be so easy to lose track of time and delay doses but that just means you are reducing their power. Always set up a reminder so you cannot delay giving your pets their heartworm medicine. Otherwise you just dilute all your good intentions!