Drug resistant heartworms.....

Just saw that on FB. Hopefully it's about like the Formosan termite and we won't see much of it.

I spoke to my vet about this a few years ago. One of my dogs contracted heart worms, and I was 100% positive I didn't miss a monthly treatment. She explained to me all of the research they were doing on the drug resistant heart worm parasite.

Regardless, one thing to keep in mind for all dog owners, especially in our region is the normal heart guard and other heart worm prevention pills usually are not fully effective for the entire month. You can never miss a monthly dose, but if your dog is bitten by a mosquito who carries it during the window where the prevention isn't effective, the heart worms can be transferred to the dog.

My understanding always was the heart worm drug itself is not actually a preventative but an insecticide, so the drug is actually cleaning the dogs system from the previous month.

Use ivermectin and you won’t have that issue. This heartworm issue has been going on for the last eight years at least.

Have used Ivomec for over 20 years. Works great.

for those of you who use the ivermectin, what do you use to mix it with before you give it to your dogs?

I do not mix it with anything. I buy a 50 cc bottle of the liquid and administer 1/10 of a cc for every 10 pounds of body weight. Suck it out with the needle, take the needle off and squirt it down their throat. 25 plus years of using this method.

How often do you administer?

Once a month