for those who live in warm weather

[I~love~pie]

year round, do you give your dogs Heartworm meds year round also? My vet (back in Mass) said that I should. I have not seen a vet here yet, as ive only been here for a little while.

[Sarah W]

Yes, we do. We originally lived in WA state and didn't even give heartworm meds to DD. Then, we moved to Key West and it's a year round thing.

[blessedwithboys]

i read a stat that said that heartworn has been found in all 50 states in all seasons

[Sailor]

Yep. I give Ivermectin, though. It's MUCH cheaper, and I use a needle-less syringe and squirt it down my dog's throat. But you have to be absolutely certain you can get the dosage right. It's based on your dog's weight. I check, re-check, and re-check again because I'm paranoid about it. It's just that, if you get it wrong, it's fatal.

Ivermectin is exactly what is in heartgard, except heartgard pre-measures it for you and charges you an arm and a leg.

If you have a collie, though, Ivermectin is not an option for you. Spaniels, for a reason I can't remember, have a bad reaction to it.

[beanma]

yes. year round. we're in NC.

[Siennaflower]

Yes, in TX we definitely did.

[mistymama]

I grew up in Cali and we always gave it year round. Now we are in the deep south and yes, year round.

[mata]

yes, I do year round.

[phatchristy]

Originally Posted by Sailor

Yep. I give Ivermectin, though. It's MUCH cheaper, and I use a needle-less syringe and squirt it down my dog's throat. But you have to be absolutely certain you can get the dosage right. It's based on your dog's weight. I check, re-check, and re-check again because I'm paranoid about it. It's just that, if you get it wrong, it's fatal.

Ivermectin is exactly what is in heartgard, except heartgard pre-measures it for you and charges you an arm and a leg.

If you have a collie, though, Ivermectin is not an option for you. Spaniels, for a reason I can't remember, have a bad reaction to it.

The breeders I know ALL do the same thing, btw. Your post makes it sound a little bit more dangerous than it is--as in, it would be difficult to give them the wrong dose if you do your math right. Especially orally, it's way more of an issue if you're injecting. I've used it in cats for mites/worming before, you just have to be sure your math is right and that's pretty easy to check. And, obviously if you have a dog that is from a breed that can't handle it then avoid.

If you've got the right dosage it's just as good and it's literally like pennies a dose! One of my friends who is really into dogs (no kids) has like 6 dogs and that's what you do since down here it is year round!

[ghostlykisses]

Florida here and we were told year around as well. Sadly my pets are not on it at all because $$$ has not allowed it since my husband was out of work for so long. My greyhounds are mostly indoor animals so I just hope their risk it lower

[wahoowhippets]

We are in Florida as well so year round...we have seven dogs here and use the straight Ivermectin for 5 of them...the other two dogs are border collies so we use Interceptor for them as the border collies are more sensitive to Ivermectin. It is far more costly to treat heartworms than to simply and cheaply prevent them.

[rcr]

Originally Posted by Sailor

If you have a collie, though, Ivermectin is not an option for you. Spaniels, for a reason I can't remember, have a bad reaction to it.

We give all year round now that we live in the south. And yes, please don't give Ivermectin to a herding dog, they have some kind of gene that makes Ivermectin fatal to them. We have collies, so we have to use the kind without Ivermectin (interceptor, I think), it is much more expensive.