The Breeder Doesn’t Want Us to Use Heartworm Preventive on Our Dog

Dear Jubilee:

The breeder of my dog does not want me to use heartworm preventive with his dog. I do have some time to decide on the heart worm preventative. My biggest concern is that the vet said that the cure for heartworm is akin to giving the dog arsenic: its very hard on the dog and can harm organs. It is a difficult decision but I will try to be informed when the time comes. Fortunately, I have some time.
Teddy’s Mom

Dear Teddy’s Mom,

If the heartworm has gotten a head start and seriously infected the dog, the treatment is as harsh as your vet has said it is: and in those cases, it requires that the dog be kept quiet so as not to do serious damage to the dog’s organs. He’s right: it is a long and difficult cure.

Here are some things to think about as you make your decision:

1. Using the preventive does not mean your dog will not get heartworm. The preventive only kills heartworm that is already in the dog. If you test twice a year, you should find it (if your dog contracts it) at an early stage, and in that case, you can use the heartworm preventive to clear the disease. You can do that because the preventive is a poison that kills heartworm. It's not as strong in poison as the cure for heavy infestations, so it takes about six months, but it is not as invasive or difficult as the cure for more advanced cases. One reason that you have to keep your dog quiet when clearing the more advanced cases is that in those cases, it is already in the heart and a sudden die-off of a heavy infestation in the heart is very dangerous. My understanding is that heartworm doesn't mature so fast that it would get that heavy and enter the heart if you are testing twice a year. Indeed, if you test twice a year, you will be testing more than dogs on the preventive are tested, and since dogs on the preventive can and sometimes do get heartworm, you would always run that risk with or without the preventive.

2. The biggest risk to not giving the preventive, as long as you are testing your dogs every year, is financial: if your dogs get heartworm, you have to pay for the treatment.

3. The dogs that have the heaviest infestations are dogs that have been kept outdoors all their lives in heavily mosquito infested areas -- many tied out day and night or fenced out day and night or the ones that have been lost or abandoned. Yup, these dogs have probably not been given the preventive, but they probably have not been tested annually, let alone twice a year. This is why so many come into rescue with heartworm and rescue takes them through the cure. As far as I know, Rescue doesn't lose these dogs: they do get cured, become heartworm free, and go into homes. Finally, just about any medicine and any vaccine is potentially dangerous and can potentially affect body parts and organs: insist on seeing the inserts for any medication or vaccine they want to give your dog, read those inserts for yourself, and ask questions.

Yes, it is scary. Some people who don’t use the regular heartworm preventives use a natural preventive from www.naturalrearing.com. Here is the page on heartworm treatment and heartworm preventives: http://www.naturalrearing.com/coda/n_heartworm.html

The owner of this site is Marina Zacharias. Marina has been greatly influenced by an incredible animal person, Juliette de Bairacli Levy, one of the first people to use natural cures and natural diets for dogs and cats. Levy's book is a classic, and the herbal formulas that this site sells are Juliette's original products with the exact same ingredients and proportions: they are some of the best supplements on the market. Marina is readily available for consultation.

Jubilee