Heartworm Testing ...Just because?

[BrindleColt]

Buying your pet medications, like heartworm preventatives, from anyone but your vet completely negates any of the warranties that go along with the product… such as the company covering the cost of heartworm treatment. There are many companies you can buy prescription drugs for your pets from that will send you the drugs without confirming a prescription from your vet. Just because the box has a brand name does not mean it is exactly the same product you are buying from the vet… for example many of these drugs require specific storage conditions to remain viable (and in the case of heartworm prevention, properly protect your pet), and unless they come from your vet, you have no clue if they were stored properly (esp. traveling from Australia to the US!). Just as an example,in a human product that many people use; my friend’s husband is an ophthalmologist and for kicks she orders 3 pairs of glasses from a very well-known online glasses distributor in the US (they were cheap/free) and none of them turned out to be the prescription she ordered! How would you feel if this was your pets Heartgard, can you look at that little blob of dog treat drugs and tell me it was stored properly and is actually the unexpired Heartgard you ordered?

Buy your pets meds from your vets! Not all vets are scam artists! Here it only costs $45 for a Heartworm/Lyme/other tick borne disease blood test, and if you have had a yearly exam, my vet charges no consult fee.

For those of you who feel vaccinating is bad for your pets, I do urge you to spend the extra money to get a blood titre and see which vaccines your pet need and which they do not (based on antibodies present in the blood).

[Guin]

None of you seem to be able to read the part where I say that my dogs ARE HW TESTED EVERY YEAR AT MY VET AND THEY HAVE BEEN NEGATIVE FOR 12 YEARS.

I will continue purchasing my ineffective, tainted, counterfeit heartworm medications, Merial Frontline, and multi-wormers from those fly-by-night, back-alley Australians for a third of what you’re paying for your marked-up, “certified” identical products. :rolleyes: And my vet will continue to congratulate me on the excellent care I take of both my dogs when he sees that, as usual, they are HW neg and parasite-free.

[glfprncs]

Someone correct me if I’m wrong…but for dogs who are HW+, the slow kill method combines the use of both doxy as well as the preventative found in Tri-Heart or Heartguard (which are ivermectin drugs). As I understand it, if a dog tests HW+, they should not be given the heartworm preventative, Interceptor, as the drugs in that HW preventative can be dangerous to the dog’s health for the reasons below:

"Heartworm Testing
When heartworm preventatives were first introduced, the only product available used diethylcarbamazine (DEC) and was given on a daily basis. DEC is extremely dangerous if given to a dog infected with adult heartworms, as it can cause a rapid die-off of any microfilariae, resulting in an anaphylactic. For this reason, it is important to never give DEC without first testing to be sure that your dog is free of heartworms before beginning treatment and every six months to a year thereafter.

The newer heartworm drugs are less dangerous to dogs who are infected with adult heartworms. They can even be used to kill the microfilariae produced by the adult worms in the body, and have some effect against the adult worms.

Heartworm testing is still recommended before administration of these drugs. It’s best to know ahead of time whether there are microfilariae present, so you can be ready to treat the dog for an anaphylactic reaction caused by the microfilariae’s rapid die-off, and to choose the safest preventative to use if the dog is infected. Ivermectin (Heartgard) is safer in this regard than milbemycin oxime (Interceptor), which has a much stronger effect against the microfilariae."

[cowboymom]

[QUOTE=Guin;5926156]
None of you seem to be able to read the part where I say that my dogs ARE HW TESTED EVERY YEAR AT MY VET AND THEY HAVE BEEN NEGATIVE FOR 12 YEARS.

I will continue purchasing my ineffective, tainted, counterfeit heartworm medications, Merial Frontline, and multi-wormers from those fly-by-night, back-alley Australians for a third of what you’re paying for your marked-up, “certified” identical products. :rolleyes: And my vet will continue to congratulate me on the excellent care I take of both my dogs when he sees that, as usual, they are HW neg and parasite-free.[/QUOTE]

It’s frustrating, isn’t it? LOL I totally understand!

I think you’re doing fine, vets make crazy money off of people and there should be options.

Carry on!

[Justmyluck]

[QUOTE=horsefaerie;5922955]
THis kind of thing chaps my butt.

First, I have had dogs for decades. Had them on preventative and NEVER, NEVER was asked to do a blood test to check for heartworms until just a few years ago. I would if I stopped treating over the winter. Can’t do that in the south.

$30??? TRY $125!!!

IF THE PREVENTATIVE WORKS, why is there any need for testing?

Also, ivermectin is losing its efficacy to prevent and treat worms in horses from overuse pushed by the companies who make it and vets who did so for reasons I do not understand.

What will we have to treat if the same is true for dogs? Or is it a patent issue?

I had a vet who threatened me with “I won’t write the scrip without the test”, she has been fired.[/QUOTE]

Better to lose you as a client then lose her license!

What exactly do you think would happen if a human doctor just gave you FDA monitored medications with out a prescription?

[Justmyluck]

[QUOTE=cowboymom;5928641]
It’s frustrating, isn’t it? LOL I totally understand!

I think you’re doing fine, vets make crazy money off of people and there should be options.

Carry on![/QUOTE]

Exactly how do people come to the conclusion that veterinarians make crazy money? DO you have any idea how much money it takes to be a veterinarian? What about equipment maintenance overhead costs.

[Simkie]

Is the Australian stuff really that much less than what you get through your vet? It looked about the same to me.

I have seen a few articles about Australian pet pharmacies selling meds that didn’t contain the ingredients that were claimed on the label. I guess it’s a “at your own risk” sort of thing…

[HydroPHILE]

For our GSD, we pay $48 for 6 mths of preventative. Therefore, annually, we pay $30 (test) + $96 (preventative) = $126/year. I don’t think that’s bad, and we’re in the HW hotspot.

[cowboymom]

[QUOTE=Justmyluck;5929100]
Exactly how do people come to the conclusion that veterinarians make crazy money? DO you have any idea how much money it takes to be a veterinarian? What about equipment maintenance overhead costs.[/QUOTE]

Because I’ve worked for several. Both in the office and in the barn/kennel. I’ve done payroll and I’ve done their bills.

I should have said “some” however, they don’t all make crazy money.

[Auventera_Two]

None of the vets I have ever used would refill the yearly prescription without a new blood test. It had to come back negative before you could come back to the office and pick up the boxes of chews. The reason is that because if the dog IS positive, taking the preventative medication could kill them. They need to be sure they are covered from a liability standpoint. And yes you may be honest and you may give the pill at precisely the right date every single month, but many people don’t. They can’t afford to gamble with who was being honest and who wasn’t. Or sometimes pills just get missed and it was not intentional, but it happens.

[vtdobes]

I just happen to have an August invoice on my desk. I paid $43.32 for a box of 6 Heartguard Plus for the 51-100 lb dogs (through 1800PetMeds the price is $47.99!! They require a prescription). My vet charges around $30 for the in house blood test.

[vtdobes]

And Pets Megastore in AU is only $3 cheaper than my vet. Seems easier to just get from my vet (which is on my way home from work) rather than mail order!

[Justmyluck]

[QUOTE=vtdobes;5930656]
And Pets Megastore in AU is only $3 cheaper than my vet. Seems easier to just get from my vet (which is on my way home from work) rather than mail order![/QUOTE]

You also support your local economy and promote jobs in your own area! I’ll tell you your vet loves you!

[vtdobes]

[QUOTE=Justmyluck;5930704]
You also support your local economy and promote jobs in your own area! I’ll tell you your vet loves you![/QUOTE]

Absolutely!!!

[wendy]

I have heard that if you give a dog with heartworm the preventative while the dog is positive, it can kill the dog.

this isn’t true- the drugs aren’t even ‘preventatives’, what they do is kill off any larvae that infected the dog since the last time you gave the dog a dose. It takes about six months for the larvae to mature, so even if you forget many of your heartworm doses every year you’ll get enough into the dog to knock out any infection before it forms adult worms.
The adult worms aren’t readily killed by the ‘preventatives’, but if the dog is already infected with adult worms, any larvae that are produced will be killed off by the ‘preventative’, so no new adults will form, and eventually the adults that are present will all die off if you keep giving your pill every month. There’s no need to restrict the dog’s activity during this process if you just have a very light infestation.
Now if you pick up a stray dog of unknown history, especially from a southern state, you might want to see if the dog is heavily infested with heartworms before deciding how to treat the dog, therefore a test is a good idea. A heavily infested dog may have suffered heart and lung damage. Killing off worms and larvae in a heavily infested dog can cause some potential problems. And you might want to consider the quick-kill rather than the slow-kill method for such a dog. But that’s a special situation that doesn’t apply to most dogs.

So if you’re a “normal” dog owner, and have been giving “preventatives” to your dog most of the time on schedule, there’s no reason whatsoever to ever do a test unless you stopped giving the ‘preventatives’ for quite a prolonged period of time.

[CrazyGuineaPigLady]

[QUOTE=wendy;5930773]
this isn’t true- the drugs aren’t even ‘preventatives’, what they do is kill off any larvae that infected the dog since the last time you gave the dog a dose. It takes about six months for the larvae to mature, so even if you forget many of your heartworm doses every year you’ll get enough into the dog to knock out any infection before it forms adult worms.
The adult worms aren’t readily killed by the ‘preventatives’, but if the dog is already infected with adult worms, any larvae that are produced will be killed off by the ‘preventative’, so no new adults will form, and eventually the adults that are present will all die off if you keep giving your pill every month. There’s no need to restrict the dog’s activity during this process if you just have a very light infestation.
Now if you pick up a stray dog of unknown history, especially from a southern state, you might want to see if the dog is heavily infested with heartworms before deciding how to treat the dog, therefore a test is a good idea. A heavily infested dog may have suffered heart and lung damage. Killing off worms and larvae in a heavily infested dog can cause some potential problems. And you might want to consider the quick-kill rather than the slow-kill method for such a dog. But that’s a special situation that doesn’t apply to most dogs.

So if you’re a “normal” dog owner, and have been giving “preventatives” to your dog most of the time on schedule, there’s no reason whatsoever to ever do a test unless you stopped giving the ‘preventatives’ for quite a prolonged period of time.[/QUOTE]

No. Larvae can develop into juveniles and then move to the heart at 40 days. Missing a dose or two leaves the door open. Adults will continue to pump out their replacements so not testing and missing a dose or two the next year (i.e.) can result in more worms to make more babies. Adult HWs can live 5 years so every dose missed in an opportunity to get a bigger infestation.

Even a light worm load puts them at risk and you can’t tell with the standard HW test. I was told to keep my dog from doing anything that “strains” her heart while waiting for the treatment. We decided that regular (even long-ish) walks and playing in the yard with the kids was fine but panting was the cut-off. The worms are going to die off at some point and that’s the critical part. Dead worms clog up the blood stream!

I had X-rays and bloodwork done before the HW treatment and my dog was light load/early stage. Still, there’s a risk that just one of her adult worms could kill her when it dies. The same goes for one dying at the end of its life cycle without treatment. You don’t typically know when they were infected or how severe the case is with normal testing.

There is a reason to do the test and limit activity if it comes up positive.

[Grataan]

[QUOTE=Guin;5925855]
Read for comprehension, please. MY DOGS GET TESTED ONCE A YEAR AT THE VET’S. Pets Megastore is NOT “unethical.” They are in Australia, which does not require an RX for heartworm meds. Amazingly, I have used them for twelve years now and - GASP - my dogs have been NEGATIVE all that time. Horrors, those shady, unethical Australians, selling “counterfeit” dog products all over Australia. They must have killed tens of thousands of Australian pets by now. :rolleyes:[/QUOTE]

Calm down for christ’s sake.

Do you get an import permit for the drugs? If not then YOU are violating federal law. It doesn’t matter where you obtain them you are still breaking the law and voiding warranties. I would still retest your dogs because your pharmacy KNOWS it is a violation of law to send the drugs here and still do it-therefore they are behaving in an unethical manner. Deal with it.

[pAin_t_Misbehavin]

I use sheep ivermectin (0.08 solution). Order it from Jeffers with no Rx needed. Got the dosage off the Heartguard box and did the conversions to get the correct dosage for my dogs’ weights. Squirt it on some tuna and give it to them every month. $30 for a years’ supply for five dogs.

I don’t know why vets do the yearly test either. If you’re giving “preventative” then the microfilariae are dead, right? And unless you’re doing an occult test, you’re testing for the presence of microfilariae. Which can’t be there if they’re on ivermectin or similar. I don’t understand. Unless they’re testing to see if there are ivermectin-resistant HWs. But AFAIK those have only been documented in Louisiana.

I just tell my vet I don’t want the HW test. Since I’m not dependent on him for meds, it’s no problem. Although since I read about the ivermectin-resistant species, I’ll have one or two dogs tested every year or two just to make sure the ivermectin still works.

[Bicoastal]

Test is $68.50

Who said the test was $20 or $30? I need to move there. Got Joey tested yesterday -negative :yes:- and just the test was $68.50! :eek: This was in-house. I was really not expecting that price tag!

One year’s supply of Heartgard is $20 cheaper at Smartpak ($50 vs $70 at vets) so I’ll probably order from there. Any reputable places much cheaper than $50 for 12m 0-25lbs?

[bdj]

SmartPak generally has about the best deal, especially if you end up ordering enough to get over the $75 free shipping limit.

You can also check Foster & Smith - they do free shipping on all Rx orders and anything else over $49, and KVVet - they do free shipping if you spend over $50. Both of them have good selections of other dog stuff, so it can be a little easier to make minimum order limits there, if you want treats or toys or general stuff.

If you’re in a time crunch, SmartPak might be your best bet - I usually get my stuff from them within 2 or 3 days around here - it can take a few days longer for KV and Foster and Smith.

$68.50 sounds high for a standard snap test for heartworms - pretty sure (though I don’t have any receipts with me at the moment) that my vet charges $30 or $35…