Changing heartworm preventative date?
Both my dogs stay on heartworm medication year-round .
When we got Maddie, she was getting her dose mid-month. Jack gets his at the beginning of the month, and they both get their flea/tick preventative at that time too.
I want to change Maddie's Interceptor dose to match Jack's, so it will be easier to keep track of (and I'll be less likely to miss a dose). I think shifting the schedule in winter, after we've had a prolonged hard freeze (and therefore no risk of mosquitoes) would likely be best.
Does anyone know the best spacing to change the date? Can I safely shift by a full week each month over a two or three month period? Or should I shift in 3-day increments, which would take about 5 months to complete?
When we got Maddie, she was getting her dose mid-month. Jack gets his at the beginning of the month, and they both get their flea/tick preventative at that time too.
I want to change Maddie's Interceptor dose to match Jack's, so it will be easier to keep track of (and I'll be less likely to miss a dose). I think shifting the schedule in winter, after we've had a prolonged hard freeze (and therefore no risk of mosquitoes) would likely be best.
Does anyone know the best spacing to change the date? Can I safely shift by a full week each month over a two or three month period? Or should I shift in 3-day increments, which would take about 5 months to complete?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on
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You can shift in the winter with no problem. I have but I admit I did not ask my vet!
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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on
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If it were me I would shift by a full week over the 2-3 mo. As long as you wait like you said till there's been a prolonged hard freeze. The 1 week later at a time should still take care of anything!
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Permalink Reply by Kathryn Graham on
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While on the subject of Interceptor, does everyone have the problem of their corgis being on the borderline of which size dose to give? Madoc is 9 months old and weighs about a hair under 26 pounds. Seems like 26 lbs. goes to the next size dose. I wouldn't want to over or under-medicate so I get him weighed each month and pick up one tablet at a time. What size dose do you give your corgis? My breeder asked me to separate the Interceptor and the Frontline when Madoc was a small puppy so I do one on the 1st and the other on the 16th so he isn't getting too much in his system simultaneously. Is this just a puppy precaution? Love this site for all the great information and advice!!
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Permalink Reply by Lindsay on
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You can just switch in next month all at one time and give her dose at the beginning of the month with Jack. The safety margin on Interceptor is very high so you won't have to worry about a toxicity. She'll just end up getting those doses only two weeks apart.
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Permalink Reply by Joanna Kimball on
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- Is there a reason they get flea/tick and heartworm year-round? They really don't need it, unless you've got major flea problems. You can do the final dose of heartworm 2 weeks after the first hard (killing) frost and pick it up again once the temps are over 50.
- If you do want to keep going all winter, the safe dosing for milbemycin (Interceptor) is 60 days. The 30-day recommended dosing is because they know people forget, so they want to make sure the dog is safe. So just delay two weeks for Maddie's and give them their next dose at the same time.
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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Thanks for the technical help!
Year-round heartworm treatment is increasingly recommended, and besides it's an intestinal wormer as well and one of mine will go out of his way looking for tasty animal poop to eat (not dog, but cat, rabbit, etc). While I do my best to prevent it, it's not always possible as he's quick. And the heartworm pills are so cheap it's not really an issue.
As for the flea/tick, honestly if it were just fleas I would only use as-needed, but we are in one of the hottest Lyme disease zones in the country here, and ticks can become active in milder winter weather, even this far north. We get deer in the neighborhood and also walk through woody/brushy areas. Our vet recommends tick preventative year-round for dogs who go into the woods, only seasonally for dogs who do all their walking through neighborhoods.
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Permalink Reply by Wendt Worth Corgi's on
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I use heartworm preventative year round as well for the intestinal parasite control like you said. In my area the temps. are never consistent and better to be protected then to be sorry.
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I would NEVER rely on flea/tick stuff to prevent Lyme or the other vector diseases. I use it constantly, check the dogs daily, and I still have a 100% infection rate in the dogs. Ticks are laughing at Frontline and Advantix is barely working even on its best days. Don't count on it and DO make sure you're getting the IDEXX (four-way) test done at least once a year if not twice so you can treat any tick diseases as quickly as possible.
I prefer to worm with pyrantel or fenbendazole and not use heartworm preventative unless I have to. The heartworm meds are harder on the dogs and just plain harsher medication because they're absorbed into the bloodstream. The intestinal worm meds are very gentle because they're not absorbed. They just do their work in the intestinal tract and leave again. So I use ivermectin (Heartgard or, in my case, I mix it myself) for heartworm and, if I'm worried about intestinal parasites, use Nemex or Panacur or Safeguard.
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We've never had a visible tick (I realize you can't see nymphs). My father's dog hunts and is on Advantix and was just tested and came back negative. My aunt's dog is on Frontline and tested positive. Their vet says all the dogs she's seen who were treated with preventative but still came back positive were on Frontline; Advantix has a much better protection rate on ticks.
I do appreciate your feedback, but will be following the advice of my vet on this issue.
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I use the year round preventative also with the parasite control. I started this to avoid the expensive yearly heartworm tests. I do use it also for the parasite control. I do sometimes quit it for a couple months in winter as the my dogs don't get into as much "stuff".
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Every owner should be doing the yearly heartworm tests at this point, not because of the heartworm but because they need the tick-borne disease test. If your vet is still just using the heartworm snap test and hasn't moved to using the one that tests for Lyme, anaplasmosis, and ehrlichia, you really should insist on it. The vector (tick) diseases are becoming epidemic in every state of the union and everybody should be testing for them.
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