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Heartworm Pet Meds protect dogs from internal parasites.
Hi, this Dr. Stram, Elk Grove Pet Clinic, Elk Grove Village IL, I’d like to talk about internal parasites in dogs and cats. During a normal vaccination and wellness examination, we perform a blood test for internal parasites.
Internal parasites in our pets can be an interesting disease to learn about. We’ve got heartworms that can cause problems in dogs and cats. We also have internal parasites that live inside the stomach and the intestinal tracts of these pets.
Heartworm disease is very unique because the heartworms need a canine dog in order to complete the heartworm life cycle.
We do see heartworm disease in cats. It’s not as severe in cats because heartworms aren’t meant to live in cats. Cats can become an accidental host. We don’t see as severe a heartworm problem in cats like we see in dogs.
Heartworm Pet Meds may prevent fatal heart failure.
In dogs, heartworms can cause a lot of problems with the heart. Heartworms can cause heart failure. They can cause other organ system failures. We are very interested in preventing heartworm disease in dogs so that we don’t have to worry about treating the disease. It’s better to prevent it, a lot less expensive, and the animals won’t have to go through the hardship of that disease.
Heartworm disease is across all 50 states now in the United States. 20 or 30 years ago, we mainly just saw it down in Florida, Texas, and in the other warmer climates. Now it has moved to all 50 states, and the disease is carried by a mosquito. So your dog is going to bite an infected dog, fox, coyote, or wolf and then that mosquito will suck up larva from the heartworm. The larva then matures inside of the mosquito. The mosquito comes over and bites your pet and injects the larva into the pet. The larva then grows inside your pet and attaches itself to the pet’s heart. It then can cause all kinds of havoc inside of your pet’s heart.
When we look at this map over here (in this video), it shows the different cases. We are still very heavy with heartworms in the South. In California, Texas, Florida, and the other dark red areas, there’s a lot of heartworm disease. Illinois is still a very prominent area. There are a lot of heartworm cases in Illinois. Maybe not compared to Florida. But if you compare to some of the northern states, Illinois has a bigger heartworm problem. This is true when you compare it to how it’s a problem in the northern states. It can be a devastating disease. If we can prevent it, we don’t have to worry about it ever affecting your pet.
Once your pet gets heartworm disease, there are treatments for it. Most of the time, treatments are successful. Our best bet is to try to prevent the disease. Our clinic recommends a drug called Heartgard Plus for prevention. Heartgard Plus is made by a company named Merial. Heartgard Plus will prevent heartworm disease if the pill is given on a monthly basis. It also has the benefits of treating and controlling roundworms. Roundworms are internal parasites that can live in the stomach and intestinal tract of a pet. This medication will also treat and control hookworm disease. Hookworms can live and breed in the intestinal tract of dogs and also cats. We can give a preventative to cats for the heartworm.
It’s more important that we try to monitor these things. We monitor this by doing a blood test for heartworm disease on an annual basis along with the stool exam that will identify any type of internal parasites that may be in the animal’s stool that would indicate they have these parasites living in the pet’s stomach or the intestines.
Heartworm Pet Meds require testing BEFORE administering.
Make sure to have your pet tested for these diseases BEFORE administering the medications or else you may accidentally KILL your pet.
There’s also another product that Merial makes called Frontline Plus. It controls adult fleas. It kills their eggs and larva. It kills ticks. It aids in controlling sarcoptic mange. It can help with lice infection.
The benefit of using Frontline Plus and Heartgard Plus is that it can control the majority of the internal and external parasites that we see in dogs in cats. By administering these two products, we can prevent heartworm disease, hookworms, roundworms, fleas, and ticks. Those are the majority of the parasites that are going to affect your pet.
It’s very important to stick with the program that Merial has devised with regards to preventing heartworm disease. Merial has a guarantee that if you buy your heartworm pills from a veterinarian and do the heartworm test on an annual basis and do a fecal exam on an annual basis, that if your pet contracts heartworm disease or hookworm disease or roundworm disease while the pet is on the Merial product that Merial will compensate the veterinarian for the treatment so that the treatment costs you nothing.
Heartworm Pet Meds from the Internet are NOT guaranteed.
A lot of people go to the internet in order to purchase Heartgard. They do this because Heartgard is a fine product and people want to try to get it as cheap as possible. I highly recommend that you do NOT do that. Doing that voids the warranty. Any Heartgard that is purchased through the internet does NOT come through Merial. Those are bootlegged sources that people are buying from. Even though they claim to be the largest or the best pharmacy in America for pets, it is a BOOTLEGGED product. The product was NOT purchased through the manufacturer. It was through some other source. Many times these “internet meds” are getting shipped to places down in Florida. It specifically says on the Heartgard Plus boxes that the product needs to be kept at a controlled temperature of about 68-77 degrees. If you go under or over that range for an extended period of time, the drug that is in there that does the work of preventing the diseases breaks down and becomes ineffective. If you have a short excursion, it may not be an issue if it is just a 5, 10, 15 minute ride from the vet to your home. However, these “internet meds” are shipped many times over a 3-4 day time period. They are shipped in the winter and they are shipped in the summer. The temperature inside of a UPS truck or a mail truck may be 0, 10, 20, 90, or 100 degrees. Just an hour at those temperatures is going to break down the product so that it will no longer work to prevent the disease in your pet.
Buy the prevention products from a reputable source and stick with the guarantee. That’s going to be the best way that you can help to protect your pet.
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