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After my folks scream dog came up postive on hartguard last spring, and both of troys dogs... Ive been scared. Well char came up postive last week. So I took juice in saturday. Yup, hes postive too. But they tell me he's STLL postive! Somehow, his file says negative on his annual last december, and its marked thru and written postive, with notes the vet talked to me about it. No way. God I hope its a clerical error, and they wrote in juices file about scream (she used to be in my name, and same birthdate, so I hope so!). This is my boy, whos never been sick, never been anything but on go... it really hurts to think he might have had this for so long. Hes rolling so hard right now, I sure was looking forwar dto him hunting this year, the first half of the season is gone for sure. Goes in for treatment next week, I guess when they do the chest film they might no how bad it is.

Somebody is going to have to come up with an answer for these worms. Its unreal how many treated dogs are coming postive (thats 3 of my 4!). travis

Travis hate to hear that. Got my fingers crossed for you hoping that they did make a clerical error.

Man that scares me!! I guess we all need to have ours checked

Travis we need to talk. I don't post on here a whole lot, but my lab just tested positive for them as well about 2 weeks ago. He's been on heartguard every month religiously for his entire life. Never been later than a week or two giving it to him and the vet said that you could really miss up to 6 months of pills and be ok. The heartguard rep said that she has a lab and he will throw the pill up within 24 hours and bury it. She is claiming that is what mine is doing, but I don't believe. I do believe they are going to pay for the treatments though. My vet has really gone to bat for me over this, and is making sure I am taken care of. They are acting like this is the first time one has gotten them while on the medicine. I hate to hear that yours has it as well, but it is good to know for argumentative reasons. Have you heard of a lot of dogs getting it?

yes. but Ive also heard of them coming up postive on interceptor and on the liquid stuff. If it was just hartguard, id say its a medicine problem. I think its the skeeters. More on hartguard, but then again more dogs are on hartguard. travis

Went to the vet today and mine checked out OK. They said it has to do with it being a good (BAD) year for skeeters. One of the vets dogs had even gotten them. They also said that it was all treatments that were coming up positive, not just heartguard.

velcro wrote:Went to the vet today and mine checked out OK. They said it has to do with it being a good (BAD) year for skeeters.

This was also one of the driest summers we have had in a few years. That sounds like somebody just tossing words and hasn't thought it thru.

I don't believe that. I live in one the worst areas in the South for mosquitos. Been living there for over 5 years and it's always a bad year for them. There is somehting wrong with the medicine OR there is something differrent about the worms, their larvea and the infestation.

Troy

Yea, I could see where the liquid stuff might not be quite as effective. As far as it being a bad year for the skeeters, it is my understanding that it really takes up to a year for the heartworms to show up. It takes 6 months for the bacteria (can't remember the weird name for it) to turn into hearworms and then I believe it takes about 3 months for the heartworms to advance into a large enough stage to be detectable and strong enough to withstand the heartguard medicine. (or the liquid)

Yea, I could see where the liquid stuff might not be quite as effective.

why is that?

Travis I'm sorry to hear the news bud and I hope he gets well soon!

Wesley, I don't know the specifics about how all of the new products work so I am really not the one to be asking. Common sense just tells me that something that is applied topically to an animals back may not get into their system as fast and as effective as something that is digested. Especially in a animal such as a lab that loves the water and could possibly wash part of the application off. Maybe you or someone else could enlighten me more about these new products. I have just heard of them since my lab tested positive 2 weeks ago and am still trying to learn as much about the entire process as possible. Travis, do you know yet if he is going to have to go through the light load process or the heavy load?

Good luck to all of you going through this.

no, the liquid i spoke of is the old dosage of ivermecitn (or whutever) it is a lot of folks do for hartworms. nothing topical Im aware of ever claimed to treat for hartworms.

dont know. chest xray next week. travis

Okay, I was talking about this new topical heartworm/flea and tick medicine that is on the market. Don't know much about it, my vet was just telling me about it. I believe it is applied along their back just like the other tick/flea medicine. No, I wasn't talking about giving them ivomec or anything like that. What was your dog on Travis?

This summer I ran fans all the time.....hot, cool, night, day....just to keep the skeeters off.

Troy is right, this has not been a bad year for skeeters.

Really hate to here it Travis.

Benjy

thats bad news, hate to hear it travis.

have a new vet since we relocated. I've always used HG, but they do interceptor. we had a big talk about it. told him about friends with positive dogs that I know are given the meds. he was aware of the increase in positives in the region, and said they had seen 4 cases locally. interesting that 3 of the 4 were labs.. rusty was clear 6 months ago, but we did another test so to have the ammo needed to hold interceptor accountable. he said they've had no problems getting treatments covered.

HG, interceptor, and yes there is a topical treatment that covers heartworms.. are all the same class drug. according to him, biologist have taken worms from dogs on the prevenative, and the same preventative kills the worms in the lab. to me, that says these dogs systems aren't utilizing the preventative effectively. he said they're even looking at genetic patterns. I just don't see genetics playing a roll.

I know some are doubling up on preventative, and some do the .1cc / 10 lbs of ivermectin liquid orally. I asked him about potential problems from doubling up.. he said there is a treatment for a specific type of mange that requires the same .1cc / 10 lbs of liquid ivermectin EVERY DAY for weeks, possibly months...

come spring, I plan to stay with interceptor and add the liquid ivermectin dose middle of the month. double cover, and still have treatment insurance from a company if we do get em. don't know what else to do. maybe screen-in the freakin kennel..