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I took my lab in 7 months ago and got a positive heartworm test. Went through the heartworm procedure not knowing anything about multi. Well after the treatment she came back positive again. Read a whole lot about multi and decided to give it a try. 6 months on multi and now I have negative results. Gonna test her again in 3 months. Hopefully it will still be negative then gonna get on 6 month testing.

where are you getting it? Have not found a vet in Tupelo that carries it.

The vet I use in Oxford gets it. Sullivan

Dr. Lee Payne in Pontotoc.

Did Dr. Payne move from Oxford?

My fault; forgot he is in Oxford.

coonewah wrote:Did Dr. Payne move from Oxford?

x2, he's my vet, great guy

Don't mean to scare ya,but, it has been quite common to get negative results from heartworm test after using Advantix Multi. Problem is, it don't kill heartworms. I believe if you talk to your vet, he/she will confirm that.

Your dog got heartworms, you ain't gonna kill em till you treat with an immiticide.

I am presently dosing with Heartgard followed 15 days later with Advantix Multi. Expensive drugs.

I gotta disagree with ya glenster.... I spoke with my vet about the 'rumor' about flase negatives with multi. He hadn't heard ANYTHING of the sort, didn't see how it could be possible, and did some research to check the rumor out. Nada. I'm of the mindset theres a hartguard rep somewhere spreading that rumor, and vets who are just now getting educated about the breakthru are beliving what they are being told from the folks selling them medicine that isn't working in this area... just my own suspcion, haven't got anything to base it on except for my personal experiences with some things we've been told from hartguard. travis

If rebelduckaholic is telling the truth, it has just happened to his dog. Positive for heartworms. Started using Advantix and got a negative result. Did not the same thing happen to Juice?
I have two that have been on Heartgard since they were six months old. Given every month, first Saturday. They checked positve, while other dogs in kennel were, still are, negative. Drug company is paying full price for treatment.
Did the drug fail in there case? Yes, it did. Was it the fault of the drug or did the law of averages catch up with me?
No drug is 100% effective 100% of the time. I believe the equation for 100% effective is 100 out of 100. What if reality is 995 out of 1000. What if the number is 9971 out of 10,000?
The Advantix is difficult to apply. You have to be real careful to insure the dog does not shake the medicine off after application. If this happens, does the dog get the required dosage?
This heartworm issue, I believe, is far mre complicated than Heartgard is not working. I am going to keep doubling my applications, especially during the months with the greatest chance of exposure, and hope I can put up a stiff enough defense in my dogs to prevent another infection.

Da Juice had a breakthru on hartguard. So did his littermate scream, and my moms other dog char. char was the only one negative AFTER a treatment. scream was treated 3x before she was clear, but I refused to put juice thru another treatment. After treatment and 1.5 year of hartguard, 3 more postive tests. 6 months of multi, and he was clear for the first time in a long long time. 3 out of 4 dogs isn't playing the % of 100%. Not to mention 2 more dogs I had come up postive during that time, one supposedly on hartguard, and the other certainly was. Lots of people are telling me about negatives after 6 months on multi.... often after having postive tests AFTER hartworm treatment. No you shouldn't be able to rid worms with an immiticde, but you should with a hartworm treatment, and you should have never had them if your other prevative worked.

Mulit stays active in a dogs bloodstream for the entire month. And that very well might be the key to why it is working when other prevatives clearly aren't, including the treatment to get rid of worms. Im not a vet, and I didn't stay in a holiday inn express last night... but I have spent several grand on preventatives and treatments that didn't work over the last few years. And my main beef with hartguard in particular is the dishonestly in the things they said and did when dealing with them. travis

Travis, the 100% is the claim how effective Heartgard is. 100 dogs were treated with the Heartgard formula. None became positive for heartworms after an injection of the microfilaria. Thus the claim, 100% effective. What if the test were on 10,000 dogs? Maybe a million dogs? Would 100% still stay free of heartworms? Even if 9975 were free, you could still claim 100% effective.
I say no drug is 100% effective for anything. How many dogs are treated annually with Heartgard compared to how many actually test positive for heartworms? Dunno.
Advantix Multi does not have the required drug to kill adult heartworms. It contains Ivermect that will kill the microfilaria(immature heartworms). If you have indication of adult heartworms through a blood test, then only an immiticide can kill the adults. Advantix Multi simply does not contain this drug. By the way, the presence of adult heartworms is determined by the detection of an antigen, given off by the reproductive organs of three or more adult female heartworms.
Adult heartworms cannot reproduce themselves in the host animal. The immature heartworms must spend some time inside the vector(mosquito) to continue to mature. It will then be transmitted to its host through the bite of the mosquito.
The drug company that produces Heartgard, Merial, says it will stand by its product with the guarantee, that if your dog becomes infected with heartworms while properly being treated with Heartgard, it will pay for all expenses incurred during the treatment to rid the dog of the heartworms. In my case, they have done just that.
I am treating my dogs with both Heartgard and Advantix Multi to give my dogs the most defense I can muster against heartworms. It is not that I feel that Heartgard has failed in its purpose.

I'm not in the know about HW or the medicines that kill em, but wouldn't a neg test after a pos and no HW treatment suggest that the multi killed them? Esecially as this has happened time and again, not just once?


9975 out of 10000 is 99.75% not 100%...

Just saying

pstone wrote:I'm not in the know about HW or the medicines that kill em, but wouldn't a neg test after a pos and no HW treatment suggest that the multi killed them? Esecially as this has happened time and again, not just once?


9975 out of 10000 is 99.75% not 100%...

Just saying

Heartguards explination for this is the Advantage Multi is hiding or masking the hormone that the test detects. But they can't explain the sucess of the blood smear test results nor the x-ray. Actually their official comment is that they are unaware of any of those test being run.

Heartguard biggest problem is, its medicine is only in the dog for 48 hrs. That gives the heartworms 28 dys to get established and set up in the host. If you look at the time line and life cycle of the heartworm, it does not take a genius or methmatician to figure out that this is very possible.

Upon infection from the mosquito, the stage 3 (larve) heartworm remains under the skin at the bite site in the fatty tissue molting into a stage 4 (larve to Immature adult)heartworm, this molting process takes about 2 weeks. If you were to adminster heartguard towards the end of this two weeks it would not have any effect on the existing infestation. Heartguard only kills the Larva stage heartworms, this larve stage ends sometime between stage 4 (larve to immature adult)and stage 5 (immature adults) of the life span. Multi however kills immature adults, fourth stage larve and microfilia (sp).

On another note, Ivermectin will kill stage 6 adult heartworms. The treatment schedule is 3 times the prevenative dosage once a month and will take about 6 months. However this should be administered by your vet and only after an x-ray indicating that the infection is minimal.

Keep in mind, if the infection is minimal, the worms will die out, as long as a prevenative is being utilized to avoid any further infection. The heart worm can not reproduce thru the full life cycle with out being transfered from the dog to the mosquito and back to a dog.

Those of you using this product, how long do you wait after application to do water work? All it says on the box is 4 days after application will not alter the efficiency on flea control. My main concern is the heartworm meds