I need some experience, wisdom, and opinoins!

Hi everyone I was at the vet yesterday and they were asking me just genereal questions about Bubba and Tiny. It went something like this Vet: Are your dogs on any Monthly Heartworm preventitive?
Me: NO
Vet: Have the had any spot on flea or tick preventative Like front line?
Me: No because im extremly vigilant with my dogs. Literally every single time they come in from a walk or potty a have the really fine tooth comb and my flaslight out, and i go over the dogs and make sure their isnt any unwanted squatters on them and that they are tick free.
Vet: Have they had their rabies vaccinations?
Me: No Because my dogs have very little to no risk of exposure. They are primarily inside dogs and when we are outside on walks and etc they are leashed and under supervision and at almost no risk. Now New Jersey state law forces Rabies shots by making it illegal for vets to do surgery on non vaccinated animals. Now im def not a fan of a chemical that goes on my dogs back seeps through their skin into the blood stream and makes the blood undesirable to ticks and fleas and poisons the insect or bug when they get bitten.
Now that brings me to my main question how do you guys feel about the Heartworm monthly Med. I feel that it may be a real risk to the dogs and it seems that its a killer and hard on the dog to eradicate. Out of the 3 i want them protected juust not sure in this is the only option or the safest. Any facts or opinoins are greatly appreciated. And BTW i had to do the rabies shot for them to be neutered.

I think out of vaccines and preventatives, heartworm is one of the very most important to maintain every month. You can pick a flea or a tick off of your pet, but you're not going to see every mosquito that lands on them and since heartworm is transmitted by mosquitos, the preventative is a must. It is very costly to treat after your dog gets heartworms and many times deadly if you do not catch it soon enough. There are a few flea/tick/heartworm preventative combo pills out there. Maybe you should discuss that option with your vet. None of my dogs have had a reaction to or adverse effects from the pills.

I have to echo what Sabra said - the heartworm preventive is worthwhile, unless you live in a place where there are no mosquitos (like Alaska!).

We get so many dogs into rescue that are Heartworm positive - it is costly to treat, and several of our fosters died from it this last year. It's completely preventable, and the Heartguard once a month preventive is inexpensive.

I have to agree, in my opinion heartworm preventative is a must-I personally use Interceptor. As far as flea and tick, I use Neem Shampoo and Spray as a natural alternative to something like Frontline.
As far as vaccines, rabies is required here as well, so mine get that shot every 3 years.

Vaccines are required here so I do the 3 year rabies. I think heartworm is a must and the first thing they told me when Izzy developed allergies was to put her on a flea med. I use Revolution on both of my girls.

As for future rabies issues, you may be able to have a titer test done to see if you can forego further rabies vaccinations.

For heartworm, it really is something that should be done. It just breaks my heart when we get in a pug that is heartworm positive and we risk losing them to the disease that was so easily prevented.

For fleas, I use brewers yeast and garlic pills. In my experiece it has worked really well.,it's like a treat for the pug but it helps keep the critters off of them.

The rabies shot is required here so that is a mute point.
As far as the heartworm goes, that is a must.
I'm not crazy about the tick treatments but until I find something that I trust more then I will switch. Mine get tons of tics where I live.
You have to do what you feel is right for your pugs but I know if I did not treat them and something bad happened to mine I could not forgive myself.
I fostered a girl who was heartworm positive, just broke my heart to know just one pill a month and she would not have not had to suffer like she did.

Yes to heartworm preventative and to vaccines as well. Even if your dogs don't get out, you do and could inadvertently track in parvo on the soles of your shoes. The virus is very hardy and stays viable up to 6 months even in cold weather. I would also get distemper, both diseases are a horrible way for your pet to die and so very preventable. Rabies is also alive and well in many parts of the country and the vaccine is mandatory for a good reason. I would want my puppy to have their first round of shots (since yours are older, they'll only need one round) and I'd follow up a year later with another round and then you can decide from then on how often to vaccinate.

It's my understanding that for titers to work, there has to be antibodies in the dog's immune system to titer and in order for that to happen, your dog has to either have had a vaccination or actually been exposed to the disease in the wild, which I'd rather not chance.

I only use flea treatment when I actually see a flea. Several of my dogs have flea allergies and I don't want them giving themselves infections from scratching. I use Frontline or Advantix because they seem to be the only ones that actually work. I've tried other things and have not had any luck get rid of fleas. Luckily I only had to treat for fleas once last year.

Edited to add, it looks like your dogs have had their parvo and distemper, but I'll leave this info anyway for a rainy day.

Hope this helps!

I agree with everyone else: heartworm preventative is easy and after fostering a pug for 2 nights who was heartworm positive who then died 2 days later just broke my heart. I'll always keep my guys on that.

If you choose not to use flea/tick products, then just make sure you're making an educated decision--it already sounds like you're quite vigilant about that, so you may not need to change a thing there. I do use Frontline Plus. My home backs up onto the woods and ticks are a huge problem here, and they do carry Lyme in this area.

I give Tilly heartworm preventative for 6 months out of the year. She is so seldom outside, I don't worry about it much. No shots for her because she's had allergic reactions to them.

TxAllieGrl wrote: unless you live in a place where there are no mosquitos (like Alaska!).

Correction here - mosquitos are known as the Alaska State Bird. We do have many mosquitos... we just don't have fleas, ticks, or heartworm because our climate is not friendly to them. In the summer, yes, there is potential for fleas (and in fact, one of MaryJo's fosters had fleas because she brought them with her from out of state), but there are really only a few months a year where the critters can thrive, so Alaska avoids a serious outbreak. When I got my Tobey, she had fleas. She came up in the winter time. We just went for a long walk out in the cold, and all those fleas died. We followed up with Revolution, and never had any outbreak.

I think the heartworm is a must, as is the rabies vaccs. Everything else, I think you could run titers, like everyone has suggested, but only after having vaccinated at least once.

pugasaurus wrote:It's my understanding that for titers to work, there has to be antibodies in the dog's immune system to titer and in order for that to happen, your dog has to either have had a vaccination or actually been exposed to the disease in the wild, which I'd rather not chance.

Very true. My Jessie is almost 7, and on an every-3 year cycle for vaccinations. This year we got titers for distemper and parvo, and the antibodies are still present, so no vaccines for us. When Bello & Dre come due for theirs, I'll do titers for them as well.

We (my vet & I) chose not to vaccinate my geriatric girl for rabies (she's due). The risk of her having a reaction is very high given her compromised immune system, and she's almost never outside at all anymore to be exposed to another animal with them. Yes, it's going against the laws, but they don't spot-check here, so the risk of fines is minimal.

We use heartworm prevention as well as Frontline. I've heard so many tragic stories of heartworm that it's an easy way to save a life. Our area is considered low to moderate risk for heartworm so I do skip the coldest 3 months of the year, and in the warm months I dose every 6-8 weeks instead of every 4 weeks. I do the same with Frontline, every 6-8 weeks. But again, our area is relatively low risk for heartworm because you almost never see a mosquito and our dogs are mostly couch potatos now except for regular walks and trips to the local park so their flea risk isn't terribly high.

We vaccinate for rabies every 3 years and the pugs have tolerated it fine so far. Since I have two 9 year olds and a 6 year old, we have stopped all other vaccinations. However, I am a big believer in every single puppy having the full course of puppy vaccinations. Parvo is no laughing matter.

I avoid chemicals wherever possible and I know where you're coming from.

But I always do a full course of puppy vacs (we don't have rabies in Australia, we vacc against parvo, distemper, hepatitis (c3) or plus kennel cough (c4) or plus kennel cough bordatella (c5)) and monthly heartworm meds (but I use them 6 weekly instead of monthly as I live in a low risk area so it is mainly a preventative against travel infection plus it includes intestinal parasite prevention.)
Fosters that come through (not pugs) I will actually give the yearly heartworm shot as long as it is not in the same month as any other shots.

Previously my schedule was to do all puppy vacs then annually until 6 years old then nothing. These days its all puppy shots, the first annual then 3 yearly plus annual kennel cough nasal. I still stop the annual kennel cough at 6 years just a quirk of mine I figure by that age they have a good strong immune system and lots of antibodies going.

The thought of chemicals in their bloodstream killing the heartworm wrigglers might be horrible but the thought of the massive chemical load and pain and suffering they would endure in the case of havuing the adult parasites is much much much worse.

I just use essential oils to deter fleas and ticks as I am not in a high risk area, but if I lived in a paralysis tick area in my country I would use those chemicals too - I have seen too much tragedy and expensive vetwork that ultimately failes to save a tick-bitten dog and those ticks hide so well in crevices....

I think it's Mandy on here (?) that has made a similar choice to you and titres yearly instead maybe she will come on and discuss her alternate methods.

A lot depends on what area you live in and whether your dogs get out and about regularly as that increases the risk.

Wow thank you everyone for the response. Both my uys have had all of their puppy vacs including parvo and distemper. Now rabies too. Thankyou for the heartworm info i am for sure going to have them on that. I dont want my little guys to suffer. Im just a very contiencious pug dad and see hoe over medicated the human race is and how evil something as good as life savin medicine can become when the profit element is added. yesyerday i did a 40x test along with presurgical bloodwork and the boys came back negative.

I'm pretty conservative on most things. Like Angela, I do use HW prevention (and also flea/tick). I have used Revolution because of fostering. I've had too many cases of sarcoptic mange through the house so do keep up with the Revolution. So far, no issues.

I generally don't vaccinate for DHPP/DA2PP if the dog has had any kind of regular vaccination when they come to me (Mine are all rescues and all older dogs when I get them). I do, however, do titres for parvo and distemper as those are killers. I usually get good immune response to parvo and not always good immune to distemper so have had to re-vacc for distemper on occasion.

I do keep the Rabies up to date--but only every three years. My dogs are out in the public a lot as reps for the rescue so I cannot risk an unvaccinated dog--not because I think they will give or get rabies, but because I don't want to ever have someone accuse my dogs of biting (and people think weird things are bites sometimes) and then deal with having an un-vaccinated dog legal issues.

I don't vaccinate for bordetella or leptospirosis ever. I think the bordetella vaccine isn't particularly useful and I think the lepto vaccine is dangerous and doesn't cover the serovars most prevalent where I live.

I do the puppy series, rabies at 6 months, then the 1 year boosters then I'm done with vaccines. I don't even titer right now because it's too damn expensive here (they want something like $200) and because my dog is only 2 and a half, perhaps for her 3rd birthday we'll get some titers done. I do not do rabies with Izzie as she has severe reactions to all vaccines, she balloons up and to me the risk of her dying is not cut by dosing her with benedryl before the shot. To me that's like giving a peanut allergy kid a shot of benedryl in order to shove peanut butter down their throats. Rabies isn't required by law here anyways. Never get bordatella or lepto. Bordatella is like the flu shot, there's so many strains and the shot only covers a few and gives a false sense of security really. Lepto is just commonly known to be dangerous for toy breeds in general as far as reaction rates go.

Izzie does come to work with me, she visits school with me and she's done therapy work with both the elderly and special needs children and adults. The risk is there, but i have a highly socialized dog that i can read well so i take my risks. I also boost her immune system with colostrum as well as a three times a week probiotic and keeping her fit and trim and well exercised (we've recently started looking into doggy yoga poses to keep her limber).

There is no heart worm where i am, much like Alaska we have mosquitoes but our climate is so harsh (hot and dry or cold and dry) that heart worm is not prevalent. If i was going to BC or to the states for a visit, she'd be put on a preventative for one month prior and the month of the trip, but we haven't experienced this scenario.

I don't do flea and tick, I've never caught a flea or tick on my dogs ever. Keep the immune system up and parasites will not seek out your animal, Fleas and ticks generally become prevalent on unhealthy hosts. Though if they are common in your area, topical Neem products like TheraNeem Pet Shampoo helps repel fleas, ticks, and mosquitoes on both people and pets (yes I've shampooed my hair with my dog's shampoo before).

If you're in a very wet area with a lot of mosquitoes and known heart worm, do the preventative. It's worth it. It costs $1000s to treat heart worm, and there's no real remedy that i know that works 100% unfortunately. New Jersey is right on the ocean, so HW prevention is a must IMHO. Flea and tick is at your discretion though as far as I'm concerned. Rabies as often as the law suggest, i think Jersey is mostly on board for the 3 year jab. As for the rest, titer every couple years.

TxAllieGrl wrote:I have to echo what Sabra said - the heartworm preventive is worthwhile, unless you live in a place where there are no mosquitos (like Alaska!).

Ha! We have B52 Bomber Mosquitos, they just don't carry heartworm disease. *LOL*