Heartgard-Best price?

[courtneyrtr]

Originally Posted by TBEventer2002 It IS dangerous to give HWP to a heartworm-positive dog. The prevention, it's true, does kill off that month's worth of parasites. The chemicals do not stay in your dog's system. But if your dog has not been on HWP reliably, regularly, it is dangerous to give it. Reason being that if you kill off the little teeny baby heartworms monthly, they don't cause issues. But if you mass-kill off a whole heart-full of adults, then you risk the dead parasites clogging arteries and impeding bloodflow, essentially putting your dog into heart-attack, heart failure, etc. and killing them.

I've been doing dog rescue for many years and we treat all of our dogs with heartguard that are heartworm positive. About 1/3 of all dogs we get from the kill shelter are HW+ since we live in Texas. When a dog is HW+ and is given heartguard it will kill off the baby heartworms slowly. The adult heartworms will not be killed by the heartguard and will die over their normal lifespan (1-4 years). Eventually your dog will be heartworm free. I've personally treated on of my dogs that I got from a pound on Heartguard when he was High HW+, he was very lucky and was HW free in 12 months!
We have never had a dog die or have any complications from us giving them heartguard. We have had 2 dogs die from getting the treatment from the vet.... so you be the judge. Most vets will not offer this to their clients, #1 because you have to be very consistent if you are going to treat with Heartguard, #2 Vets make a TON of $ doing the HW treatments because they can cost up to $500.

Back to original Question:
We mix our own 'Heartguard'. We buy Cattle Ivermection from the Feed Store and give out specific doses per the dogs weight.
As other posters suggested to buy the generic Heartguard it will work just fine.

FYI: Heartguard or other heartworm prevention will not prevent your dog from bit by a mosquito that is caring Heartworms.. what happens is when you give your dog the heartwom prevention every month when a mosquito bites your dog and infects them with HW then the Heartworm prevention that is in your dogs system will kill the HW 'babies' and prevent them from turning into adults. HTH

[greenrays]

Originally Posted by courtneyrtr I've been doing dog rescue for many years and we treat all of our dogs with heartguard that are heartworm positive. About 1/3 of all dogs we get from the kill shelter are HW+ since we live in Texas. When a dog is HW+ and is given heartguard it will kill off the baby heartworms slowly. The adult heartworms will not be killed by the heartguard and will die over their normal lifespan (1-4 years). Eventually your dog will be heartworm free. I've personally treated on of my dogs that I got from a pound on Heartguard when he was High HW+, he was very lucky and was HW free in 12 months! We have never had a dog die or have any complications from us giving them heartguard. We have had 2 dogs die from getting the treatment from the vet.... so you be the judge. Most vets will not offer this to their clients, #1 because you have to be very consistent if you are going to treat with Heartguard, #2 Vets make a TON of $ doing the HW treatments because they can cost up to $500. Back to original Question: We mix our own 'Heartguard'. We buy Cattle Ivermection from the Feed Store and give out specific doses per the dogs weight. As other posters suggested to buy the generic Heartguard it will work just fine. FYI: Heartguard or other heartworm prevention will not prevent your dog from bit by a mosquito that is caring Heartworms.. what happens is when you give your dog the heartwom prevention every month when a mosquito bites your dog and infects them with HW then the Heartworm prevention that is in your dogs system will kill the HW 'babies' and prevent them from turning into adults. HTH

Our rescue treats the exact same way, unfortunately most dogs that are pulled from shelters are so bad that they need full blown heartworm treatment and weeks of quiet time afterward. There are the select few that aren't so bad and can be treated with a 12 month dose of heartgard.

thanks for the idea of feed store ivermectin!!! I may look into the cost of that vs what I've been buying. I wish I knew about it years ago when I was treating my dog for mange and went through 3 bottles of the stuff from the vet:hectic1:. It was pricey but worked really well!!

[Redfeather54]

Originally Posted by detakins Pets Megastore : Discount Pet Vet Supplies discount medical supplies for pets I have ordered from them for years and they have some great prices. You don't even need a RX, but I would highly recommend that your dog be tested for heartworms before beginning preventative. It is my undestanding that if you give preventative to a heartworm positive dog that you could kill them. I have done some research and talked to my vet and have decided to go an even cheaper route this year. We ordered swine/cattle ivermectin from upco.com and got more heartworm preventative for 2 dogs than we will even be able to use for $26.50. The expiration date is over 2 years from now. Fyi, the doseage that some people are posting on the internet (0.1 cc per 10#) is too high. My vet was kind enough to calculate the correct doseages for me.

Try Petshed.com they have a generic that is cheaper than anything on the megastore.

[Redfeather54]

I meant to say try Petshed.com not petsmart. Sorry

[NeMom1]

I know you probably already have your heart worm medication, but Iverhart Plus is the generic version of Heartgard and can be bought without a prescription online at Pet & Kennel Supply, no shipping either.

They have the Heartgard and the others, but say you have to fax in a script.