Should I Give Heartworm and Flea/Tick Prevention To My Pet?

I encourage everyone to give Heartworm and Flea/Tick prevention to their dogs.  While cats have a much harder time contracting heartworms they do need monthly flea prevention.  Your animals are indoor animals?  That's great!  You are not 100% indoor so these little bugs can hitch a ride on you and then come in to get on your pet.

Whether or dog is stricktly indoor except for potty breaks or not is irrelavent to the need for heartworm prevention.  The prevention is so much easier than the treatment if they are infected.  All it takes is one mosquito and we all know how sneaky those little creatures are.  They can get into your home whether you want them to or not.  They can also get in whether or not you treat your home for insects.  Again, we humans can bring them inside since we are not 100% indoors.

http://pets.webmd.com/dogs/guide/heartworm-prevention-medicine-dogs

http://heartwormtreatment-fordogs.com/immiticide-treatment-and-side-effects/

The treatment for heart worms is very hard on a dog's body.  The vet injects a medication called Immiticide into your dog to kill the worms that are living in his/her heart.  This drug is basically arsenic.  It is not a high enough dose to kill your dog but does kill the worms.  Then your dog has to stay quiet (no playing) for a few weeks and then there's another dose of this arsenic drug.  Then more quiet time.  Depending on the severity of the disease will dictate treatment but it is definitely hard on the body regardless.

There are a wide variety of prevention options out on the market today and if you want to know what I use on my dogs and cats I will be happy to tell you if you send me a note.  I have included links so you will be able to do more research on this topic if you would like.  There is a lot of information and it can be confusing.  Please talk to your vet about purchasing prevention.  It is definitely better to be safe than sorry when it comes to your pet's health.

As always, I'm interested in any comments or questions any of you may have regarding this post.