What is heartworm medicine?

Although treating your dog after infection with heartworms is mostly successful, it is usually cheaper and safer to prevent infection of your dog with heartworm medicine. A wide variety of options is available to your dog and preventative heartworm medications come in many forms : monthly tablets, chewables, monthly topicals (on the skin) and also a six-month injectable vaccine. All of those products are highly effective and, when properly used, will prevent heartworm infections.

Heartworm medicine prevents…

In areas-regions known to have a high number of heartworm infections, year-round use of heartworm preventative medication is recommended, even if it mostly seasonal (i.e. during summer). This way, you will be assured of compliance and will avoid forgetting giving your dog a preventative heartworm medicine when the mosquito season starts. Also, most monthly heartworm preventives products are good against other intestinal parasites that can also infect people.

However, before you start a preventative program, have your dog checked for heartworm disease if you think your dog is possibly infected.

What to buy: HEARTWORM MEDICINE

There are several brands of heartworm medication. Heartgard Plus for dogs are chewables (ingredients: ivermectin/oxibendazole) that also control other bugs, such as roundworms and hookworms in dogs.

If you are looking for more affordability, Iverhart is the generic version of  Heartgard heartworm medicine and also comes in chewables that you dog will love (ingredients:ivermectin/pyrantel) and also controls roundworm, hookworm, and tapeworm in dogs. Tri-Heart Plus (ingreadients:ivermectin/pyrantel), another generic version of the Heartgard heartworm medication, controls ascarid and hookworms as well.

A topical version of dog heartworm medicine is also available to dog owners. The topical Revolution (ingredient: selamectin) will also controls ear mites, sarcoptic mange, and American dog ticks.

The Sentinel (ingredients: milbemycin oxime/lufenuron) brand comes in pills and include flea, hookworm, adult roundworm and whipworm infections in dogs.

“Prevention is much easier than treatment,” says Martine Hartogensis, D.V.M., a veterinarian in FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), because most heartworm preventive products are given to pets only once a month. Source : http://www.fda.gov/consumer/updates/heartworm061908.html”

Talk to your veterinarian today. Get your dog and cat heartworm medicine.