Heartworms are worms that mostly infect dogs and, at a lesser extent, cats. Heartworm larvae is spread through mosquito bites, from dogs to dogs. The symptoms of heartworms on your dog can vary a lot between dogs. While some dogs will show no symptoms, other dogs will show significant health deterioration, that can lead to heart failure due to to a large number heartworms in the heart and arteries of the dog. Number of veterinary drugs can prevent heartworm infection. Heartworm medicine such as ivermectin are extremely effective and when regularly administered, they will protect more than 99 percent of dogs and cats from heartworm. You can talk to your veterinarian to learn more about heartworms.

Keep your dog healthy, prevent fleas, roundworms, hookworms, dog ticks and heartworms in dogs using heartworm medicine.

Heartworm medicine, are successful at 99%. The medication will kill adult worms with the help of an adulticide and larvae (microfilariae) with the help of a microfilaricide.  At your dog next visit to the vetenerian, don’t forget to ask about heartworms.Heartworm medicine have to be effective in killing heatworms (adults and larvae) with minimal side effects to the dog.  Treatments against the parasite tend to be more successful in dogs showing low to moderate symptoms. This is why the use of heartworm medicine such as ivermectin or selamectin is usually recommended.

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Show you dog love, treat your dog with heartworm medicine.

]]> http://www.heartwormmedicine.org/heartworm-medicine-and-medication/feed/ http://www.heartwormmedicine.org/heartworm-medicine/ http://www.heartwormmedicine.org/heartworm-medicine/#comments Tue, 05 May 2009 16:17:50 +0000 healthy-dog http://www.heartwormmedicine.org/?p=353 It is very important to care about the health of your pet. Remember that your pet is like a member of your family.

Show you dog love, treat your dog with heartworm medicine.

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The company developing Heartgard For Dogs and Heartgard Plus For Dogs is Merial, a world leading animal health company based in the United Kingdom. Merial was founded in 1997, from the merge of two world-wild known animal health businesses – Merck and Co., Inc. and Rhone Merieux, a predecessor to sanofi-aventis. To this date, this heartworm medication is among the most prescribed heartworm preventative oral medication.
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How Heartgard For Dogs and Heartgard Plus For Dogs works.
The active ingredient in Heartgard acting as a heartworm medicine against Dirofilaria immitis is “ivermectin”. This heartworm medication works in two steps. First, it prevents as much as possible the presence of the parasite in the host animal. Then it eliminates the tissue stage of the parasite, blocking later development of more damaging and harmful stages.
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Heartgard Plus For Dogs includes an additional ingredient called pyrantel pamaote, which is an anthelmintic, a drug that control roundworms and hookworms by expelling the parasites of the host animal body by killing them.
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Heartgard For Dogs and Heartgard Plus For Dogs both come in beef flavor chewable or monthly tablets. This heartworm medicine is approved for all dogs over the age of six weeks. Heartgard For Dogs and Heartgard Plus For Dogs come in different doses for different size of dogs, so make sure you check the label when purchasing this heartworm medicine, to ensure giving your dog the right dosage. Collies and some other breeds that are sensitive to ivermectin can also use this product, as the heartworm medication comes in doses much lower than the dose needed to cause side effects to the host animal.
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It is important that, before treating your dog with Heartgard For Dogs or Heartgard Plus For Dogs, you get your animal tested for preexisting heartworm infection conditions, as Heartgard For Dogs and Heartgard Plus For Dogs should not be used on infected dogs. It is highly recommended to treat infected dogs with other means, and to use Heartgard For Dogs and Heartgard Plus For Dogs only as a preventative program.
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Heartgard For Cats
Heartgard for cats is also available in chewable tablets. Heartgard for cats will help remove and control heartworms, but also hookworms. The drug is recommended for use in all cats over 6 weeks of age. Heartgard for cats can be safely given to cats already infected with heartworms.
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IMPORTANT: The dosage of Heartgard For Dogs and Heartgard Plus For Dogs
Heartgard For Dogs and Heartgard Plus For Dogs (and for cats) must be given proportionnally to the weight of the animal. It is important not to go beyond the recommended dosage, as this can lead to important adverse reactions, including blindness or even death. Heartgard is available through liscensed veterinary only and is approved by the U.S. FDA as well as the Environmental Protection Agency.
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Treat your dog with heartworm medicine.

Being the owner of a dog or a cat, it is important that you learn about all of the different health elements that you need to be aware of.  Although your dog will be vaccinated for a lot of harmful health problems, be aware of other symptoms, such as those related to heartworm disease. If you have any questions about heartworms, do not hesitate to talk to the veterinarian at your next dog appointment.

Some dogs infected with heartworms might not develop a heartworm disease. Those dogs will carry the larvae on their skin or in their body, but not in the heart. However, if the disease develop around the lungs or in the heart, the dog can become very sick.

Damages to pulmonary arteries. A worm can damage the pulmonary arteries only within days after establishing itself in those arteries. Because they are too big, the immune system of the infected animal is unable to destroy the worm. This will cause inflammation at first. If the damages to the arteries become more severe, aneurysms and blood clotting are formed, causing arteries to plug up. These will result in a lack in oxygenation of the dog’s lungs. Some of the symptoms can be quick exhaustion following exercise, lots of coughing, nose bleeds and even a form of non contagious pneumonia (pulmonary eosinophilic granulomatosis).

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Heart failure. If the heartworms locate themselves in the arteries of the dog’s heart, arteries will plug up, therefore the heart has to work harder and faster to get the blood flowing throughout the body (hypertension).

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Sometimes, the right side of the heart weakens and fluid accumulate in the chest and in the abdomen of the dog, creating a belly-like appearance and difficulty to breath.

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In severe cases, the heart thickens from overworking and starts acting differently. This can lead to a disruption of the heart contractions and can create an arrhythmia and sudden death of the dog.

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Chronic stimulation of the immune system. The presence of heartworms in the dogs will trigger its immune system to respond and send antibodies on a regular basis, leading to a chronic inflammation. This chronic inflammation can cause damage of the surrounding cells, triggering damage of the tissues and a lot of pain for the dog.

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Caval syndrome. Caval syndrome is an aggravated version of heartworm disease. Sometimes, the worms can proliferate (as much as 100) and fill up the entire heart of the infected dog. This happens when the unfortunate animal shows no signs of heart problems prior to the caval syndrome. Because it is so severe, the dog will collapse and death will usually occurs within 1 or 2 days unless surgery is performed.

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Other possible syndroms. Rarely, the larvae can migrate to unusual sites, such as the eye, the brain or a leg, leading to some unusual symptoms like blindness, seizures and difficulty to move.

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This is why treatment with heartworm medicine of your dog after infection or prevention are very important.

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Don’t let your dog suffer, treat him with heartworm medicine.

]]> http://www.heartwormmedicine.org/heartworm-symptoms/feed/ http://www.heartwormmedicine.org/heartworm-diagnosis/ http://www.heartwormmedicine.org/heartworm-diagnosis/#comments Wed, 29 Apr 2009 20:45:57 +0000 healthy-dog http://www.heartwormmedicine.org/?p=52 To determine the presence of heartworms, your veterinary will perform a blood test on your dog. The blood test will allow the doctor to determine the presence of an a product released by the female worm. This particular diagnosis is very specific to heartworms and tests are accurate more than 90% of the time. Sometimes, negative results can happen, due to a too low number of worms, early stage infections or no presence of female worms in the dog.

After your dog has been tested positive to this first blood test, you can also get your vet to test for the presence of microfilariae (larvae), using concentring filter test.

Finally X-ray can be done to evaluate how much lung damage has been caused by the heartworms.

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X ray are performed to determine the amount of damages done to the lungs

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Don’t let your dog suffer, treat him with heartworm medicine.

Although treating your dog with heartworm medicine after the dog became infected is mostly successful, it is usually cheaper and safer to prevent infection of your dog. A wide variety of options is available to your dog and preventative heartworm medicine 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  infection with the parasite.

In areas-regions known to have a high number of heartworm infections, year-round use of  preventative medicine 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 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.

"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

Don’t let your dog suffer, treat him with heartworm medicine.

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Iverhart Plus (monthly oral heartworm medication)
New Generic Medication for HeartGard Plus. Iverhart Plus by Virbac, is a pork liver flavored chewable that contains an active ingredients thats veterinarian recommended. Iverhart Plus is guaranteed to protect your dog from potentially deadly parasites: Heartworms, Roundworms, and Hookworms. It may be given to puppies as young as 6 weeks and is safe for pregnant or nursing dogs. A monthly dose of Iverhart Plus is all it takes to protect your dog from heartworm disease. Each flavored chewable contains ivermectin and pyrantel as pamoate salt.
A prescription is required.
Choose size below.

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