heartworm, fleas, ticks...oh my!

[brutus'mother]

I am curious as to what other members do about heartworm prevention. I live in NE Ohio where the winters are pretty darn cold and summers have been downright hot. I've seen old posts where owners only gave HW preventative during summer months. It seems crazy to give the medication all winter if it isn't needed, afterall it is poison. When I posed this question to the vets office I was told NEVER discontinue HW meds, even if it's 0 degrees all winter. I wasn't surprised! Same thing with the monthly flea control. Are most of you applying it routinely-flea or no flea?
I did find a link in another post about timing heartworm preventative and it shows for Ohio to treat for HW preventative June thru Nov.
Anyone have any thoughts?

[lgslgs]

We've started going year round with the preventative here, with a blood screening for heartworm every 2 years.

If all winters were like the past one I'd be more willing to treat April - November. But a few of the past years we've had such mild spells mid-winter that we get get flies, ticks, mosquitos, and red bud blooms in February. With weather that erratic if we did seasonal heartworm treatment we'd definitely need the blood test annually - and even then we'd have a good sized risky period where the dogs could be infected.


Now for flea and tick -we do those seasonally and base them on when there's active insect cycles. We do flea and tick check everyone daily, and when we get the first tick on a goat or cow we immediately start the dogs on Frontline.


Lynda

[Nishasmom]

I do heart-worm preventative all year. I think it would be too scary to only do seasonally; plus we have mild winters.

As for flea preventative...It is already in the high 80's here, I have not yet needed flea control. I will only apply if I notice a problem with fleas.

[VickyD]

I live in QUebec (Canada) and have always stopped heartworm meds (and flea meds too). as soon as we get frost (late sept) and start up in May.

[Weily4Life]

I can't stand the thought of putting chemicals in my dogs. Heartworm preventative once every three months, I haven't given flea medicine for over 2 years.

[marianne]

Living in Wisconsin,I have only given the heartworm preventive May to Nov. Now it is time for the bloodwork to be done again for this TICK season. BUT I might change the routine,and give all year around.

As for fleas....might need the Frontline all year around too!! Darn bunnies are loaded with fleas. One of the bullies caught a bunny...within the last two weeks. SURE enough found fleas last night. All dogs have had flea baths,all bedding washed,all crates sprayed.

As a side note,I have seen mosquitio's on snow banks too.Unbelieveable

[lblax]

i have been deer hunting with 3 or 4 inches of snow on the ground get a day or 2 of 40 degree weather and you'll see skeeters in the woods.

[Terri Lambert]

Living in NJ where we see alot of HW positive dogs being shipped from shelters all over we do give Hw prevention all year round every month. Also all of the once a month HW preventions also protect your dog from intestinal parasites also. I also use flea/tick products all year round as ticks are a big problem here as well as lyme disease.

[amontague]

Interesting that I found this thread on the same day Baby Bear had his annual physical, bloodwork and heartworm test. I live in SE Pennsylvania, and I give the heartworm preventative from May to December.

[mamamia1]

I'm in Southwestern Ontario and though my vet was just being a money grabber when he suggested I start Revolution the first of April. I saw my first mosquito last night, in one of the out buildings where I train Kali. I guess he was right.

[brunie's mom]

Originally Posted by mamamia1

I'm in Southwestern Ontario and though my vet was just being a money grabber when he suggested I start Revolution the first of April. I saw my first mosquito last night, in one of the out buildings where I train Kali. I guess he was right.

I live in central Ontario, and we still have snow on the ground here. We start HW meds from June to November. The cycle of the HW has to have the mosquito living in temperatures about 50 F for a certain amount of days. I'm going to look up the info...I remember reading about it on the Ontario Vet College website.

We don't have fleas around here, nor ticks...so I just give Heartgard...and there has only been 3 confirmed cases of HW in a 200 square mile radius in the last year or so...and those dogs had been out of province.

I don't believe in giving unecessary chemicals to my dogs.

Gina

[brutus'mother]

Gina-I agree with what your saying completely! I am so careful about what Brutus eats-I spent lots of time researching kibble and then learning all I could about feeding raw.
I devoted lots of time learning about vaccine protocols, when to titer, when to vaccinate, etc.

I've been giving my dog a pill once a month for HW preventative and in the summer I apply the flea preventative. My vet is now suggesting the use of Revolution for flea/HW prevention during the summer months and then giving Tri-Heart during the winter months.
I suppose I've lost a little trust in the vet communuity after all I have found out about over vaccinating and the continued practice to do so even when the facts are so clear. However, I don't want to be over conservative either.

[brunie's mom]

I found the info about how important the temperature must be for the heartworm to develop in the mosquito.

I just copy and pasted...because the info was on a breeder's website:

"Once the mosquito ingests the microfilariae from the infected dog, the larvae must go through two
stages of development, or molts, changing from L1 to L2 and from L2 to L3, while in the mosquitoe’s
system before the mosquito can infect another dog. Once the L3 stage has been reached the larvae
migrate to the mosquitoe’s mouth. It is only the L3 larvae which are capable of infecting another dog.
This mosquito cycle takes anywhere from two weeks to about a month depending on the weather. The
warmer the weather, the faster the development. If the larvae haven’t made the final development by
then, they never will because the mosquito dies of old age at about 35 days, and along with the
mosquito, die the larvae.
The importance of temperature: While the larvae are developing in the mosquito, development
continues only when the temperature is above 64 degrees F. Further, the temperature MUST remain
above 57 degrees Fahrenheit at all times, day and night during the entire mosquito cycle. If at any time
during the development into the L3 stage, the temperature drops below 57 F, the development is
aborted and must start over. Remember, it is only the L3 larvae which are capable of infesting your
dog.
Now let’s say that a mosquito has bitten an infested dog; and that the temperature has remained above
57 degrees F for a minimum of 14 days since that bite; and that the mosquito bites your dog.... "

So even if mosquitoes are seen in the snow...and the temps are cold...these mosquitoes cannot transmit heartworm.

Gina

[lengel]

Heartworm is deadly. I wouldn't think of taking my guys off of Interceptor any time. We have been picking ticks off of them for over a month now too so they are off of Frontline maybe two months of the year and only if it's *really* cold.

[styric]

We do heartworm/flea from about May until late September/October. I have yet to see a mosquito in -40 weather. Now that the snow is melting and it's only dropping to -10 at night, she's going to the vet this weekend for her Interceptor.