Heartworm prevention medicines for pets are safer than ever | Pet Peeves

Dr. Dara Johns
·3 min read

The other day a pet owner brought her dog in for his annual exam and vaccines. She told the technician checking her in that she wanted "the shot that prevents heartworms, fleas and ticks for a whole year." The technician told her there was no such injection. She explained the injection she was describing was for one whole year of heartworm prevention only, not fleas and ticks. The pet owner was convinced the technician was wrong.

When I talked to the owner, it really did take some explaining to convince the pet owner there is no such injection. She had heard about it from a friend. There are so many misunderstandings concerning flea, tick and heartworm medicine. Confusion concerning heartworm medicine has always been a problem.

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Way back in the mid-1980s, there was only one heartworm medicine called Filaribits. The advertising campaign employed Marmaduke the cartoon dog. Filaribits was a chewable that had to be given every single day to keep your pet from catching heartworms. It could prevent a pet from catching heartworms, but if the pet was already positive for heartworms it could cause a severe anaphylactic reaction that would be fatal to the pet.

Unfortunately, this happened to one family's pet. The young son overheard his parents talking about the fact that their family dog was positive for heartworms because they had missed some doses (easy to do when it has to be given every day.) The young boy went to the cupboard and got out the Filaribits to "cure" the dog of heartworms. It caused a severe and fatal reaction in the positive pet.

Heartworm prevention medicines have come a long way

Heartworm preventions are much safer now and they don't have to be given every day. Most heartworm preventions are given once a month. These include the oral medicines Heartgard, Triheart, Simparica Trio and Interceptor. There are also two topical heartworm medicines that are once a month. They are Revolution and Advantage Multi.

The Advantage Multi heartworm prevention is another of those that lends itself to confusion. This is because the company that makes it also makes Advantix (a flea and tick medicine) and Advantage II (a flea only medicine). Pet owners see the Advantage Multi in the veterinary office and then when they are at Walmart, they see the Advantage II on the shelf and think it is the same thing. It is not. I say this many times, but I will repeat it. Heartworm medicine can only be gotten with a prescription. If a prescription is not required for the product that you have then it is probably just flea and tick medicine. It is not protecting your pet from heartworms.

Is there a heartworm injection that lasts for one year?

Now about that one-year heartworm injection. Yes, there is such a thing, but it does not do anything for fleas or ticks. It is called Proheart and it is administered at your veterinarian's office. Proheart is a time release injection made up of microspheres that is given once a year and prevents heartworms and hookworms. If you have trouble remembering to give heartworm medicine on time every month or you travel a lot and cannot keep up with it, this could be the heartworm medicine for your pet. Pet owners will not have to worry about heartworm prevention, but will still need to use something to treat the pet for fleas and ticks.

This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Why heartworm prevention medicines for pets are safer than ever today