Don't skimp on preventative care.
I know I blogged about this previously, but the current economic situation has everyone (us included) saving our pennies.
It might be tempting to skimp on your dog's preventative medications. Don't do it. The cost will be insane when your dog develops heartworm, erlichia, or some other nasty disease.
One thing you can do is get a scrip for a generic alternative heartworm medicine.
We like Iverhart Plus and Tri-Heart Plus. They are the exact same drug as Heartgard in the same quantities. I found one web site that would ship 6 of the 51-100 pound size for $21 and had free shipping for orders over $39. Even if you insist on the original brand, some shopping around can save you money. Generally speaking, you can get heartworm medication for less money than veterinarians pay wholesale for it. They don't make much money selling it anyway, so ask for your prescription.
You do not need a prescription to buy flea and tick products. And again, you can probably find them at retail for less than your veterinarian pays wholesale. Watch out for Permethrin, the active ingredient in the cheapest products. They claim it's "all natural" or a synthetic of the natural ingredient in geraniums. It's natural like nicotine is natural, like arsenic is natural. Just because it's all natural doesn't mean it's good for you or your dog. It has a higher rate of negative reactions than other products. We have found Advantix works well for the ticks in our area. I also had good results with Frontline Plus. We have not been happy with Promeris. It smells awful and if it repelled any ticks from Iris, you wouldn't know it. We pulled off dozens of attached ticks a few days after application.
There are products that combine flea protection with heartworm protection. The problem we have with all of them is none takes care of ticks and ticks carry nasty diseases these days.
There is risk with any product. The EPA is fretting over topical flea and tick products right now. I can tell you the number of bad reactions Dr. Amanda sees to preventative products are very few. She sees quite a few dogs with Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Lyme Disease Ehrlichiosis, and Heartworm. Believe it or not, Lyme Disease is a walk in the park compared to the others.
It might be tempting to skimp on your dog's preventative medications. Don't do it. The cost will be insane when your dog develops heartworm, erlichia, or some other nasty disease.
One thing you can do is get a scrip for a generic alternative heartworm medicine.
We like Iverhart Plus and Tri-Heart Plus. They are the exact same drug as Heartgard in the same quantities. I found one web site that would ship 6 of the 51-100 pound size for $21 and had free shipping for orders over $39. Even if you insist on the original brand, some shopping around can save you money. Generally speaking, you can get heartworm medication for less money than veterinarians pay wholesale for it. They don't make much money selling it anyway, so ask for your prescription.
You do not need a prescription to buy flea and tick products. And again, you can probably find them at retail for less than your veterinarian pays wholesale. Watch out for Permethrin, the active ingredient in the cheapest products. They claim it's "all natural" or a synthetic of the natural ingredient in geraniums. It's natural like nicotine is natural, like arsenic is natural. Just because it's all natural doesn't mean it's good for you or your dog. It has a higher rate of negative reactions than other products. We have found Advantix works well for the ticks in our area. I also had good results with Frontline Plus. We have not been happy with Promeris. It smells awful and if it repelled any ticks from Iris, you wouldn't know it. We pulled off dozens of attached ticks a few days after application.
There are products that combine flea protection with heartworm protection. The problem we have with all of them is none takes care of ticks and ticks carry nasty diseases these days.
There is risk with any product. The EPA is fretting over topical flea and tick products right now. I can tell you the number of bad reactions Dr. Amanda sees to preventative products are very few. She sees quite a few dogs with Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Lyme Disease Ehrlichiosis, and Heartworm. Believe it or not, Lyme Disease is a walk in the park compared to the others.
It's nice to know they have something else that's a little less expensive than heart guard.... As for flea & Tick topicals, well i believe they don't work half as long as they say, i used K9 advantics for 4 months straight and after 3-4 weeks in the 4th month my dog had about 15-20 ticks on her, maybe the ticks wouldn't do as much harm concidering she had been on it for the past 4 month, but i thought it would repell them a hell of alot more than what i pulled off, and yes i got the Lyme disease shots also.
Reply to this