How do you know if your dog really needs to be on a heartworm preventative? Should you just take your veterinarians advice or should you double-check on the advice you may be receiving from your Veterinarian? If your dog needs to be on heartworm preventatives are there other things you need to do to ensure the safety of your dog while on the preventative? If you dont know the answers you can be putting your dogs health at risk despite the best of intentions.
In this article...
- Risk Assessment;
- Consequences and Side Effects;
- How to Offset the Risks and Use Natural Alternatives
1.0 The Risk Assessment
- Who is defining the area you reside in as a risk area for heartworm
- What are they defining the risk as - low, medium, high?
- How is the risk level actually defined and estimated?
- What is the actual source of information on which the assessment is based?
- And who is funding the assessment?
What is The Real Risk Assessment?
First verify that your area is truly high risk. If you are in the U.S., the locations that are truly high risk are Florida, parts of Texas, Hawaii and some locations along the Gulf Coast (i.e. New Orleans). Can you trust the maps generated by the American Heartworm Society (AHS) – the answer is NO. Why? Because AHS is heavily sponsored by 8 (eight) of the major pharmaceutical companies who produce pesticide-laden heartworm preventatives. You can find-up-to-date maps on the AHS site; however the data which the maps are based on is designed to boost sales of heartworm products and is not reflective of actual reality.
It seems - at least in North America, that many conventional-practice veterinarians , even those located in very low risk areas for heartworm infection are actively and intensely pushing pesticide-based heartworm medications on their clients.
Why?
Well primarily because the big pharmaceutical companies (i.e. Pfizer) have aggressively and expertly marketed pesticide laden heartworm products to veterinarians. The marketing campaigns base their facts on skewed data, incomplete reporting (including side effects, testing results, comparisons and alternatives). Unfortunately the pharmaceutical companies’ objective is not the health of your pet; it is instead their desire for profit.
Many of the veterinarians pushing these products on their clients are truly not aware of the truth about these products - the short and long-term deleterious side effects (immune system suppression, organ failure, cancer, etc.). In addition very few conventional veterinarians have much knowledge about diet/nutrition and alternate, natural preventatives. And yes, of coarse veterinarians do make money off of the vending, and protocol around sales of heartworm prevention products.
Conditions Must Be Exact for A Dog to Be Infected with Heartworm
Ambient air temperature conditions must be perfect for the heartworm larvae to first survive in the mosquito, and then under the dogs skin during stages L-1 thru to L-4 of development.
During larvae development within the mosquito, the ambient air temperature must remain above 57 degrees Fahrenheit - day and night. If at any time during this stage in the larvas life, the temperature drops below 57 degrees F, development of the larvae is stopped and must start all over again if and when the temperature increases. The larvae must reach the L-3 development stage before it can infest a dog.
At stage L-3 of development heartworm larva are left in a tiny droplet of mosquito saliva which is deposited next to the mosquito bite location on the dogs skin.
Once again the ambient air temperature must be right, and the humidity content in the air must be sufficient to avoid evaporation of the saliva droplet. The larvae canot enter the dogs body without the saliva. To enter into a dogs body, the L-3 larva must swim through the droplet and thereby makes its way into the actual hole made by the mosquito bite. Once inside the dog the L-3 larva spends the next 2 weeks developing into an L-4 stage larva. At L-4 the larva is still living just under the dog
Categories:
about,
alternatives,
be,
conventional,
does,
dog,
heartworm,
medication,
natural,
need,
on,
preventatives,
prevention,
really,
safe,
the,
to,
truth,
your
