How does a dog contract heartworms and what can be done about them?
Heartworms are spread from dog to dog by mosquitoes. The larvae actually have to go through a molt in the mosquito to become infectious. Prevention is necessary all year long, especially in the south. Corporations will vet will sell you wonderful products that include flea and tick repellants, as well as all purpose wormers, for $$$ dollars. They know you love your pet and will pay several tens of dollars for a product that actually costs a few cents. It is a vet-corp-govt partnerhsip and rackett and it gets really expensive when you have several dogs.For $6 you can get a tube of Agri-Mectin Ivermectin horse paste. It is an excellent and cheap alternative to the corporate products. One tube of this is around $9, sometimes less. It will last 25 dogs an entire year.
You may have been told that the horse paste is not safe to use or that it is not consistent. The truth is that it is perfectly safe and it is thoroughly mixed. These people just want you to pay for the overpriced HeartGuard.
What you have to do to administer it is to push it out of the tube, get a tiny dab on your finger and wipe it on your dog's hard palate in his mouth. One tube is enough for 1250 lbs of dog, so you can imagine how little you need for your dog!
Don't over do it. My formula for an adult is one "dab" equal to a pencil erassor per 15 lbs.
For puppies, I use Ivermectin Premix for Swine, from Thomas Labratories. One scoop will treat an entire litter of puppies.
Rhodesian Ridgeback FAQs . . .
