The American Beagler Forum

my vet said I shouldnt start liquid ivomec until the pups are 4 months old. that sounds kind of a late start to me especialy in skeeter season. I thought they start heart guard sooner than that? what is the difference?

It's 6 months not 4, never give a pup Ivomec before it's 6 months of age except for mange.

I have been starting my pups on Ivomec at 2 weeks old for 15 years and never had a problem.I start them with 1 drop out of the end of the needle at 2 weeks and once a week until they are 12 weeks old, then once a month at the rate of 1/10 of a cc per 10 pounds.

I have given it as young as 4 weeks old but, most likely the vet suggested that age because the life cycle of the heartworm takes at least 6 months to become a problem. http://www.plymouthmosquito.com/dog_heartworm.htm

Leah

Good article, but actually the larvae can develop into a form that is hard to kill in onlyabout 2 months. So my pups get Ivo as young as 2 months old if it's skeeter season. That may be a little sooner than necessary but it's so easy to prevent em and so hard to get rid of em after they get established.

Larry G wrote:Good article, but actually the larvae can develop into a form that is hard to kill in onlyabout 2 months. So my pups get Ivo as young as 2 months old if it's skeeter season. That may be a little sooner than necessary but it's so easy to prevent em and so hard to get rid of em after they get established.

Larry, do you have an article or webpage on that? I'd like to read up a little more. We normally start as soon as we see the flying blood suckers here but, for most puppies I start at 5 months old. Frankly Ivomec is safe and you could probably use it on 5 day old puppies if it were necessary which its not but, thats how safe it is for our breed anyway.

Leah

I think it is in here

http://www.heartwormsociety.org/CanineHeartwormInfo.htm

but I know I remember reading that the larvae can change to a form in 58 days that is not readily killed by the small dose of Ivomec. Also I have read that you can miss a month and the Ivo has a retroactive effect that will likely keep you free of heartworm. One of the most interesting things and I can't remember where I saw it right now, was that in Japan vets are somehow sucking the adult heartworms out of dogs by going in I suppose the way a heart catheritization is done.

Skeeters get real bad here some years, and I remember a few years ago I couldn't go out in the yard without looking like one big bite in 10 minutes. That was during the west nile virus scare too. I got sick with something the doc's could not diagnose and was in pretty bad shape for about 2 weeks. I had the symptoms of west nile but the test came back negative. Whatever happened to the bird flu thing? Another Y2K hoax or is it still a threat?

I've had dogs with heartworm and they aren't much good for chasing rabbits, so I make sure to give em a dab of Ivo once a month in warm weather.

Yep I read the article and it says Ivo can block development of heartworm disease as long as 2 months after initial infection. That's why my 2 month old pups get a smidge.

Thanks Larry! thats a great site to explain heartworm infection and treatment. Until the last 5 years or so, it was unusual to hear of heartworm infection here in Utah but, its getting more prevalent and I've been treating for it for many many years.

LEah