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pet people...
do you give heartworm meds to your pets? what about flea meds?
we went to a holistic vet who said heartworm and flea prevention in this area is not necessary. so, right now i use natural methods of flea prevention (neem oil spray). well, we took coco to a new vet yesterday...they aren't holistic but they are open to more holistic methods...like they believe that a lot of pets are over-vaccinated, which was my most important concern. anyway...they said that we SHOULD be using heartworm and flea prevention. she said flea prevention is her number one concern, then heartworm...
so i thought i'd check in here and see what you all do. she recommended sentinel (sp?) which combines heartworm meds with a medication that stops fleas from reproducing if your dog gets them.
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Re: pet people...
We use sentinel. Mostly bc we are concerned about Leo bringing home ticks and fleas and giving them to the cats before the product kills them.
Plus, there are other, equally nasty concerns about ticks: I'm sure they'd be easy to spot on Coco, but with Leo, they could go a few days in his fur before we saw them. We do have lyme disease here, and I'm pretty concerned about that. Plus, chewing lice and chiggers are prevented too.
Most importantly though, sentinel also controls some other worms. Example: if Leo ate an infected flea before it died, he could get either tape worms or roundworms (i dont remember which). Also-if the flea jumped off in our home, the cats could also be at risk for worms/fleas. With the baby on the way, we dont want to take that chance.
We also use frontline as a backup every 2 months-I have seen flea infestations and they make my skin crawl, so I wont risk it, even if it is a chemical I'm putting on them.
These are the only artificial products we use, and I think you just need to consider the risk/benefit analysis. Otherwise, we take a very holistic approach too, but you knew that
A word about heartworm here: The NW is getting warmer every year, and we now have a mosquito problem. Example: West Nile. Its my understanding we didnt have a large mosquito population twenty years ago...so your vet's info may be a little dated in light of current issues.
This is a helpful article:
http://www.oregonvma.org/care-health/heartworm-disease
thanks so much for the info and for the website!! one question though..it was my understanding that sentinel doesn't protect against ticks? does it?
i really think we might give sentinel, though...i just worry too much about it all...do you give it year round?
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Hmmmm...maybe it doesnt protect against ticks and I'm thinking of the Frontline? We've used them in tandem for years, so I could be mistaken
.
Yes, we give HW meds every month and FL every two months.
My mom is a vet and we use flea preventative and HW prevention with our dogs. Heartworm cases are becoming more prevalent in the NW, so we don't risk it. The treatment for HW is expensive and really tough on the dog. Also, if you ever travel outside of Oregon (northern California, etc) with your pets, they need to be on preventative.
Another product to look into for flea prevention is Comfortis. The active ingredient is Spinosad, which is also in a product approved for organic farming. It's a chewable tab instead of a topical, which we highly prefer, and it works really well.
TTC #1 since May 2010. BFP #1 - 5/31/10; m/c on 7/22/10
Started seeing RE in August 2011
5 IUIs: BFN; IVF #1 - Success! BFP - 7/25/12
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I think I'm going to call my vet and ask about this as well. I just looked on 1800Petmeds, and it looks as if a 6 dose pack of Frontline is the same $$ as a 6 dose pack of Sentinel, yet the Sentinel does more!
I dont think the sentinel controls an active flea population though...?
I know but I just can't bring myself to put topical chemicals on my pets on top of the ingested chemicals
IF they do get fleas, it will make it so they can't reproduce...so if they do bring fleas into the house, none of them will reproduce, which is the biggest concern anyway because they reproduce so fast it happens basically right before your eyes, ya know? I figure, I'll just treat the house with diatomaceous earth if they happen to bring some in.
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But what about worms? Its the active, adult fleas that transmit worms. To me, this is worth it-I think it would suck more as a dog to have worms and then have to be treated for them. Also, there are some* worms that your pets can pass on to you. No thanks!
*its either round or tape.
ETA: I'm not trying to be difficult, I just know that you are just as squicked out by this kind of thing as I am
If I'm looking at this http://www.sentinelpet.com/flea_prevention.html right .. it prevents flea outbreaks. As long as you don't have fleas already, it should keep your pets from getting fleas. However, it does not prevent ticks, which Frontline does.
I guess you've got to weigh the pros and cons of what treatments you want and how convenient you want the treatment to be(and how your animal is with varying treatments, my dog takes a pill easily and stands still for the frontline easily too, some aren't so nice about it). I think ultimately, I'm planning to talk to my vet, do the research on the various products and then decide. I'd like to hope that vet's aren't like human doctors and don't just prescribe what is given to them by pharmaceutical reps
Well, they do recommend garbage food bc the big companies give them money to promote it so...
Its tough to find a good vet!!
I actually really like my vet.. When I asked him what I should feed our dog he said "well, since I work for banfield I'm supposed to try to sell you on the Royal Canin, but really, whatever works for your dog and that you feel comfortable feeding him, works for me" .. Our pup has been on Iams since we brought him home and it works well. If I felt he needed something different/better/more expensive/what have you.. I'd try it out.. But why mess with perfection?
I agree changing a dogs food is rough-Leo has so many special needs that one small change has us cleaning diarrhea for days. However, as a self-described dog food expert who is also pretty frugal; you might get more bang for your buck with a higher quality food.
This is a pretty useful site-very unbiased. They rate dog food based on ingredients:
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/
Its interesting bc they also show all ingredients for each brand. We were feeding Leo NutroMax for a looong time until he got sick. We just didnt know other stuff was available.
Bonus: small poop, only once a day. This is a good thing when you have a 85lb German Shepherd.
ETA: our dog food only gets 4 of 6 stars...so the 'best', most expensive food isnt always whats best for your dog
Nope-NutroMax was full of filler...we had him on it for a long time bc we didnt know any better
. Then, he developed tons of allergies and we put him on Evo-
Evo is a very rich food that was too hard on his stomach-the bonus is that its grain free, which is really good for a dog w/o special needs. (leo has special needs
). I believe it gets a 6 star rating-the highest!
If you're looking for smaller poop, switching to a food with a 4 star or higher rating will do the trick: you want something with the first ingredient as meat, and then other wholesome ingredients to follow. 5 star foods will have the first 3 ingredients as meat.
I would look on the site and see what looks good to you. We feed California Natural and are very happy with it-i hear boxers do well on it too.(4 stars)
Almost all of the 4 and 5 star foods are available at specialty pet foods stores, and there are tons in the area! You wont have a problem finding one that is best for you. And, I'm always here to help!
Keep in mind that higher quality food will cost more; but the dog will need less of it, and his body will absorb more...thereby getting you more bang for your buck. Think of it this way: poop is what the dogs body couldnt use, so its kind of like a pile of wasted $$.
Let me know if you need anything!!
Innova is a great company. They make California Natural, Evo, and some others. Also check out Wellness-thats an awesome food. Maybe start with looking at those?
I know...there are TONS!
Awesome! We were on Evo large bites forever and LOVED it. It cleared his allergies right up. I wish I could show you before (On Nutro) and after pics: his ears were hairless and raw, so was his bum, and his paws would swell up and then crack, so he was in pain A LOT.
. Once he was on Evo for about a month, he was fine.
This is when my distrust of non-holistic vets began. They kept saying it was chigggers, fungus, you name it. Turned out it was a grain allergy.
Just an FYI: some dogs find evo too rich and it may upset their tummies. If that happens, page me and I'll help you find something else
You will see a BIG difference in hair and coat too! I cant wait to hear your success story.
Oh dont beat yourself up! We had Leo on crap food for two years bc our vet told us to-it happens to lots of new pet parents.
And, the only thing food related I can think of that would cause a lack of growth is severe malnutrition. And that would only happen if you weren't feeding him at.all...so I highly doubt your pup is small bc of anything you did. He's prob just small bc he's meant to be! Maybe his grandma was small