The American Heartworm Society has recommended year-round heartworm protection, without missing a dose. A missed heartworm pill leaves your pet exposed to becoming infected, which can happen even in winter.
If it has been less than two weeks since the missed dose, give your dog the dose immediately. If it has been over two weeks since the missed dose, contact your vet, who will likely advise you to resume normal dosing next month and have the dog tested for heartworm in six months.
A: Give the dose you missed immediately, then continue giving the medication on the day you've always given it. If the missed dose is more than 2 weeks late, your dog should be tested for heartworm again in six months (click here to learn why). Want a free monthly reminder so you don't forget to give preventatives?
Monthly heartworm medications can be given one week late without causing any increased heartworm risk.
Your situation is a common one. Any time a dog goes more than six weeks without heartworm prevention the dog is at risk of infection.
A missed heartworm pill leaves your pet exposed to becoming infected, which can happen even in winter. Making monthly heartworm medication part of your pet's health care regimen makes it easier to remember.
Heartworm disease can be prevented in dogs and cats by giving them medication once a month that also controls various internal and external parasites. Heartworm infections are diagnosed in about 250,000 dogs each year. 1 But there is no good reason for dogs to receive preventives all year; it is just not needed.
If you miss that monthly dose, your pet is at a potential risk of getting flea or tick bites, which can transmit some serious diseases.
However, due to the heartworm life-cycle, it is likely that giving the medication every 45 to 60 days, rather than every 30 days, will allow immature heartworms to develop into adult heartworms. In other words, heartworm prevention medication is not effective when given every 45 to 60 days.
Use Heartworm Prevention Medication Year-Round
Although there are a fewer number of mosquitoes in the winter, there is still a risk that an animal could contract heartworms if the owner stops giving medication during this season.
Therefore, it's important to dose your dog every 30 days with his heartworm preventive. If you miss a monthly dose, the heartworm larvae are given the opportunity to reach a mature state that cannot be affected by the preventive.
Signs of heartworm disease may include a mild persistent cough, reluctance to exercise, fatigue after moderate activity, decreased appetite, and weight loss. As heartworm disease progresses, pets may develop heart failure and the appearance of a swollen belly due to excess fluid in the abdomen.
Heartgard.com
According to its web site, it recommends monthly treatments for all dogs since it can't be “determined with certainty when the threat of mosquitoes has passed.”
While on the face of it, splitting the medication might seem like a great and economical idea, this practice is not recommended. When splitting oral heartworm medication (especially soft chews), it is possible that you will not divide it evenly thereby resulting in one dog getting a smaller or larger dose.
Here are some reported side effects of common heartworm medications for dogs … Depression/lethargy, vomiting, anorexia, diarrhea, mydriasis, ataxia, staggering, convulsions and hypersalivation. The above reactions plus weakness.
HEARTGARD Tablets should be given at monthly intervals during the period of the year when mosquitoes (vectors), potentially carrying infective heartworm larvae, are active. The initial dose must be given within a month (30 days) after the first exposure to mosquitoes.
Toxicity can occur if a dog is given an excessive dose of the medication (10 to 20 times the recommended dose). Additionally, certain dogs are genetically hypersensitive to the medication. In these dogs, ivermectin can pass directly to the brain and be toxic or even lethal.
What should I do if I miss a dose? To keep your dog protected from parasites and avoid treatment gaps, it's important to adhere to the dosing schedule. However, if you do miss a dose, give it as soon as you remember. Then, adjust the dosing schedule so that the next dose is 30 days after the new dose.
NexGard kills fleas within 8 hours and ticks within 48 hours. After being given, its actions last for at least 5 weeks against fleas and up to one month against ticks.
Can I administer NexGard and NexGard SPECTRA more than once a month? NexGard chews have been shown to provide effective protection for a complete month: it is not required or recommended to treat more frequently than this. To ensure your dog is always protected, aim to dose your dog on the same day every month.
Many people believe that thanks to advances in heartworm prevention in the past decade, heartworm is rarely found in Australia.
As winter descends upon New England in full force, more and more dog owners ask us if we recommend continuing heartworm prevention through the winter months. The short answer is yes. The American Heartworm Society recommends year-round heartworm prevention, and we agree.
If owners can't afford treatment at the time of diagnosis, Dr. Herrin recommended delaying melarsomine therapy but still initiating treatment with both a preventive and doxycycline. This will prevent further infection and remove the dog as a heartworm reservoir.
Enforced Rest is ESSENTIAL! Positively NO Strenuous Exercise for 8 weeks! The heartworms will die over the next 6 weeks. As they die and are broken down, pieces of them could lodge in other parts of the body's blood vessels, causing unnecessary complications–if your pet's activity is too strenuous.
HEARTGARD Plus should be given at monthly intervals during the period of the year when mosquitoes (vectors), potentially carrying infective heartworm larvae, are active. The initial dose must be given within a month (30 days) after the dog's first exposure to mosquitoes.