Warning to all dog owners -- Heartworm Medicine

[RebelOne]

Received this through one of my animal rescue lists.

http://cbs4boston.com/reports/local_story_06120528.html

[demnan]

1. bad link

[denverbill]

2. Add 'ml' to the end of your link or it doesn't work.

[demsrule4life]

3. What is the warning?

[peacebuzzard]

4. couldn't get anywhere.try again.

.

[Robb]

5. Interesting

I wonder if the data does actually support a connection to the drug and these seemingly random illnesses... an 11-year-old dog going blind isn't by itself particularly uncommon. :shrug:

[RebelOne]

6. OK, link fixed. Sorry about that.

[radfringe]

7. link and snippets of article

Could your pet be in danger? An I-Team investigation
http://cbs4boston.com/reports/local_story_061205218.html
Mar 1, 2004 8:45 pm US/Eastern


Joanne Plumer treats all of her dogs like members of the family. So she immediately noticed something was wrong with her 13-year-old dog named April.

Joanne Plumer: "She couldn't stand up any more, she couldn't eat, her mouth was full of blisters, her fur was falling out."

It all started the day after April got a shot of this heartworm medication called Proheart 6. Three weeks later, April had to be put to sleep.

---snip---

Our I-Team investigation has found that in the past two and a half years the FDA has received more than four thousand reports of dogs getting sick after getting a shot of Proheart six. And more than four hundred dogs have died nationwide. The FDA says it's been able to link Proheart six to a small percentage of those cases. But even those numbers are, in the FDA's words, "a cause for concern", and the agency is investigating.

[hlthe2b]

8. I've always relied on the monthly Oral formulations : heartgard...

Which has been thoroughly tested and safe over nearly two decades in nearly all breeds (collies and other "sighthounds" like afghans should not receive)...

It is harder for some to remember to give, if they don't post on a calendar and thus many prefer to go with the injectable Proheart every 6 months. But, this injectable is not ivermectin but a derivative chemical. I suspected there might problems, and unfortunatlely there have. Whether or not the problems are directly caused by proguard remains to be proven, but I'll stick with the monthly oral form.

[demsrule4life]

10. I have used heart guard monthly doses

for many years with no problems on my sighthounds. I have also used the six month shots with no problems. Maybe I have just been lucky.

www.geocities.com/newlandzoi

[hlthe2b]

11. The low dose in heartgard really shouldn't be an issue.....

The precaution is really relevent only in high dose ivermectin injectable therapy--used to treat dogs already infected with adult heartworms. Sighthounds can have serious problems with that treatment.

[Kolesar]

9. Why don't these stories go out to the veterinarians?

Don't they have newsletters and message boards like the political activists?