Comparing Heartworm Pet Meds for Dogs - Differences and Similarities
The variety of heartworm pill medication out there today can be a little confusing sometimes. Often
the difference is simply a matter of ingredients and or pill form. Some of the most popular
heartworm pill medications for dogs
available today include
Heartgard Plus,
new
Tri-Heart Plus,
Iverhart Plus, Iverhart's new
Iverhart Max with added tapeworm protection,
Sentinel and
Interceptor. All of these particular varieties come in
a tasty tab that is given to your dog orally. Both sentinel and interceptor
heartworm products have the ingredient Milbemycin Oxime to prevent heartworms and help control
roundworm, whipworm and many hookworm infections as well. Sentinel has an additional ingredient,
Lufenuron, to help control flea infestation too. Iverhart
and heartgard plus also work to prevent
heartworms, however, they utilize different ingredients, ivermectin to prevent heartworms and
pyrantel to combat roundworms and hookworms.
Interceptor and sentinel help control whipworms, heartgard products do not, but,
heartgard meds control more species of hookworms than interceptor does.
Hence the confusion,
if your trying to decide which product would work best for
your pet you'll want to determine
which issue is most important to you.
For instance, if your main concern
is hookworms,
Heartgard Plus might be the preferential choice, however, if whipworms are of concern,
only interceptor claims to help control those. This is an opportunity
to provide a good example from our own experience; we've always liked the heartgard products but when we inherited a new
dog with whipworms we switched our crew over to Interceptor until we were confident the whipworm problem was resolved.
It is important to note that dogs and cats have different physiologies, heartworm meds for dogs contain ingredients that
can be very dangerous to cats. Consequently,
heartworm meds for dogs should never be given to cats.
If your looking for the convenience of easy to administer
topical spot on products
instead, you may wish to consider
Revolution or new
Advantage Multi. Both products control both heartworms and fleas and Revolution goes one step further to help control ticks too.
Regardless of your choice, you should always have a heartworm test performed on
your dog
before beginning a heartworm medicine regimen. This is always a good time to visit with your veterinarian
regarding your specific dog, which worm issues pose the greatest threat to them, and, which
product they would recommend in your pet's particular case for their specific environment. Situations do
vary, and it would be good to share the complete picture with your veterinarian so they can make
the most informed decision, be sure and include your pet's
daily activities, time spent outside, contact with other animals and so forth. There are also
some dog breeds such as collies that do not do well with certain heartworm preventative products
and other pet medications, and again, this is another very good reason to visit with
your pet's veterinarian
first before deciding on your pet's specific heartworm medications needs.