My mentor says no heartworm meds just before breeding and during pregnancy and nursing. I thought most on here said it was fine. We had a miss last time--don't want that to happen again--no meds last time in was dead of winter.

It depends on the stage of the pups. No heart worm until the end of the pregenancy. My vet did some research for me, and the heart gurad passes through the brain stem and you don't want to give a pregnant girl heart guard while the brain stems are forming in the pups. I gave it just before breeding and will again after pups are whelped. Not during.

Thank you Kathy

My vet wants my girls off heartworm prior to breeding and not put back on until pups are weaned - with an accult first of course, which I do at pups 8 week health check.

This thread is not making sense.

Heartgard is approved by the FDA as safe for breeding and lactating dogs and cats. Infact, it was the first to carry that label (it takes time, money and studies to do an FDA trial to get a label) and as of a year ago when I last checked it was the only one.

Second, when you do a heartworm test (any of the tests) you are seeing the dogs status 6 months prior to the test, so you test today you know up to January 07 what your dog's infection status was.

If you take your dog off prevention for 2, 4, or months depending on the misinformation your vet has given you for breeding you will need to test her 6 months after you resume HW prevention to see if you caused her to become infected with heartworm. This is because the test picks up only adult heartworm presence and you have to wait for the immature larve to develop into adults (6 months).

It astounds me that people risk HW infection to have a litter. If I had to risk that I would not have litters. Dogs be treated for HW is scary, it is not a 'magic pill to get rid of' disease. It is not easy, fun or cheap. Think of it like chemo for a person.

On a personal note, we give all of our dogs HW prevention on the 1st of the month regardless of their status in whelp. The 1st comes everyone gets heartgard. We have nice litter sizes (1-18) and good pregnancy precentages (if semen quality is there and progesterones are run)and in ten years have had very few neonatal issues (2 cleft paletes).
All this data is with Heartgard as label indicates.

Also, I would not assume ivomec injectable used orally is the exact same. There are no studies done at that dosage rate since it is offlabel. As you guys dose it, it is usually quite a bit more than the 27 micrograms/kilogram rate of Heargard.

Also, The ivomectin portion of heartgard is only in the dogs system for 24-48 hours, the pyrantel portion sticks around for 72 hours. So there is not medicine in the dogs system for all 30 days as many people believe.

The beauty of giving the hw preventions once a month has to do with the heartworm lifecycle, not the long acting effectiveness of the drug.

I never NOT give HW preventative. I've had a dog with heartworm....no thanks I never want to go through that again.

I give the HW preventative before, during and after pregnancies. I don't have any deformed pups and *knock wood*, I can't tell you the last time we have a cleft puppy here.

There is no right or wrong answer. We all have our own opinion and what we have been taught.

For misqutoes (sp) to be infected with heart worm it has to be over 80 degrees for 100 days, in order for them to be infected and transfer heart worm.

Heartgard, i know nothing about the other brands, is good to kill heart worm for 30 days before the dose and 30 days after the dose.

My personal preference is to NOT give toxins to a pregnant girl. However I have to say I have never dealt with heart worm so i can truly respect those who make the decision to give heart worm meds.

As far as teh FDA goes, I worked for a bio tech company for 26 years and we dealt with the FDA on a regular basis. I would NEVER use a product just because the FDA approved it. I have seen them their worse on many occasions.

This is one of those subjects where we all have to go with what works for us and the area we live in.

what about interceptor..what have people heard about htat during pregnancy?

Thank you all for your replies. Such a worry. Not sure what to do.

Actually heartgard is the product I represented for over 7 years and trained staff in over 230 veterinary clinics about it. It specifically kills Heartworm Larval stages 3 & 4. There are 5 larval stages total before a heartworm becomes adult. When you give heartgard it kills the targeted larval stages and then exits the system. IF your dog is harboring Larval 1 or 2 stages they will go on to mature and due to their lifecycle will not mature faster than 45 days. Hence you need to administer the dose again the next month.

So yes, you are correct that Heartgard works 'backwards' when talking about infection, actually for the past 45 days. However it is misinformation that it does anything for 30 days 'forward' from time of administration. It is in and out of the dog's system in 24-48 hours as far as the ivermectin (heartworm) portion is concerned.

Thanks for clarifying that.

I use Interceptor which works on more than heartworms and perhaps the reason my vet wants my dogs off it during pregnancy and nursing.

I follow my vets advice and I too do not want to use any toxins or the like on a pregnant girl.

I also use interceptor and my vet says DO NOT take them off during pregnancy.

MK

Heartguard was mentioned, and later Interceptor was asked about in this discussion... just passing on the Freedom of Information NADA summaries links below for both.


Here's a Interceptor study which sites results using Interceptor/milbemycin oxime tablets involving stud & bitch (pre-breeding and pregnant bitch), and nursing puppies.
"test duration: From three months prior to breeding of the parental generation to weaning of the F1 generation; the total time of the study was approximately nine months."

Interceptor
Study sponsor:
Ciba-Geigy Animal Health
Ciba-Geigy Corporation

(FYI, 1996 Sandoz and Ciba integrate to form Novartis.... Interceptor is a Novartis product.)
http://www.novartis.com/about-novartis/company-history/2companies.shtml

Scroll down the page to:
A. Pivotal Studies

then read:
1. Study 1 - A Reproduction Study in Beagle Dogs with Milbemycin Oxime (CGA-179246), International Research and Development Corporation, Mattawan Michigan, Study No. 382-121.

---- ---- ----

Then onto the summary and study for Heartguard-30 at:
Heartguard-30
Sponsor: Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories
Division of Merck & Co., Inc.

Interesting, the Heartguard summary above mentioned 4 other similar field trials, but in all I read on this summary page, only 2 pregnant bitches were mentioned... IMO, not enough testing is reported about pregnant bitches in that Heartguard summary... I then went to NADA 138-412 which reports more on Heartguard and pregmant bitches:
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