heart worm medication

[Mary]

MyTeagen park doodles have been on interceptor and the company is not making it right now.  teagen park told me not to use heart guard becase it had something in it that the labradoodles can't tolerate -can't remember what it was. Anybody else ever hear of this?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Heartgard is ivermectin, which is a very common wormer used in young puppies. It does not cause any problem for most dogs, except for a certain percentage of herding breeds like Collies and Australian shepherds. Do your dogs have Aussie in their parentage?

[Elizabeth & Cosmo]

Have you spoken to your vet?

Interceptor contains milbemycin oxime, and so does Sentinel, which combines it with lufenuron as an anti-flea medication. Unfortunately, both are made by Novartis, whose manufacturing facility has been closed for renovations since last fall. Supplies are getting very short for both, but some vets may still have some available.

Trifexis is another brand from another manufacturer, and it contains milbemycin oxime combined with spinosad for flea control. Trifexis is very new, and several doodle owners have reported adverse reactions to it.

As Karen says, Heartgard contains ivermectin, a different active ingredient from Interceptor. Ivermectin has been in use for a long time, and many, many dogs have done very well on it. I would recommend checking with your vet to see if he/she would recommend switching your doodles to ivermectin, especially because I see from your page that one of them has seizures.

[Jane, Rooney & Stuart]

Both Rooney (ALD) and Stuart have taken Heart Guard after the Trifexis made them sick.  We now give a topical flea and tick on one day and then the next day we give the Heart Guard.  Both dogs did get upset tummies the first go round.  Now I crush the pill up and mix with their food - no more problems.

[Gail and Bailey]

What happened to your dogs who got "sick" from the Trifexis?  What were the symptoms? My dog has taken it for 2 months now and is ok so far.  She did get lethargic from taking Certifect so we quit that one and switched to Frontline for ticks.  It is so worrisome that these meds make our dogs sick!

[Elizabeth & Cosmo]

Here are some links to earlier discussions about issues with Trifexis:

http://www.doodlekisses.com/forum/topics/caution-trifexis-heartworm...

http://www.doodlekisses.com/forum/topics/i-can-t-keep-putting-them-...

http://www.doodlekisses.com/forum/topics/brinkley-trifexis

[Christine & Shelby]

My Shelby had her first dose of Trifexis this month because her vet stopped carrying Sentinel which she has been on since she was a puppy (now 2 and a 1/2). Having read the discussions, the packaging info... I was a bit nervous - but it was fine. She took the pill like a champ, did not throw up (a common side effect) no lethargy... So I think it just depends on the doodle.