# The price of parasite protection for dogs



## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

My vet gave me a one pill free sample of "Trifexis" which covers worms, fleas, ticks, heartworm. Only it's $200 a year! Who has that kind of money? They care about dogs? No they care about money. 

So I go to this Australian website that I can get similar for less than $50.00 (Sentinel) for the year, and the size of the medicine bones are for a bigger dog so I can split them for a while. 

The vet also wanted to test for heartworm before starting. I can't see testing for it on a 10 week old puppy who was born in the freezing cold of upstate NY to me and has been outside only a few times. 

The chemicals of the all-in-one pill are similar to what I get in $2.00 tubes of horse wormer. I've just realized a way to break it down. Ivermectin, Praziquantal (?), and some stuff that prevents flea eggs from hatching. I can also get Panacur on line for $10 for wormer. 

I also got Levamisol wormer for chickens at a good price. I don't think they sell that here. 

On my next visit, I'll tell the vet straight out about the expense and why.


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## Nm156 (May 16, 2015)

How much and how often will keeping the dogs haircut cost per year?


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

My vet told me ivermectin does not take care of internal parasites in dogs. That is not formulated to work in the gut of mammals. And ivermectin is toxic to some breeds. 

Sure, that makes sense to test a puppy for heartworm. Not really, just in case, that last was said with sarcasm.


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

You can get levamisole from Jeffers.
http://www.jefferspet.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&animal%5B%5D=&q=levamisole&button=search
We have one feed store here that sells dog wormers in liquids and pills; pyrantel pamoate aka nemex ll liquids and drontal pills (by weight of dog) for tapes. I didnt ask if they sell panacur for dogs.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

robin416 said:


> My vet told me ivermectin does not take care of internal parasites in dogs. That is not formulated to work in the gut of mammals. And ivermectin is toxic to some breeds.
> 
> Sure, that makes sense to test a puppy for heartworm. Not really, just in case, that last was said with sarcasm.


Nm, I know it's not cheap. The lady that will do it for free is in the hospital near death. I may give it a go one day. Until then I'll have to pay for that, obedience classes, and something called a Barn Race which boils down to hiding rats in tubes and letting a bunch of dogs loose to sniff them out.

Robin, I believe they use ivermectin for heart worm protection. And it looks like prazyquantil (?) And Levamisol. And something to prevent flea eggs from hatching. At some point I'll switch to something else for worming because I think monthly is overkill. I guess I'm reluctant to use Frontline because Baxter had his first seizure the day after his dose. It may be nothing, but it still leary.

I wonder how prevalent heartworm is for dogs that aren't left outside.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

dawg53 said:


> You can get levamisole from Jeffers.
> http://www.jefferspet.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&animal%5B%5D=&q=levamisole&button=search
> We have one feed store here that sells dog wormers in liquids and pills; pyrantel pamoate aka nemex ll liquids and drontal pills (by weight of dog) for tapes. I didnt ask if they sell panacur for dogs.


Funny I just wormed my chickens with Prohibit. I'll keep that in mind.


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

seminolewind said:


> Nm, I know it's not cheap. The lady that will do it for free is in the hospital near death. I may give it a go one day. Until then I'll have to pay for that, obedience classes, and something called a Barn Race which boils down to hiding rats in tubes and letting a bunch of dogs loose to sniff them out.
> 
> Robin, I believe they use ivermectin for heart worm protection. And it looks like prazyquantil (?) And Levamisol. And something to prevent flea eggs from hatching. At some point I'll switch to something else for worming because I think monthly is overkill. I guess I'm reluctant to use Frontline because Baxter had his first seizure the day after his dose. It may be nothing, but it still leary.
> 
> I wonder how prevalent heartworm is for dogs that aren't left outside.


Praziquantil kills tapeworms and some types of flukes. Levamisole takes care of roundworm species that dogs get. Ivermectin (selemectin) kills most worms that dogs get as well as fleas and mites on dogs. Methoprene prevents fleas eggs from hatching, kills all developmental stages of fleas and kills ticks.
There's a lot of choices what to use, different brands. Online research is best.
As far as heartworms goes; it only takes one mosquito bite to infect a dog. Sometimes mosquitos can slip inside your house and bite any warm blooded human or mammal. I've had it happen. IMO there's nothing worse than a mosquito buzzing around my ear when I'm in bed at night trying to sleep...like a continuous high pitched zinging, UGH!
Worm killing mode of action are really the only differences in the different wormers.


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## zamora (May 26, 2015)

seminolewind said:


> I wonder how prevalent heartworm is for dogs that aren't left outside.


I had a dog that was on monthly HW prevention get heartworms TWICE. The first time, she had never missed a dose and it cost me a crapton of money to put her through the treatment. Doing so caused a minor heart murmur. I had to have her euthanized several years later due to another bout of heartworms that she would have never survived treatment of. This was an inside dog too. Losing an animal to HW is one of the worst things in the world. In MY eyes, it's not worth the risk.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Wow. I don't intend on skipping any months of heartworm meds. I may skip doses of flea stuff and wormer because every month may be over kill. I think this year I'll worm every month tho.

The vet says "oh next apt we can do rabies". Well no. I heard from anal poodle people that they should get it at 6 months and not any other vaccination 3 weeks before or after. I opted not to take the Leptospirosis vaccine, but I think I will because of the barn hunts we may do and the rat urine that may be around here. 

Dawg, do have a link to any thing about dogs and ivermectin that's at least written after 2012? I hate all the web stuff that's older than me that comes up .


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

Dawg, do have a link to any thing about dogs and ivermectin that's at least written after 2012? I hate all the web stuff that's older than me that comes up .[/QUOTE]

Ivermectin has been repeatedly studied since it came out on the market. It doesnt need anymore studies really.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22039784


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

zamora said:


> I had a dog that was on monthly HW prevention get heartworms TWICE. The first time, she had never missed a dose and it cost me a crapton of money to put her through the treatment. Doing so caused a minor heart murmur. I had to have her euthanized several years later due to another bout of heartworms that she would have never survived treatment of. This was an inside dog too. Losing an animal to HW is one of the worst things in the world. In MY eyes, it's not worth the risk.


Worms built resistance to the wormer. I've seen a dog heart in formaldehyde filled glass jar with heartworms stringing all through it, it was terrible looking.

Here's something I didnt know about: Of course the heartworm itself is a parasite. The heartworm has a parasite of its own. So it's recommeded that dogs be also put on doxycycline to kill the parasite of the parasite.
http://vetmedicine.about.com/od/diseasesandconditions/a/CW-HeartwormTreatments.htm
It reminds me of the poultry parasite cecal worm carrying the protozoa parasite that causes blackhead.


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## chickenqueen (Jan 9, 2016)

Hey Sem,what's a barn hunt and are poodles used for them?Jusy curious...


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

A barn hunt is where someone sets up an area or barn with all kinds of things to climb thru etc, and hides rats that are in tubes with shavings so they can be used over and over again. Then everyone lets their dogs loose and I guess whoever finds the rat first wins? That's all I know. They are having one in Brooksville this week or next and I could go and watch-it's less than 10 miles from me.

This puppy is pure smarts. We have pee pads all over the house. We've started taking her out too. She's only 11 weeks so she can only go so far.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

I found a very good price on Sentinel spectrum (new). It covers the one worm the other sentinel does not. Tapes, I think. I think it's $100 for 6 pills and a prescription. In that Aussie store it's $50.00 for 6 pills and no script. So I'm getting that. Also something to worm chickens with. 

Some of these somewhat anal poodle people claim that dogs do not process carbs, just protein and fat because of their wolf ancestors. I tend to think that they do process carbs, I mean how many dogs live on corn-filled dog food? I think it was a good move for some dogfood companies to switch to meat being the largest part of the kibble, followed by rice, potatoe, peas, etc. I like sweet potatoes. So I did finally find one that's meat, meat concentrate (more protein), fat, and a good carb or carbs. No corn filler.

Maybe I'll throw a piece of raw meat here and there.


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## Nm156 (May 16, 2015)

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## Feline (Nov 8, 2015)

If you decide to give a heart worm 'adulticide' to a dog (even a puppy) who has not been tested then you are playing russian roulette with their life. if they have heart worm then the treatment kills those worms which then 'let go' and become a thromboembolus in the circulation which can cause sudden death if it lodges in the wrong place.

Your vet is absolutely correct in advising you know if they are infected before treating. Your vet is highly trained to offer you the best in both testing and treatment. Their primary concern is the health of your dog not your wallet. If you choose to listen to other less qualified people then do this at your peril. Can't afford decent heart worm prevention? Then you can't afford the puppy. Sorry, just my opinion. N.B. My opinion could be considered a slightly biased- I am a vet. But this issue is something I hear about all the time in my current role in an emergency clinic where people often end up when they've made bad decisions and failed to listen to professional advice. The story 'my vet advised an expensive treatment, so I asked my neighbour who knows sooooo much about animals' is a common theme amongst those paying out-of-hours emergency rate for treatment to try to save the life of those pets.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Feline said:


> If you decide to give a heart worm 'adulticide' to a dog (even a puppy) who has not been tested then you are playing russian roulette with their life. if they have heart worm then the treatment kills those worms which then 'let go' and become a thromboembolus in the circulation which can cause sudden death if it lodges in the wrong place.
> 
> Your vet is absolutely correct in advising you know if they are infected before treating. Your vet is highly trained to offer you the best in both testing and treatment. Their primary concern is the health of your dog not your wallet. If you choose to listen to other less qualified people then do this at your peril. Can't afford decent heart worm prevention? Then you can't afford the puppy. Sorry, just my opinion. N.B. My opinion could be considered a slightly biased- I am a vet. But this issue is something I hear about all the time in my current role in an emergency clinic where people often end up when they've made bad decisions and failed to listen to professional advice. The story 'my vet advised an expensive treatment, so I asked my neighbour who knows sooooo much about animals' is a common theme amongst those paying out-of-hours emergency rate for treatment to try to save the life of those pets.


My vet gave me a first Heart Worm pill for now and said he'll test for Heart Worm in a month. My pup was born in January in Syracuse NY flown in to my airport at 10 weeks old, picked up and taken home, and got her first HW pill 3 days later. So I think it's extremely unlikely that she has HW . If the vet wants her on HW preventative, a monthly pill for $200 a year, that's insane when I can get the best preventative monthly pill for $50 -$100 a year, I'd be stupid to spend all that extra money. Florida is a place to always be protected from mosquito borne diseases. And Sentinel Spectrum is a top notch HW preventative. No one can say it's not. In fact they went from Sentinel to Sentinel Spectrum because they added another anthelmintic (sp) to kill tapeworms.

I'm glad you're a vet and sorry you hear all that from people who can't afford the pet. My family and I have had dogs for at least 57 years and not one ever missed out on important health issues. My horse had to have a tooth pulled last year for $900 and I never thought once about money.

I paid a premium for this puppy to come from a breeder who guarantees her from genetic problems for 2 years, and has her breeding dogs tested. I also signed a paper that says I will have her spayed for reasons of breeding healthy tested dogs being left to professionals. And puppy has dog insurance which is not cheap.

I have to laugh because my daughter can tell you we both ate alot of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese because my horse needed a pricey winter coat in New York. We laugh about that insanity of mine now. I could tell you a bunch of stories like that . I was a single parent who worked to pay the mortgage and paid for Nursing school (those were the days you could actually pay for college as you went), raised my daughter and had 2 horses all supported by a 400 customer Paper Route 7 days a week. She understood that the animals came first from an early age.

I hope you can understand me better. The money issue is about paying ridiculous amounts of money for no good reason. Not denying an animal a healthy life. But I know where you're coming from. 

Feline, I hope you're taking this as a discussion  . Because I can only imagine what you see as a vet. I did ramble a bit


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

dawg53 said:


> Worms built resistance to the wormer. I've seen a dog heart in formaldehyde filled glass jar with heartworms stringing all through it, it was terrible looking.
> 
> Here's something I didnt know about: Of course the heartworm itself is a parasite. The heartworm has a parasite of its own. So it's recommeded that dogs be also put on doxycycline to kill the parasite of the parasite.
> http://vetmedicine.about.com/od/diseasesandconditions/a/CW-HeartwormTreatments.htm
> It reminds me of the poultry parasite cecal worm carrying the protozoa parasite that causes blackhead.


I have seen a heart worm heart and it made me gag.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Nm156 said:


> How much and how often will keeping the dogs haircut cost per year?


Nm, the money is not the issue. The issue is paying way to much for a "new" heart worm med when the ones that have been around longer are a quarter of the price and do just as well.

I get tired of people being taken to the cleaners over something that's most likely a vital necessity.


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