Ivermectin: Heartworm Prevention, Deworming & Parasite Control

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Medications get approved after going through many tests. If the test for a certain medication preparation (e.g. Ivermectin comes in various oral pastes, injection solutions, chews, spot ons, etc) is done for a particular animal species only, then it will only be licensed for that. So Heart Guard chews would not be licensed for horses or cattle , as it was not tested for them to be protected against heart worms, but since it was tested on dogs to be effective against heart worm, it would be licensed for dogs.. Ivomec injection solution was tested against certain parasites in cattle and therefore would only be licensed for cattle, unless the company manufacturing the injection solution would test it on dogs against heart worm also, It's complicated. Some preparations of the same medication may be detrimental for one species , but not for another, yet the basic medication may be the same. I hope this helps with your query. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further. Please take the time to mark this question as helpful or not as it helps us to improve on the quality of our answers to other pet owners. Thank you kindly!

Yes and no. There are two different protocols for treating heartworm infections. The first is a rapid kill method and this is generally preferable to a slow kill method. The rapid kill method will be completed within two months including the cage rest. This protocol tends to be preferred because it decreases damage to the heart from the worms. It does carry some potential side effects such as anaphylactic reactions and potential embolisms from dead worms. Some pets are not a candidate for this protocol. This protocol uses a specific medication called Immidicide. The slow kill method does utilize drugs like ivermectin. The worms will not be completely killed for 1 to 3 years and so on going damage is possible. During this time the dogs must make sure to take all the medications on time and as prescribed. Talk to your veterinarian about which option is best for Hollywood. I hope this is helpful and please feel free to post any additional questions.

Ivermectin is a dewormer/anti-parasiticide. It does nothing to treat wounds so I doubt your vet gave you this medication to treat this problem. The D'Mag spray can be used on wounds but it is contraindicated for use in deep wounds that may have entered the abdominal cavity.

I am currently working in Belize and we have many other dewormers. Do you not have any veterinarians near you? A better dewormer would be pyrantel pamoate. You cannot get a 2g Ivermectin tablet into a small enough dose for a 1.4kg puppy. Don't even try as you will kill her.

Yes it is safe to use these medications together. Just make sure you are using the ivermectin dose for heartworms or better yet a pre made heartworm product with ivermectin (Heartgard or otherwise). I hope this helps and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

It's actually perfectly safe to use Heartgard (which has the active ingredient ivermectin) as a heartworm prevention if you like. It's true that Old English Sheepdogs and other herding breeds can sometimes have a genetic mutation (the mdr1 mutation) that makes them more sensitive to certain drugs, including ivermectin - this means that it might not be safe to use high doses of this drug in these breeds, such as the doses often used to treat scabies or demodectic mange. But at the very low doses used in Heartgard and other heartworm preventatives, these breeds have no issues at all - so it's fine to use this product if you like. If you're still concerned and want to choose a different drug entirely, Sentinel is another very effective heartworm preventative that has a different active ingredient (milbemycin oxime) which should not cause any issues at all.

I'm so sorry to hear that Buford has contracted heartworms. I adopted a dog with heartworms and it can be challenging to decide on the right treatment protocol for a high energy dog. First, let's clarify that at some point the adult worms are going to die. That can occur from us killing them with the medications that we call an "adulticide" or it can occur when the adult worms reach the end of their life expectancy. At that point. if Buford is exercising, the worm dying can results in a clot to the lungs. An adult worm can live up to 5 years, so you really should keep Buford exercise restricted until his heartworm disease has resolved regardless of how you treat it. Second, a higher dose of ivermectin does not result in the adult worms dying faster. It only keeps Buford from getting any more adult worms which will make his infection worse. I am attaching the following information from the American Heartworm Society ( https://www.heartwormsociety.org/images/pdf/Canine-Guidelines-Summary.pdf ). "In cases where arsenical therapy is not possible or is contraindicated, the use of a monthly heartworm preventive along with doxycycline at 10 mg/kg BID for a 4-week period might be considered. An antigen test should be performed every 6 months and the dog not considered cleared until two consecutive NAD (no antigen detected) heartworm antigen tests, 6 months apart, have been obtained. If the dog is still antigen positive after one year, repeat the doxycycline therapy. Exercise should be rigidly restricted for the duration of the treatment process." So, their recommendation is just to do regular heartworm prevention monthly (not higher doses of ivermectin) combined with Doxycycline for the first 4 weeks, then recheck a heartworm test in 6 months. At some point, if you keep Buford on heartworm prevention monthly, we expect that the worms will die and he will clear the infection. The worry is that the longer the worms are there, the more damage they can potentially do to the blood vessels. Good luck! I hope that was helpful and answered your question. Thanks for using PetCoach.