Special risks to dogs in Spain

[Jool]

OK - I need to get to grips with heartworm as well as leishmaniasis, for the latter we have used Exspot ever since living here but we were unaware of the heartworm issue. Had our dogs tested and all are clear, thankfully, but now we need to use prevention. Been told the heartworm vaccine can give rise to tumours so the only other thing mentioned is Stronghold - vet says we need to use this and Exspot or Scalibor together and Frontline - seems an awful lot of chemicals being absorbed through the skin.....what do others use for this?

Scalibor collars scare me as I know someone whose dogs died from shock due to them yet our local vet says these are used more widely than Exspot........and the insecticide used in each is different....

Any advice / experiences to share please? None of these things are cheap either........

[gerryh]

Hi Jool
We give our dogs Cardotek tablets to prevent heartworm.
These are meat flavoured chewable tablets, the dogs love them
Got them from our vet.
One tablet a month, 6 in a box for €35 for 23Kg to 45Kg dogs.
Cheers
Gerry

[Jool]

THanks Gerry,

Had long talk with 2 local vets yesterday who told me certain breeds are more susceptible to allergic reactions to Ivermectin, the ingredient in the heartworm vaccine and Cardotek, collies, and scottish pastor type dogs, plus a couple of other breeds. It seems 2 of our dogs MAY have some of that breed in them so I think we will opt for Stronghold, and Scalibor, but doing it one by one to be clear about any reaction.....

[hillybilly]

I have a senior dog and she gets the lot! Never had any problems with any reactions. I do also give her an immune system support supplement (herbal).

[Pink Lady]

Oh Jool tell me about it, what a bloody mine field it is !! I am going back to the UK in a couple of weeks for the summer and plan to keep my dog in from dusk til dawn until then rather than give him any treatments, I am relieved that I will only have to consider ticks and fleas.

I'm worried about the heartworm vaccine he had last summer now, I don't think Invermectin is in the vaccine: Guardian® SR is the first injectable endectocide based on moxidectin for the prevention and treatment of Dirofilaria immitis in dogs, also known as heartworms and to treat the infestations produced by larvae or adult stages of Ancylostomum caninum and Uncinaria stenocephala present at the moment of the dirofilariosis prevention. Its unique sustained release formulation allows one treatment to last for the whole heartworm season, as opposed to the other available products that require monthly oral administrations.

I'm not a vet but I think some of those products will be preventing the same thing. Exspot, Frontline and Stronghold all cover ticks and fleas, the Scalibor collar and Exspot both have Permethrin in to kill mosquitoes/sand flies. You can use Advantix Spot On which does the lot except heartworm, Fleas, Ticks and mozzies/sand flies. None of them guarantee 100% prevention and not all last the 4 weeks either.

I have been reading alot about all the vaccines and preventative products recently. One researcher highlighted the fact that wild or stray dogs would have been wiped out by now if all of these diseases were as rife as we are led to believe. I think sometimes cure (of course where there is a cure) can be better than prevention with all these drugs and vaccinations. I won't bore you with all my findings but I have decided to take a more natural route and keep my dog as healthy as possible with a raw food diet, use natural preventatives and reduce the frequency/amount of vaccinations and drugs given e.t.c. I guess we have to weight up the risks and monitor our individual dogs for reactions and signs. I don't think my little monkey will be having the heartworm vaccine again.

[Pink Lady]

Oh and of course the worm tablet in England !!

[scrumpygill]

thankyou for this very interesting information, i have been putting scalibor collars and frontlining my dogs for some years now, but the other day my vet had run out of the collars and recommended advantix which covers them for fleas sandfly etc, and i think it may work out a little cheaper aswell. I agree about giving your dogs too many drugs, i have never given them anything for heart worm, now i´m a bit worried.

[Pink Lady]

My dogs skin reacted to the Advantix drops after a few months Scrumpygill so you might want to keep an eye out for any changes/reactions.

[Jool]

Heartworm is not as common as Leish. I too did not realise how serious or prevalent heartworm is but we had our dogs blood tested (after 7 years here) and they were negative so have now started them on treatment....for now have decided to use Scalibor and Stronghold.......but introducing them separately.....with these there is no need for Frontline but its not cheap!!

[Jool]

Well just as an update - we are using Stronghold and the Scalibor collars and so far no problems.....introduced separately.....all dogs fine.

[TinaTapas]

Advantix does cover everything except Heartworm, but needs to be applied fortnightly if you are in sandfly season (Leishmaniasis prevention)

I personally prefer Scalibor - although it is advisable to use 2 collars over the 6/7 months that sandflies are active, as they don't give the same protection after 4/5 months of use, particularly if the dog gets wet.

[TinaTapas]

thankyou for this very interesting information, i have been putting scalibor collars and frontlining my dogs for some years now, but the other day my vet had run out of the collars and recommended advantix which covers them for fleas sandfly etc, and i think it may work out a little cheaper aswell. I agree about giving your dogs too many drugs, i have never given them anything for heart worm, now i´m a bit worried.

It actually works out more expensive than the Scalibor, due to the fact that in order to have protection from sandflies, you need to apply Advantix fortnightly, unfortunately.

[TinaTapas]

Re: Heartworm

It is not as prevalent as Leishmaniasis, but if you're in a mozzie area, it's a good idea to take precautions. Milbemax is a wormer that also prevents Heartworm - but your dog must test negative for heartworm before you give it to him.