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You need to be careful when choosing which heartworm prevention medication that you give your dog, given the seriousness of a heartworm infestation.

The heartworm prevention medicine put on the market in 2001 called Proheart Six only required that your pet be injected two times within the year. At first, the heartworm prevention was believed to be a safe & easy way to administer care and prevention to pets, however the FDA of the USA intervened when reports of more than 5,000 pets became ill as a reaction from the medicine. Of the 5,000 reported there were 415 fatalities.

The results from the investigations conducted by the FDA proved that ProHeart 6 caused a much higher amount of deaths than regular, monthly heartworm medications. The comparison of ProHeart 6 with 138 deaths in one year, was overwhelmingly higher than the six deaths reported yearly from Heartgard heartworm protection and Sentinel. (FDA May 3, 2004)

Without wanting to scare any pet owners out there, it’s wise to remind people that giving any kind of dogs heartworm control can cause allergic reactions. In the worst case scenario, they might result in the death of your pet.

Here are the facts from the 2004 FDA source: Revolution heartworm protection averaged 36 deaths a year and more than eight and a half thousand reactions, so although the number of reactions was almost twice that of Proheart 6, the drug has been on the market longer so the average number of reactions was similar to Proheart 6, but the death rate of Proheart 6 was over three times as many.

Revolution is a very popular flea and heartworm prevention, and these figures do not mean you should not use it, but just be aware. Interceptor for dogs only had an average of 214 adverse reactions over its entire lifespan - that’s eight times fewer than the flea and heartworm control of Revolution. The average deaths from Interceptor for dogs is a staggering 9 compared to 138 for Proheart Six.

Indeed between 1995 and 2004 only 84 deaths were recorded for Interceptor heart worm protection. Heartgard, which uses ivermectin for heartworm protection in its Heartgard chewables, had an average of 355 reactions and 6 deaths.

Causing the very least amount of allergic reactions or deaths was Sentinel, a flea, parasite and heartworm protection medication. Statistics show that information gathered in the years of 1999 through 2004 that Sentinel heartworm prevention for dogs resulted in 900 reactions which is an average of 233 as opposed to Revolution heartworm treatment for dogs which had 1,737 reactions with a total of 25 deaths averaging to be 6 annually.

Proheart 6 should only be used as a preventative heartworm control for your dog and never be used if a heartworm infection has already presented itself. Your vet may still recommend Proheart 6 as many still believe it to be safe. However other vets only provide the monthly heartworm prevention and treatment option as they feel that it is safer. As of 2007, the heartworm protection medicine was still on the market despite the fact that Proheart 6 was recalled three years before in September of 2004.

Keep in mind that these statistics are resulted from millions of dogs that have received medications from all over the world. Since your pet is a member of the family and not a statistic on paper, you should speak with the family vet so that he can aid you in choosing the right form of preventative.

Please do not underestimate the devastating effect of heartworms in dogs. By choosing an easy to administer monthly dose of heartworm preventive medicine, you can spare your pet a lot of hardship.

Tags: Dogs

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