kat wrote:

As far as you know. I always find this statement kind of suspect. Your
dogs could be in the process of developing a chronic illness as you type and
you wouldn't know it until they were diagnosed.

This couldn't be more true.

A large part of my raw food plan are MORE
trips to the vet for blood level checks.
Since I am the ONLY one in control of their
dietary health now, I believe it is my duty
to stay on top of knowing how their organs
are reacting to what I am giving them.

Even the best Homeopathic vets in the world
rely on this for determining problems,
whether it be problem prevention or acute
problem solving.

I feel badly for any pet whose owner has had
such bad relationships with their vets that
they balk at using them as a vital tool in
their pet's ongoing health. Its a shame. And
dangerous.

Yeah, vets use heartworms to scare you into buying their products and
coming in for appointments. It isn't as easy to get them as they want
you to believe,

How does Chard know this?? She could ask me what the motivations are and as
a practice manager and co-owner I am in a position to tell her. And I would
be absolutely honest, as I always am. But she doesn't like my answer because
it doesn't fit her agenda, so she'll say *I* am lying.

It's not the commong cold we're trying to prevent. It's an always fatal
situation if gone untreated and, frequently, even if treated.

On 2009-05-03 00:39:53 -0400, "Sharon Too"
said:

Yeah, vets use heartworms to scare you into buying their products and
coming in for appointments. It isn't as easy to get them as they want
you to believe,

How does Chard know this?? She could ask me what the motivations are and as
a practice manager and co-owner I am in a position to tell her. And I would
be absolutely honest, as I always am. But she doesn't like my answer because
it doesn't fit her agenda, so she'll say *I* am lying.

It's not the commong cold we're trying to prevent. It's an always fatal
situation if gone untreated and, frequently, even if treated.

Good friends of ours did not use heartworm preventives, their dog got
heartworm and died.

Shame on you money-grubbing vets for scaring people about heartworm.

In article 2009050311370016807-montana@wildhackcominvalid,
montana wildhack wrote:
Good friends of ours did not use heartworm preventives, their dog got
heartworm and died.

Yeah, that's got to be heart-breaking.

Note that chard is relying on an argument that doesn't make
any sense, statistically: that her dog isn't on hw
preventative and hasn't gotten an infection. Most untreated
dogs don't.

The consequences of having heartworm are so dire that many
people feel the costs associated with using heartworm
preventative easily outweigh the potential consequences of
not using a preventative. In security risk analysis we
evaluate risk as a function of both the likelihood of an
event and the seriousness of the consequences of an event.
If an event is low-probability but would be catastrophic if
it does happen, you take steps to mitigate the risk as long
as the cost of the mitigation isn't higher than the expected
value (cost) of the risk.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community

Good friends of ours did not use heartworm preventives, their dog got
heartworm and died.

Shame on you money-grubbing vets for scaring people about heartworm.

Yeah... we're floating in dough, we are. And , of course, we *never* get
emotionally attached to our patients, so what they hay.

kat wrote:
"sighthounds & siberians" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 29 Apr 2009 06:45:31 -0400, "kat"
wrote:


Interesting. I'm wondering if geographic location influences the
recommendations, ie. the farther north the less time? I wonder what the
recommendations are in the U.P.
Various heartworm sites have more details about specific temperatures,
but basically, when it's too cold for mosquitos it's too cold for
heartworm. However, we can have significant warmups in our area
during the winter, and although technically the temperature has to be
above X for Y number of days, I don't take risks with heartworm. Are
you in the UP?

I'm in the thumb but I know it gets (and stays) pretty cold for significant
lengths of time in the U.P. I'm curious now as to what the recommendations
are up there.

I generally like to use Sentinel rather than Heartguard. Would that be
safe
to use year round?
If it weren't safe for year-round use, it wouldn't be safe for six
months.

Hmm. That might be true for this medication but I don't think that concept
can be applied as a general rule when it comes to medication which is why I
was asking. Some medications are fine in the short-term but can cause damage
if used long-term. I know you know that as you have much more experience in
this area than I do

Why do you keep calling insecticides "medication"? Do you understand the
difference? Have you read the label on the so called preventative?


Also, people in other states, Florida for example, have to
keep their dogs on heartworm preventative year-round, and some of them
use Sentinel.

So no known side effects from continuous long-term use?

Like this?
Some side effects listed for heartworm preventative drugs are weakness,
vomiting, convulsions and diarrhea. More importantly, regular use can
weaken your pet’s immune system and place strain on kidneys and liver.
This can result in greater susceptibility to infection and other
diseases. Many holistic vets are of the opinion that long-term use of
heartworm prevention drugs is one of the factors in the development of
diseases like skin allergies, arthritis, liver and kidney diseases and
even some forms of cancer. So while conventional ‘preventative’
treatment against heartworm may help to keep your pet heartworm free, it
can also cause other problems, some of which are potentially just as
serious as heartworm disease.
http://www.preciouspets.org/articles...prevention.htm