Sunday, September 19, 2010

Unknown Facts About Heartworms

The American Heartworm Society has three "platinum" sponsors and five "bronze" sponsors. All eight are major pharmaceutical manufacturers.

It comes as no surprise, then, that the AHS recommends year-round, birth-to-death heartworm prevention drugs – no matter where you live, the time of year, the age of your dog, his size or health status.

What's Wrong with This Picture?

Three things, specifically:

Huge conflict of interest potential. Heartworm prevention through the overuse of potentially toxic medications sold by pharmaceutical giants like Bayer Healthcare, Merial and Pfizer, is a virtual money machine for drug manufacturers, online retailers, testing laboratories, veterinarians and any other entity that can find a way to cash in.

When there's money on the table – in this case billions of dollars – your pet's health and quality of life can quickly become a secondary concern.

Note also that the ASH recommendation for year-round dosing is not because your pet needs it year-round in every state, but because it's assumed dog owners will forget to re-start the medication when the weather warms up.

And by the way – heartworm "preventives" don't actually prevent your pet from getting worms. What they do is poison the larvae at the microfilaria (L1-L2) stage of development, causing them to die.

Relatively low actual incidence of life-threatening infection. Heartworm disease is more difficult to acquire – and less lethal – than the dire warnings and marketing claims for chemical preventives would have you believe.

In order for heartworm disease to take hold, a precise sequence of events must occur involving the right climate, the right temperature for the right amount of time, the right species and sex of mosquito, and your dog's less-than-optimal immune system function.

This information is not intended to minimize the need to protect your dog, but only to point out the actual potential for heartworm disease is less than you've been led to believe by financially-motivated marketing campaigns designed to scare pet owners into buying 12 doses of preventive, year in and year out, regardless of where you live!

The existence of less toxic recommendations. There are less harmful protocols to prevent heartworm in your dog than a lifetime of once-monthly, year-round doses of toxic drugs. Read the entire article.

After you finish reading the website, consider a natural heartworm program for your pet.

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