First and foremost when it comes to your dogs's health DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH and DISCERN for yourself.
I am not a DVM and am merely speaking from my own experience.
Several years back when I was in college I found a cute little fluffy black puppy wandering on the side of a busy road- no tags no nothing- so I took him to the vet to get him checked out. I named him Forest Because I found him on Forest Hill Ave in Richmond Virginia.
Being a full time student at the time I was pretty poor so forking out the cash for an exam was already a burden so I wasn't too happy when I got a call a few days later from the vet telling me that little Forest had heart worms- which is deadly if not treated. But as the conversation progressed I was very happy to learn from the vet that because Forest could have only had the heart worms for a month or two (he was at most 8 weeks old) that it could be treated using the preventative which isn't cheap but far less expensive than the full blown treatment. A few weeks later I found a great home with a really nice couple that spoiled the heck out of Forest- they would send me Christmas cards every year and I could tell he was one happy dog!
I live in Virginia so generally speaking, other than an occasional warm spell, mosquitos, which are the only carriers of heart worms, are dormant in the winter time so when the first frost sets in I generally stop the preventative treatment and don't restart it again until the spring. Your vet will generally try to tell you that if your dog has been off of the treatment that they need to give the dog a blood test to make sure they haven't contracted heart worms. This is basically bunk and a way for the vet to generate revenue from the blood test as well as encouraging you to buy the preventative year round.
I always protest having the blood test done and explain to them that I am aware that the treatment for early stage heart worms is the preventative itself. As a matter of fact according to pets.webmd if the normal treatment for heart worms is unaffordable than administering the preventative is an alternative treatment. But you should know that using the preventative only with a dog that has well established heart worms may result in damage to the dogs circulatory system in the two years it takes the preventative to kill off the heart worms.
*Q: If my dog is diagnosed with heartworms, can I just give him his monthly preventative instead of having him go through treatment? Won’t that kill his heartworms?
A: Studies have shown that if you use ivermectin, the common preventative, on a monthly basis in a dog with heartworm disease, after about two years you’ll kill off most of the dog’s young heartworms. The problem is, in the meantime, all of those heartworms are doing permanent damage to the heart and blood vessels.
But if there’s no way someone can afford the actual treatment, at least using the preventative on a monthly basis could be a lesser alternative.*
http://pets.webmd.com/dogs/guide/heartworms-in-dogs-facts-and-myths#1
I'm one that believes the less medications/vaccinations for every living thing the better. I don't use flea and tick treatments on my Dobermans- I instead just regularly check them for ticks (easy on a short haired dog). If the fleas and ticks are particularly bad in a given year or if I am going camping for instance I'll put a homemade organic powder mixture on them that both repels and kills fleas and ticks. Here's the recipe I found on line that I use.
1 cup diatomaceous earth powder
1/2 cup yarrow powder
1/2 cup neem powder
20 drops of Eucalyptus oil
As you may know fleas and ticks have exoskeletons. The Diatomaceous earth is a crushed seashell like substance that on a microscopic level is very sharp and will cut the exoskeletons of fleas and ticks and they die of dehydration- so you can also use this organic powder mixture around the house to help combat fleas, ticks, and even bed bugs who also have exoskeletons.
Food for thought- the flea and tick repellent that is in liquid form and is applied to your dogs skin on the back of the neck has warnings on the package about avoiding contact yourself and washing off any of the preventive that gets on your hands- you really want to put something like that on your dog? Not me.
Again I know how important people's dogs are to them so DO NOT ACT ON MY EXPERIENCE- OR ANYTHING TOU READ IN THIS POST WITHOUT DOING YOUR OWN RESEARCH but my philosophy is the less chemicals and meds in my dogs the better and the approach I described above has worked very well for me over the years.
Oh and one aside as well- my last Doberman 'Damon' lived to be over 14 and had a very high quality of living even in his golden years- he was actually diagnosed with Lymes disease I think when he was about 8. He was not at all symptomatic so I opted to do nothing in regards to medications. My vet agreed that this was an appropriate course of action knowing how averse I was to giving my dogs medications unless it is absolutely necessary. He lived symptomless with Lymes for 6 years. So just because your dog is diagnosed with Lymes doesn't mean it's best to start treating them for it. Again discern for yourself as to what's best for your dog- I'm merely sharing what has worked very well for me in the past.
I know there's some good honest vets out there but unfortunately, just as with human physicians, I believe the pharmaceutical industry has far too much influence over this profession. A prime example of this is many vets will tell you that the preventative , if given to a dog with advanced heart worms can actually kill them. My research doesn't show me that that's the case-- I believe this is merely a false fear tactic perpetrated by the pharmaceutical companies selling the preventative.
Here's my three- happy and healthy as can be- even though they eat raw venison, organic veggies, and taste of the wild kibble diet that one vet actually wanted to argue with me that their diet may not be meeting their nutritional needs and tried to have me believing that Science Diet was a better alternative- yeah right.
Please consider resteeming this post- not for my steem account but instead because I think there's lots of dog owners and dogs out there that can benefit from this information- the less chemicals and medications we put into ourselves and out pets the longer and happier we'll all live.