[nagdu] heartworm prevention

[Raven Tolliver]

the heartworm pill does not prevent heartworm, it is a pesticide that
kills heartworm babies. Nothing can stop your dog from getting
heartworm unless it can stop mosquitoes infected with heartworm from
biting your dog. You can reduce mosquito bites with mosquito control,
but obviously, that is not 100%. The ultimate solution to fending off
pests and fighting worms is a healthy immune system.
Getting a heartworm infestation is far more difficult than vets and
drug companies would have us believe. There are 7 steps necessary for
an infestation:
Step 1: A hungry female mosquito of a certain species must bite your
dog. Female mosquitoes act as airborne incubators for premature baby
heartworms (called microfilariae). Mosquitoes thrive in warm, humid
conditions, as I stated in an earlier post.
Step 2: Our hungry mosquito needs access to a dog already infected
with sexually mature male andfemale heartworms that have produced
babies.
Step 3: The heartworm babies must be at the L1 stage of development
when the mosquito bites the dog and withdraws blood.
Step 4:  Ten to fourteen days later — if the temperature is right –the
microfilariae mature inside the mosquito to the infective L3 stage
then migrate to the mosquito’s mouth. (Yum!)
Step 5:  Madame mosquito transmits the L3′s to your dog’s skin with a
bite. Then, if all conditions are right, the L3′s develop in the skin
for three to four months (to the L5 stage) before making their way
into your dog’s blood.  But your dog still isn’t doomed.
Step 6:   Only if the dog’s immune system doesn’t rid the dog of these
worms do the heartworms develop to adulthood.
Step 7:   It takes approximately six months for the surviving larvae
to achieve maturity. At this point, the adult heartworms may produce
babies if there are both males and females, but the kiddies will die
unless a mosquito carrying L3′s intervenes.  Otherwise, the adults
will live several years then die.
In summation, a particular species of mosquito must bite a dog
infected with circulating L1 heartworm babies, must carry the babies
to stage L3 and then must bite your dog. The adult worms and babies
will eventually die off in the dog unless your dog is bitten again!
Also, heartworms Development Requires Sustained Day & Night Weather Above 57˚F
...
The University of Pennsylvania vet school (in a study funded by
Merial) found: “Development in the mosquito is temperature dependent,
requiring approximately two weeks of temperature at or above 27C
(80F). Below a threshold temperature of 14C (57F), development cannot
occur, and the cycle will be halted. As a result, transmission is
limited to warm months, and duration of the transmission season varies
geographically.”
...
The Washington State University vet school reports that laboratory
studies show that maturation of the worms requires “the equivalent of
a steady 24-hour daily temperature in excess of 64°F (18°C) for
approximately one month.”  In other words, it has to be warm day AND
night or development is retarded even if the average temperature is
sufficiently warm. They add, that at 80° F, “10 to 14 days are
required for development of microfilariae to the infective stage.”
Jerold Theis, DVM, PhD, says, “If the mean monthly temperature is only
a few degrees above 14 degrees centigrade [57 degrees F] it can take
so many days for infective larvae to develop that the likelihood of
the female mosquito living that long is remote.”
https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/heartworm-medication-part-1-truths-omissions-and-profits/

http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2010/08/03/why-havent-pet-owners-been-told-these-facts-about-heartworm.aspx

The vets at Holistic Vet Center say:  “… monthly heartworm
preventatives are actually 100% effective if given every 45 days and
99% effective if given every 60 days.”
https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/heartworm-medication-part-2/

Also, people need to understand that heartworm positive results is not
a death sentence. there are various herbs which treat heartworm; and
there is also Heartworm Free, which is both a preventative and
treatment.
http://www.heartwormfree.com/heartworm_prevention.htm

If you do a Google search for heartworm development and temperature,
you will see the same facts on numerous websites.
Sorry, vets are in it for the money, and the vets at guide dog schools
are no more competent than the four vets I visited with my golden. You
know that money is a top priority in the guide dog programs because
they feed the dogs foods like Iams, Proplan, insert low-cost, low
quality dog food here. And these vets truly think that these brands of
kibble are healthy. Any vet who says things like: "Iams is a healthy
kibble," or "Eating kibble cleans your dog's teeth," are not good vets
in my opinion. Statements such as these demonstrate that a vet is
concerned about money over health.
Statements such as these come from the same vets who say give
heartworm preventative once a month, even when there's not a chance of
mosquitoes appearing for more than half the year. If you live in
states with climates similar to Florida or Texas, I can understand
where they're coming from. But in regions like the Northeast and
Midwest, that is just overkill.
-- 
Raven