[Shawna]

I’m not sure I’m following losul.. It takes six months, per those sites, for heartworm larvae to mature to adult worms and make offspring. So if heartworm babies, microfilariae, were detected in the blood than he’s had the infection for at least six months now.

I agree that he couldn’t have been infected after the last heartworm dose was given. It would have happened several months before then or there couldn’t be detectable microfilariea.

I’m also not sure that giving extra doses of a drug that heartworm are “resistant” to is going to improve the outcome? Either they are resistant or they aren’t. Giving antibiotic resistant bacteria extra doses of the antibiotic they are resistant to doesn’t improve resistance. Not sure why it would in heartworm either? Seems to me like a ploy to sell more preventative.

You wrote “New adults could still move in after the old ones die”… That is true but NOT in the winter when mosquitos aren’t active. Heartgard kills the L1, L3 and L4 stage heartworms but not L5. The adulticide kills the L5 (and maybe late stage L4?). But L1 microfilariea swimming around in the blood CAN’T become adult worms without first being sucked up by a mosquito where they transform from L1 to L3. The only way for Turbo to get new adult worms is if he gets bit by L3 carrying mosquitos— which won’t be happening now. They would give heartgard or another product that kills L1-L4 in advance to assure that all L3 and L4 maturing larvae are killed and the adulticide to kill the adults. The circulating L1 are not a threat to Turbo unless they are first transformed by a mosquito but they too would be killed by the preventative. If I’m not being clear — at this very moment in time, he can’t get any new adult worms unless he is bitten by a mosquito carrying stage L3 larvae. And that would be RARE to happen in cold temps. All you have to worry about is the small load he has right now… Again, this is one of the reasons why I think Turbo is a good candidate for fast kill. We know the worm load is low and will be when the adulticide is administered AND Turbo is in very good health…

• This reply was modified 12 years, 2 months ago by Shawna.