[Jenn H]

This seems to be an increasingly scary problem with preventatives.
I have stopped them all together. The puppy has never even had anything.
Instead I have been using holistic preventatives for ticks. That has been awesome for my dogs. For heartworm I have their fecal tested every 4 months. Before the parasites reach the worm stage. This way if something shows up they can take the preventatives at that point, but not have to have the full blown heartworm treatment. (That’s how I understand it anyway.)
My older dogs have enough problems. They always had a very mild reaction to the monthly topicals, but since they have acquired other issues due to Lyme (despite doing everything I was told like vaccines and using Advantix every 28 days), IBD and age-related stuff I am not comfortable with using any of those products anymore. Plus they keep changing them. Dogs that have never had problems suddenly do. I’m just too scared now.
I don’t think I’m saving much money if any at all by not buying the stuff and having the tests, but if they were to get sick I am saving a ton.
The tick repellent isn’t as convenient as a 1x/month thing, but it’s also not difficult.
Next year I will have pet safe mosquito repelling flowers planted and see how that works.
There are alternatives out there. Some work better than other on individual pets, but I haven’t seen any adverse reactions. Not sure if there is any science to back up these methods. This is all anecdotal as far as I know so use as much caution as you would with the more conveniential methods.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by Jenn H.