Good Heartworm Preventative Source?

[MonkeyLove]

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Hey all,
Does anyone know a good source to get a quality heartworm preventative for dogs that isn't super expensive? Maybe something similar to costco's great price for for flea/tick preventative?
Thanks!

 

[Minnerbelle]

Hey all,
Does anyone know a good source to get a quality heartworm preventative for dogs that isn't super expensive? Maybe something similar to costco's great price for for flea/tick preventative?
Thanks!

sorry i can't provide any answers, but what is this costco's great flea/tick preventative that you speak of? is it just a cheap price for advantage/frontline/etc... or is it a completely different product altogether?

 

[Vet Engineer]

sorry i can't provide any answers, but what is this costco's great flea/tick preventative that you speak of? is it just a cheap price for advantage/frontline/etc... or is it a completely different product altogether?

Costco and Merial have teamed up to offer Frontline for super cheap. Give it a few more months, maybe a year, and you won't see very many vets selling it anymore. Costco can sell it for cheaper than vets can buy it!

Currently, all heartworm preventatives must be purchased through a veterinarian because they require a prescription. If you see it for sale on petmeds and those other websites, it's fake or illegally purchased. I would strongly recommend against purchasing anything online.

Since Heartgard is an older drug and it doesn't treat much besides heartworms, you can probably find that for relatively cheap from a vet. Also, if you wanted to combine flea, tick, and heartworm preventative you could get Revolution. You just have to be careful when applying it to ensure that the dog fully absorbs the contents of a vial and none of it is licked/washed off. Otherwise you have a good chance of your dog not being fully protected.

 

[HopefulAg]

Costco and Merial have teamed up to offer Frontline for super cheap. Give it a few more months, maybe a year, and you won't see very many vets selling it anymore. Costco can sell it for cheaper than vets can buy it!

Kind of makes you wonder just where vets in the future will get their profit from. We're getting edged out of the preventatives market due to increasing demand (and the providers seeing opportunity), out of the pharmaceuticals market by local pharmacies and more and more clients demanding scripts (which is their right. I'm just saying), and we get low profit margins compared to human medicine procedures (and with the NHS now and everything being 'free' on the human side...ungh), not sure how the profession will fare with lowering income and increasing entry costs.

 

[david594]

Currently, all heartworm preventatives must be purchased through a veterinarian because they require a prescription. If you see it for sale on petmeds and those other websites, it's fake or illegally purchased. I would strongly recommend against purchasing anything online.

Actually thats not true(in either regard). Heartworm preventatives are a prescription medication and can be purchased through any place that can legally sell medications. So your veterinarian or any pharmacy that deals in animal drugs. Petmeds being a pharmacy isn't (currently) doing anything illegal and it's very unlikely anything they are selling is fake.

There have been some concerns over the products they were selling being grey market in origin, but that seemed to mostly be limited to "veterinary exclusive" OTC products.

Not to say I recommend them or that their prices are actually better than most clinics.... but just trying to clarify.

 

[Marsala]

I purchased a year's worth of Iverhart for each of my six dogs from www.valleyvet.com, and the total for all of it was $160. Pretty cheap, IMHO. Your vet has to fax them a prescription, but no big deal. And shipping was free.

 

[chii chan]

Not totally sure. We sell interceptor for heartworm preventative, plus it deworms for hooks, whips, and rounds. It's more expensive for a larger dog than smaller dog, of course, and I know my manager price matches with PetMeds. I think it ends up being about $6 per dose (or $6 per month). There's also Sentinel that does fleas (and ticks, I think). We don't really sell it that much so I have no clue what we charge for it.

It's always cheaper to prevent it than to treat your dog if s/he did get heartworm.

Hope that helps! 🙂

 

[SilverSpyderGT]

Kind of makes you wonder just where vets in the future will get their profit from. We're getting edged out of the preventatives market due to increasing demand (and the providers seeing opportunity), out of the pharmaceuticals market by local pharmacies and more and more clients demanding scripts (which is their right. I'm just saying), and we get low profit margins compared to human medicine procedures (and with the NHS now and everything being 'free' on the human side...ungh), not sure how the profession will fare with lowering income and increasing entry costs.

The more alternate profit centers are phased out of vet clinics, the more pressure vets will be under to charge appropriately for their time. It's almost certainly going to follow the human model - when you see an MD, you pay them for their exam/consultation or procedures. You don't pay them for your prescriptions. I don't know where bloodwork will end up in the veterinary scheme of things, though... I just don't see veterinary labs (that can perform blood draws) developing; I think they would be too much of a niche market.

 

[HopefulAg]

Vets can charge as much as they want, but if no one's willing to pay...insurance based would be the alternative but people don't get on board of that as readily as they do for their own health insurance.

 

[BomberCanoe]

Wow, no joke, costco really is selling the products. 37$ for a 3 pack for the largest size (its online, the link is ridiculously long, so you can look it up). That's about $12 a dose. I know at my clinic, we had promotions where buying a 6 pack would get you one free (and we even bumped it up to 2 free doses right before I left), but even then it was still about 13-15 a dose. We always price matched interceptor, but it seems a lot of people underestimated heart worm, and would neither purchase nor request a script.

I know that the VCA company is developing their own form of interceptor, with another additive (I wish I could remember what it was) that would make it just a little more useful than interceptor. Or was it geared toward replacing heartguard, as an option for those with heartworm? I honestly can't remember, I learned about it my last week. So look forward to that?

Definitely interesting to wonder where vets will actually make money. I know for me its definitely a touchy subject whenever someone assumes vets over charge, or that vets are rich, or even much beyond comfortable. Something's definitely going to happen with that. Hopefully some sort of insurance is made? I know it will be a headache for us to deal with that whole aspect of the medicine, but I think it could ultimately lead to better care for pets. People will scoff at a 10-20 dollar office visit, with maybe 100$ rads (obviously just throwing numbers out there), instead of paying 40-50 for an office visit, and 200+ for rads.

 

[Nexx]

The money making (for vets) isn't really the issue. Over in Australia all the flea/tick/worming (including heartworm) meds are sold over the counter at pet supply stores and vet clinics -- and they still manage to keep making money.

The vet industry is service based, frankly much of the time having money tied up in the amount of stock many people keep for these products is a waste and could be better spent sitting in an investment portfolio.

The real issue becomes that of improper use of these meds, toxicity, and other potential complications. Which I must admit does seem fairly low over here in Australia but mainly because the store employees also receive some staff training on the products. Also the prices between vet/pet supply store is not that great so many times people seem to purchase at the vet's office out of convenience.

 

[MonkeyLove]

Yeah, the online sites that sell interceptor make me nervous... the one that requires a prescription sounds interesting though, I'll have to check that out. Thanks everyone for all the info!

 

[lei325]

I know that where I worked you could get heartworm preventative through an online pharmacy, but by law required the dog to have been seen by the vet clinic within the past year or they couldn't prescribe any medication, including heartworm meds (not sure if MA is the only one who requires that). I went head to head with a few clients over that law when I was working reception. Iverhart is a good idea, but it only treats heartworm and not any intestinal parasites. So if you are looking for a more comprehensive type, Heartgard or Interceptor. As for where to find it cheap...tell me when you find it!! Smartpak has been pretty affordable for me, but I'm not sure if it's the cheapest option. I haven't done much research.

 

[Vet Engineer]

Really? Interesting...Do you have a link to an article or anything I can share at work?

No, sorry. 🙁 The veterinarian that owns the clinic where I work told me he was probably going to drop Frontline so I asked him why. He told me that Merial is selling directly to them. I don't know where he gets his info though. Reps I suppose?

Actually thats not true(in either regard). Heartworm preventatives are a prescription medication and can be purchased through any place that can legally sell medications. So your veterinarian or any pharmacy that deals in animal drugs. Petmeds being a pharmacy isn't (currently) doing anything illegal and it's very unlikely anything they are selling is fake.

There have been some concerns over the products they were selling being grey market in origin, but that seemed to mostly be limited to "veterinary exclusive" OTC products.

Not to say I recommend them or that their prices are actually better than most clinics.... but just trying to clarify.

So I should have qualified my response by saying "Veterinary exclusive" products. I have been told by reps from Merial, Novartis, and Summit VetPharm that they do NOT sell to the online companies, petco, petsmart, etc. I suppose I shouldn't believe what they say since Merial is selling to Costco instead. However, Summit, the company that makes Vectra has tracking numbers on each box in order to follow the supply chain. They have found fake and illegally purchased product on those websites. Again, take it with a grain of salt because I get this information from reps when they visit the clinic where I work. (and I have no documentation to support their claim)

 

[incendium04]

Just FYI, Merial offers free Heartgard to UC Davis students, and later Bayer and Novartis do the same for their heartworm preventatives. I think the dates change year to year, but they were offered pretty late in the school year for us (all were in the last few months so not at the beginning of the school year).

 

[ReadyBeVet]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the Merial guarantee.

If you don't purchase your Heartgard Preventative from a vet, the Merial guarantee is void. The guarantee covers internal parasites and heartworm. If you dog contracts these and has been on Heartgard (and can be verified with the correct amount purchased) they will pay for treatment. The same goes for other brands such as Tri-Heart Plus, and so forth.

For that reason alone, I think HG from the vet is the only way to go.

Merial is having a special right now, $12 off a 12 month supply.
Frontline is Buy 3, get one free or Buy 6, get 2 free.

 

[sumstorm]

The money making (for vets) isn't really the issue. Over in Australia all the flea/tick/worming (including heartworm) meds are sold over the counter at pet supply stores and vet clinics -- and they still manage to keep making money.

The vet industry is service based, frankly much of the time having money tied up in the amount of stock many people keep for these products is a waste and could be better spent sitting in an investment portfolio.

yeah, the recent crash really makes that a positive move. Don't forget, most Australian vets also don't come into practice with the debt American vets will have. They can probably afford to make less profit, not worry about alternative profit centeres, and to invest.

 

[THEOSU2012]

Hey There!

So, just so people don't get confused, Merial has consistently stated that they don't sell to anyone but Veterinarians. However, as people have said, Frontline continues to show up all across the country.

However Bayer sent out a letter a couple of weeks ago saying that due to problems, they will start selling Advantage and Advantix over the counter. Personally I respect for Bayer for being up front with what they are doing and telling veterinarians up front.

Then two days later, Merial sent a letter to all veterinarians saying that they will ONLY sell to veterinarians. If asked about product on Petmeds, etc....they say that this is all from diverted product. The product in Costco, is diverted product,etc...

Other companies as have been noted above have placed tracking systems and guarantee that their products only go to veterinarians and can track them with bar codes.

I'll let you make your own decisions as to what is going on.

 

[Marsala]

I know that where I worked you could get heartworm preventative through an online pharmacy, but by law required the dog to have been seen by the vet clinic within the past year or they couldn't prescribe any medication, including heartworm meds (not sure if MA is the only one who requires that). I went head to head with a few clients over that law when I was working reception. Iverhart is a good idea, but it only treats heartworm and not any intestinal parasites. So if you are looking for a more comprehensive type, Heartgard or Interceptor. As for where to find it cheap...tell me when you find it!! Smartpak has been pretty affordable for me, but I'm not sure if it's the cheapest option. I haven't done much research.

FYI, Iverhart does work against intestinal parasites. Iverhart Plus is ivermectin (for heartworms) and pyrantel (roundworms and hookworms). Iverheart Max is ivermectin, pyrantel pamoate (effective against most common GI nematodes except whipworms), and praziquantel (tapeworms). It is essentially the same product, except it comes in a "pork" flavored tablet rather than the delicious, beefy chew. They also have a guarantee like Heartgard's.

 

[lei325]

FYI, Iverhart does work against intestinal parasites. Iverhart Plus is ivermectin (for heartworms) and pyrantel (roundworms and hookworms). Iverheart Max is ivermectin, pyrantel pamoate (effective against most common GI nematodes except whipworms), and praziquantel (tapeworms). It is essentially the same product, except it comes in a "pork" flavored tablet rather than the delicious, beefy chew. They also have a guarantee like Heartgard's.

I stand corrected. Thanks for the info!!

 

[Polar Opposite]

I purchased a year's worth of Iverhart for each of my six dogs from www.valleyvet.com, and the total for all of it was $160. Pretty cheap, IMHO. Your vet has to fax them a prescription, but no big deal. And shipping was free.

Iverheart is what I use...costs around $17-30/ 6 month packages depending on weight...

 

[MonkeyLove]

Just FYI, Merial offers free Heartgard to UC Davis students, and later Bayer and Novartis do the same for their heartworm preventatives. I think the dates change year to year, but they were offered pretty late in the school year for us (all were in the last few months so not at the beginning of the school year).

Yeah, I am definitely looking forward to any and all deals/freebies in vet school! I heard that UCD students also get a discount for vet visits, etc. at vet med, is that true?

And Polar Opposite, that is a really good deal!

 

[bunnity]

You can try Petango (https://store.petango.com/). They donate to the shelter of your choice when you buy from them which is cool.

 

[HopefulAg]

The product in Costco, is diverted product,etc...

How on earth can CostCo be a diverted product? I can understand small time stores (my local feed store sells it) getting their hands on it through other means but CostCo? You'd think the sheer volume that their other source would be ordering in would throw up red flags, unless they're getting it through many, many veterinarians all doing smaller orders.

 

[incendium04]

Yeah, I am definitely looking forward to any and all deals/freebies in vet school! I heard that UCD students also get a discount for vet visits, etc. at vet med, is that true?

We do get a discount at the VMTH - all routine exams are free, with everything but lab work discounted (something like 50-80%). The dr's at Community Practice (then GP side of the VMTH) are wonderful! They are always reachable by e-mail and very understanding.

 

[TSUJC]

FYI, Iverhart does work against intestinal parasites. Iverhart Plus is ivermectin (for heartworms) and pyrantel (roundworms and hookworms). Iverheart Max is ivermectin, pyrantel pamoate (effective against most common GI nematodes except whipworms), and praziquantel (tapeworms). It is essentially the same product, except it comes in a "pork" flavored tablet rather than the delicious, beefy chew. They also have a guarantee like Heartgard's.

Iverhart is a great product and it is very affordable. Like Marsala said, it is the same product as Heartgard. I have a graduate degree in veterinary parasitology and I used this product for a long time...then I started getting free products from school 😉

Tri-Heart Plus is also a good alternative, it contains ivermectin/pyrantel so it won't cover tapes but praziquantel is cheap OTC

 

[psilovethomas]

Make sure your pet is heartworm negative before giving it the preventative. A heartworm positive animal who is given the preventative can potentially have a severe allergic reaction!

 

[cowgirla]

Make sure your pet is heartworm negative before giving it the preventative. A heartworm positive animal who is given the preventative can potentially have a severe allergic reaction!

I was under the impression that this was no longer true. Granted, that's according to our drug reps, so might not be, but I was told that it's not a problem to give Heartgard to an already positive dog.

In fact, there's a previous thread somewhere on here about using Heartgard as a TREATMENT for heartworm, due to the lack of available immiticide. Something about how if you give heartgard for 18months straight, they then test negative at the end of that time time period.


ETA: Got it! http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=713866

 

[StartingoverVet]

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ETA: Got it! http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=713866

What does ETA stand for? I see a lot of you use it.

For me it is Estimated Time of Arrival but that doesn't seem to apply🙁

 

[psilovethomas]

I was under the impression that this was no longer true. Granted, that's according to our drug reps, so might not be, but I was told that it's not a problem to give Heartgard to an already positive dog.

In fact, there's a previous thread somewhere on here about using Heartgard as a TREATMENT for heartworm, due to the lack of available immiticide. Something about how if you give heartgard for 18months straight, they then test negative at the end of that time time period.


ETA: Got it! http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=713866

Maybe it's different for different manufactures? We only carry and recommend Interceptor. I know that we still tell our clients to hold off on giving the heartworm medication until they get a call from us confirming a negative test. Still, interesting thread.

 

[cuitlamiztli]

Maybe it's different for different manufactures?

Yep. It depends on the medication. Interceptor and sentinel contain milbemycin, which kills the L1 stage quickly--this can cause shock in animals with high numbers of microfilariae so it is advisible to wait to administer it. Heartgard is safe to give infected dogs because it contains ivermectin and not milbemycin.

As far as the original question, I would not purchase heartworm preventatives online. In my experience they are generally cheaper at veterinary clinics, plus you get the product then and there. No messing with faxing prescriptions, shipping fees, etc.

 

[cowgirla]

Yep. It depends on the medication. Interceptor and sentinel contain milbemycin, which kills the L1 stage quickly--this can cause shock in animals with high numbers of microfilariae so it is advisible to wait to administer it. Heartgard is safe to give infected dogs because it contains ivermectin and not milbemycin.

Makes sense, thanks. We don't carry Interceptor or sentinel, just heartgard and triheart.

 

[cartya]

Make sure your pet is heartworm negative before giving it the preventative. A heartworm positive animal who is given the preventative can potentially have a severe allergic reaction!

I was under the impression that this was no longer true. Granted, that's according to our drug reps, so might not be, but I was told that it's not a problem to give Heartgard to an already positive dog.

In fact, there's a previous thread somewhere on here about using Heartgard as a TREATMENT for heartworm, due to the lack of available immiticide. Something about how if you give heartgard for 18months straight, they then test negative at the end of that time time period.


ETA: Got it! http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=713866

At the clinic that I was working at last summer there was a large male rottweiler. The previous summer he had tested heartworm positive but the owners insisted upon receiving Heartgard. The vet ended up prescribing it since he believed it would be safe and would likely have no effects on the condition of the dog. Last summer when the dog came in for his heartworm test, it came back negative. The vet was amazed. It was never determined (at least to my knowledge) how this was possible but giving Heatgard had no ill effects.

 

[Bearby]

At the clinic that I was working at last summer there was a large male rottweiler. The previous summer he had tested heartworm positive but the owners insisted upon receiving Heartgard. The vet ended up prescribing it since he believed it would be safe and would likely have no effects on the condition of the dog. Last summer when the dog came in for his heartworm test, it came back negative. The vet was amazed. It was never determined (at least to my knowledge) how this was possible but giving Heatgard had no ill effects.

Heartworms do die on their own. It's quite possible that if the load of adult heartworms was very low and the dog was started on Heartgard to kill the microfilaria that it may have been infected with each month that the adult heartworms died and the test came back negative. I have heard of this happening in other cases as well.

 

[HopefulAg]

Don't heartworms have a life span of some 6 years though? How susceptible are they to the body's immune system though?

 

[Bearby]

Don't heartworms have a life span of some 6 years though? How susceptible are they to the body's immune system though?

I don't have an answer for either of those questions. The only thing I can add is that we don't know how old the rottie was or if it had tested negative in the past.

 

[cartya]

I don't have an answer for either of those questions. The only thing I can add is that we don't know how old the rottie was or if it had tested negative in the past.

The rottie was 6-7years old and it had always tested negative before the one summer that it had tested positive.

 

[david594]

At the clinic that I was working at last summer there was a large male rottweiler. The previous summer he had tested heartworm positive but the owners insisted upon receiving Heartgard. The vet ended up prescribing it since he believed it would be safe and would likely have no effects on the condition of the dog. Last summer when the dog came in for his heartworm test, it came back negative. The vet was amazed. It was never determined (at least to my knowledge) how this was possible but giving Heatgard had no ill effects.

What confirmatory tests did you run and what were the results on those?

The farther north you come, the lower the prevalence rate is of heartworm. As such the positive predictive value of the screening tests we run go down and the rate of false postives goes up pretty quickly.

I've seen multiple cases that were false positives from heartworm.

 

[cartya]

What confirmatory tests did you run and what were the results on those?

The farther north you come, the lower the prevalence rate is of heartworm. As such the positive predictive value of the screening tests we run go down and the rate of false postives goes up pretty quickly.

I've seen multiple cases that were false positives from heartworm.

I'm actually from outside of Cleveland and was working in Parma, OH. What exactly do you mean by confirmatory tests? I am no longer working at this clinic and this was a year ago, so I don't have access to the patient file. I know that for both the positive test and for the negative test, the blood sample was sent out to Marshfield Labs, and they were the ones that tested the sample.

 

[david594]

I'm actually from outside of Cleveland and was working in Parma, OH. What exactly do you mean by confirmatory tests? I am no longer working at this clinic and this was a year ago, so I don't have access to the patient file. I know that for both the positive test and for the negative test, the blood sample was sent out to Marshfield Labs, and they were the ones that tested the sample.

Basically any type of different test that would confirm that the first test was in fact true.

If your doing in house testing(snap test, etc) and you get a positive, its quick and easy to spin down a hematocrit tube and look for microfilaria. If you see them, then you can feel pretty safe in your positive test.

Or if you have multiple brands of tests, you can try a different brand. If its a true positive you would expect it to come up positive on both.

My comments are mostly oriented towards in house testing and particularly in areas with low HW prevalence. I worked in Massachusetts before and we would only get a handful of HW positive animals a year and we were a reasonably busy 4 doctor practice. No idea on how Marshfield does their testing so can't really comment on that.

 

[cartya]

Basically any type of different test that would confirm that the first test was in fact true.

If your doing in house testing(snap test, etc) and you get a positive, its quick and easy to spin down a hematocrit tube and look for microfilaria. If you see them, then you can feel pretty safe in your positive test.

Or if you have multiple brands of tests, you can try a different brand. If its a true positive you would expect it to come up positive on both.

My comments are mostly oriented towards in house testing and particularly in areas with low HW prevalence. I worked in Massachusetts before and we would only get a handful of HW positive animals a year and we were a reasonably busy 4 doctor practice. No idea on how Marshfield does their testing so can't really comment on that.

Ah ok. The clinic I was at only used the in-house snap tests for the HW testing of dogs at under 3 years (why, I'm not exactly sure). All others were sent out to the lab (Marshfield) since they are much more accurate. I know that they looks for the presence of microfliaria. Cases of HW are pretty rare around this area since most owners use HW preventative. Our clinic saw one case last summer and only one case (this rotti) the summer before.