Home Forums Birds & Dogs Hunting Dogs Heart Worm treatment for hunting dogs?

My wife just took my 3 month old Lab pup into the vet for his final shots today. After the shots/exam was over, the vet asked if Remi was going to be a hunting dog. My wife told him yes, and the vet started scheduling blood work for the dog to determine if he had heart worm disease, and then almost demanded that we start him on some medication to prevwent the disease. All of this based on the fact that he will be a hunting dog. My wife told him "No, not until I talk to my husband." What a woman!
Does this sound legit to everyone? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif" alt="" />

Absolutely legit. The "medication" is a piece of chewable candy you feed the dog once per month until mosquito season is over - usually six months total.

You can also buy the stuff over the internet for about $35, the most common product is called "Heartgard".

I forgot to add - if the dog already has heartworm the medication can cause serious problems. Vets like to clear the dog before starting them on the preventative.

You have a young dog that probably hasn't been exposed, but the risk is there.

Thanks JOG. I'm not trying to be tight with the pet care, it's just that this particular vet (2 of them in the same office, we like one, not the one we saw today) tried to have us take my daughters cat to UCLA for a CAT SCAN, because he was sure the cat needed heart surgery. Turns out the cat had hair ball issues and is quite well today. Just cautious.

Absolutely positively necessary for ALL dogs. The vet here used to recommend HeartGuard. Now he sells Tri-Heart Plus, same stuff but a bit cheaper - Ivermectin for heartworm and Pyrantel for ascarid and hookworm. He sold me on Frontline for fleas and ticks. A little expensive but the stuff works like magic. He says it's the best - he knows his stuff and I trust him implicitlly.

Daughter's cat to UCLA for a CAT scan?? Ooh - all the really bad corny jokes popping into my head. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Glad it was nothing serious.