HEARD THE NEWS About Topical Flea and Heartworm Prevention?

Recently, you may have seen news reports and advertisements about heartworm prevention failures.  We are writing to you, our clients, to keep you abreast of the latest information on these developments. 

In a recent study performed at Auburn University by Dr. Byron Blagburn, a parasitologist, and his staff, during an FDA trial of heartworm prevention, they noted that several of the common preventions (Heartgard Plus, Revolution, and Interceptor) that we are currently using are only producing a 95% success rate.  The study did show a 100% success rate for a product called Advantage Multi (a moxidectin based heartworm prevention) that was just launched by Bayer pharmaceuticals.  The study was paid for by Bayer, and Dr. Blagburn and his staff were compensated by Bayer as well.

Some of the concerns with this study are that it does not replicate “real world” scenarios (i.e. owners are never instructed to give prevention for only one month). The laboratory requirements developed by the FDA for this study are much more stringent than would be needed to see a 100% success rate in the real world.

We are still confident that when used every thirty days as directed, these preventions (Heartgard Plus, Revolution, and Interceptor as well as Advantage Multi and Proheart 6) will prevent heartworm infections in our area.  The heartworm strains that are showing resistance at this time have been found primarily in the Mississippi River Delta area; however, there is a recent strain that was isolated from Georgia sharing some of these resistance characteristics. 

At this time, additional research is being done to identify the gene responsible for the resistance and to combat additional concerns.

The recommendation of the American Heartworm Society remains to keep your dog on heartworm prevention every thirty days and to have yearly testing to ensure a heartworm negative status.

At Ark Animal Hospital, we are committed to staying on the forefront of this research and will continue to update our clients with the most recent developments and recommendations. 

Additionally, we will be offering a recently developed six month heartworm injection, ProHeart 6, that will be administered by Drs. Maxwell, DeLucia and Sims at the hospital.  This particular product is formulated from a drug called moxidectin (the same class of drug as used in the study) which is 100% effective against heartworm disease including the genetically modified strain that has just been isolated in Georgia.

If you have problems remembering to give your dog’s heartworm prevention every 30 days, consider ProHeart 6 as the convenient alternative.

>>MORE NEWS...