Flea Medication and Heartworm Medication!?

Question

I just bought heartworm medication and flea medication for my two dogs! But i have questions... I heard that you dont need to use flea medication in the winter! Is that true? Why is that? And about the heartworm medication... i know it's meant to PREVENT heartworms! How do i know if they have them or not! In other words, am i wasting the pills to give it to them before i know if they have it or not? Would it kill the heartworms if they did have them? Thanks for the help in advance!

Answer 1

Your pet should have been tested for heartworms before you got the medication. If he does have them then the meds wont work. Get your vet to test him. Plus a lot of heartworm meds companies will pay for the animal to have treatment if your pet become effected with heartworms while on the medication. Keep using your flea medicine all year long, it was to be below freezing for 9 days to kill outside fleas.

Answer 2

If you are buying this medication at the grocery store or something don't do it! Take your dogs to the vet and get them tested. The vet can do a simple test to check for heartworms.
Then you can buy the proper heartworm medicine from the vet or get him to write a prescription an you can by them at Petsmart or online. Sentinel is a heartworm and flea medication that is a small pill. It's one of the beast. You give it once a month.
The liquid flea medication can make your dog sick as well as people in the house. The stuff sold over the counter and at grocery stores is poison. Don't use it. Same goes for the dewormers and worm medicines at the grocery store.
Take your dogs to the vet!

Answer 3

If you dog has "mature" heartworms, the heartworm meds can kill your dog. The way this happens is that as the worms die the remnants can block blood vessels and cause strokes, heart attacks, and so on.
For this reason ALWAYS test before starting a dog on the meds.
The controlling factor with when the dogs need the meds is controlled by the temperature. First hard freeze and the problem is gone until spring. BUT it has to freeze!!!!! So if you live in Florida, you need to use the meds year round.