Pet Photos thread where too much is never enough.

[Mermaid]

Maybe they thought it was a mirror?

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We are trying to get more vets to heat-treat the serum before antigen testing. You know to ask, so you're way ahead of most people. Heat that serum! (and we're also trying to get people to quit practicing the "slow kill" method, but that's a different story).

Ivermectin ( Heartguard, etc) works fine as a preventative by killing any of the larvae that it finds but it is best used on a monthly basis so gaps do not occur in the regimen which might allow larvae to hatch.  Again in places where mosquitos are ubiquitous it is a must for any responsible dog owner.  But I've never heard any vet suggest not using Immiticide to kill any adult worms already present.  The ones that are there will continue to grow and sooner or later there will be problems.
Ivermectin also has the added benefit of killing various intestinal parasites a dog may pick up like roundworms and hookworms.  Again, in humid areas where mosquitos are common, so are those parasites. 

The biggest problem with Immiticide is the need to keep the dog quiet for two months after completion of the injections so that the dead worms do not break off and head for the lungs where they can cause a pulmonary embolism and therefore a dead dog.  It is not even a particularly expensive treatment but a lot of people don't want to deal with the idea of having to keep a dog quiet for that long.  What can I say.  Some people are idiots.

Ivermectin and its ilk kills the microfilariae and the larvae. Melarsomine (Immiticide) kills adult worms, and to date, is the only drug available to do so. These are two completely different drugs with different purposes. There are several reasons the slow kill method is not recommended by the American Heartworm Society, least of which is, if you are waiting for the worms to die of old age, (which is basically what you are doing), they can do significant damage to the pulmonary vessels of your dog. I won't bore you with those details but here's a link. 
https://www.heartwormsociety.org/resourc...cga2lsbCJd

And I swear I am not being argumentative, just nerdy: Ivermectin in heartworm preventative doses will not control intestinal parasites. Only heartworm preventative combined with another drug (usually pyrantel) will do that.