# Am I being paranoid?



## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

I decided to not do any flea/tick/heartworm prevention this year because Revolution did not work well with Ruby, she would get diarrhea for almost 2 weeks after each dose, and I ended up skipping her last dose last year because it was really messing with her stomach. 

So I have only been spraying her with a natural bug repellant when I go outside with her. 

Now, I think there is a mosquito in my apartment! This morning when I woke up she had one mosquito bite on her belly. 14 hours later, she has a second mosquito bite on her belly. I can not for the life of me find this stupid mosquito. 

I know getting HW isnt as easy for dogs to catch like vets make it out to be. But her getting bitten twice in my house makes me second guess my "natural way". 

So yet again, I dont know what to do -.-' 

Grrrr stupid mosquitos.....


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## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

I dunno, I think if I lived in an area with HW, I'd probably recommend taking the necessary precautions. But I don't live in those areas so unfortunately I don't know about the alternatives either.


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

Are you sure it's not a flea bite or noseeum or there is more than one mossie? In my experience with mossies, they bite once then fly away. I don't remember getting bitten twice by the same mosquito in the same proximity.


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## liquid (Dec 28, 2011)

MollyWoppy said:


> Are you sure it's not a flea bite or noseeum or there is more than one mossie? In my experience with mossies, they bite once then fly away. I don't remember getting bitten twice by the same mosquito in the same proximity.


Ive been bitten multiple times by the same mosquito before, almost every time. I must either be an easy target or have extra delicious blood. :tongue: Or the mossies know Im allergic to them and just wanna mess with me!

Along with your natural bug repellent, arent you also using a natural heartworm prevention? If youre really worried about the effectiveness of the treatments, I would get Ruby HW tested, just to kinda 'prove' to myself that its working, haha. Then again, I have no idea how much HW tests are..
Also, what are you using for your bug repellent?


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## kaliberknl (May 9, 2012)

It takes 9 months from the time a dog is bitten and infected to the time a HW test will be positive. If only 1 out of 100 dogs gets HW in your area and your dog is one of the 99, you will be happy. Not so much if he is that one dog...


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## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

I was going to use Black Walnut for HW prevention, but decided not to because it has a high possibility for an allergic reaction. Since Ruby is allergic to so many things already, I didnt want to chance it. 

For the bug repellant, Im using one that I bought from a holistic pet store. It has a mixture of essential oils in it. Lavender, geranium,... there are a bunch more, but I cant remember them all and dont feel like getting the bottle right now lol. 

In 2010 there were *431 (out of 367,385 dogs tested)* *(39 of which were in my city)* cases of HW in all of Ontario.. I cant find any for 2011. Is that enough to say it's best to use a HW preventive? Is Interceptor the mildest one? 

Maybe what Ruby has isnt a mosquito bite, but it kinda looks like one. I cant think of what else it could be, there was 1 this morning, and now a 2nd one by the evening. Here is a pic: The quality sucks, bad lighting with my phone camera


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

Why don't you use Heartgard, the one that only really does the heartworm as it's got the least ingredients. I just use Heartgard on Mol, no flea treatments. I'm a bit paranoid about Heartworm, there's a lot of it round here, plus a human even contracted it a couple of years ago and they only live like 20 miles from here.


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## Nana52 (Apr 28, 2012)

I have to say, I use only natural products as much as possible, but HW scares the beejesus out of me. There are a lot of factors that go into getting heartworms ... temperature, when the mosquito bites the dog that had heartworms, how long after that until it bites another dog, at what stage of larvae development, Mars aligned with Jupiter, even if they get it, it's not "necessarily" a death sentence, yada, yada. But that's one thing I don't have the courage to stop. I do use a generic, Iverhart, and I give milk thistle daily for 5 days after (supposed to help liver flush out toxins).


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

Nana52 said:


> and I give milk thistle daily for 5 days after (supposed to help liver flush out toxins).


Really? Hmmmmmmmmmm, good point, I'll have to look into this.


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## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

Thanks MollyWoppy, I will look into heartguard. Im not worried about fleas or ticks, especially since in the summer Ruby cant even go outside for long periods of time in the heat, and its not like Im going to take her through a hike in the forest at night time lol. But I am slightly worried about HW now, so I need to explore my options.


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

MollyWoppy said:


> Why don't you use Heartgard, the one that only really does the heartworm as it's got the least ingredients. I just use Heartgard on Mol, no flea treatments. I'm a bit paranoid about Heartworm, there's a lot of it round here, plus a human even contracted it a couple of years ago and they only live like 20 miles from here.


I use heartguard also. I've been using it for many, many years and never had a dog have a reaction to it that i could tell. i am very nervous of the newer drugs. 

My neighbors have gone to a giant pill that treats heartworms, fleas, ticks, and probably invasions from Mars. I would not use that.


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## Nana52 (Apr 28, 2012)

I totally agree about the "multi-purpose" drugs. Yikes, that's a lot of toxic chemicals to feed to your poor pets all at once. I've never actually had a dog have any kind of "reaction," but you never know what this stuff is doing to their insides over the long haul, ya know. I read somewhere that the drug doesn't remain in the system for an extended period of time, but I'm not sure I buy that. In any case, I do give the stuff every 6 weeks (not monthly), but because I try to be extra careful about anything that could overtax Kody's liver that's already taking a beating from the phenobarbital (I'm working on oh, so, slowly lowering his dose of that .... fingers crossed), that's why I give the milk thistle following the HW pill. I think it's just a judgment call that everyone has to make for their pet. If I lived in a part of the country with a lower incidence, I wouldn't use it.


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