Last night was the third night out of six that I didn't get to bed until after midnight. Man, I didn't do that when I was in college. I've got lots of things to post, just not enough time to sit around at the computer. Hey, remember this kid from a previous post? Too much […]
Category Archives: Parasites
I've been thinking about getting started with Comfortis. We're looking for more information. I don't think that Comfortis users should panic, but if your dog needed to take extremely high doses of ivermectin (as in being treated for demodectic mange, not as in Heartgard-30), extreme caution is indicated. Here's a news release: FDA warns of […]
Here’s an update on ProHeart-6. Fort Dodge held their web seminar to educate veterinarians who want to use the product. In order to buy the stuff, you have to sign in (whether or not you listen), then register at the end by clicking all the boxes that say you agree to their stipulations for use. So, […]
You may recall that I posted previously on my concerns about our heartworm preventive medicines becoming less than 100% effective. There seems to be no difference in efficacy between the different medications, nor does it appear to be dose-related (i.e. giving a 100-pound dose to a 51 pound dog doesn't guarantee effectiveness). I even tried […]
Suddenly, it’s warm. Too bad I wrecked my motorcycle. Even worse, the insects seem to have burgeoned almost instantaneously this spring. It’s made a week of firsts. This wad of heartworms was removed from a Beagle who was only two years old and dying because of them, sad to say. Most dogs, even with no […]
This is the sort of "can of worms" one hates to open. Yet I feel the need to open a discussion. I am concerned that heartworms (at least in our area) are starting to become resistant to all the preventive medications that we have. I have been practicing in a severely endemic area for heartworm […]
Tommy and Missy are housemates. Missy weighs 12 pounds, which is pretty big for a female cat. Tommy weighs 21 pounds which is too big for his frame. In fact, his size makes it difficult for him to groom himself adequately. So, despite the fact that their environment is the same, and that they both […]
Old Yeller Alert The weather is finally getting cold here in southeast Missouri. Motorcycle riding will be reduced to the bi-weekly ride to "blow out the cobwebs"– twenty minutes of freezing while wishing I was home already. You’d think the mosquitoes would all be gone, but they are still flying around inside my house. We […]
Has your pet been "wormed"? And does that mean he’s been covered with worms? If you’ve been "slimed", you’ve been covered with slime, right? [See "Ghost Busters"] Most folks mean "de-wormed", or freed of worms when they say "wormed". They mean that a vermifuge has been administered — a drug that will cause those worms […]
The perfect treatment for a disease needs to satisfy several requirements: the treatment should be 100% effective and it should be completely safe for the patient. If it were also easy to do, and inexpensive, that would be perfect. When the standard treatment for a disease fails to satisfy all four of those requirements, people […]