Please don’t fall for the Heartworm scam!
“The administration of common monthly heartworm preventatives has been associated with autoimmune disease and even death in dogs.
The six-month injection for preventing heartworm called Pro-Heart 6 was recalled due to toxic side effects that included fatalities in dogs? (It’s back on the market now. Oh oh.)
The drug called Trifexis is all over the internet associated with illness and deaths in dogs taking it. Some after their first dose, some after many doses.”
Dr Will Falconer
This parasite is a source of great anxiety among dog caretakers.
Thanks in large part to the scare tactics of many veterinarians in promoting preventive drugs, many people believe that contracting heartworms is the equivalent of a death sentence for their dogs.
This is not true.”
Dr. Jeffrey Levy. DVM
Heartworm is not a death sentence.
Please keep reading this page to see what many veterinarians are saying about this and what you can do to prevent it.
“The dogs that die from heartworm are the dogs that are being vaccinated, fed processed pet food and are being treated with suppressive drugs for every little thing that comes along.”
Dr Levy DVM
“To judge by your local veterinarians stern insistence on regular heartworm pills for your dog, you’d think we were in the midst of a brutal epidemic, leaving piles of the dead in it’s wake. I think there’s an epidemic, but of a different sort: of disease-causing toxicity instilled in our pets by heartworm preventative pills.”
Dr. Martin Goldstein DVM
Dr. William Falconer, a veterinarian with a homeopathic practice in Austin, Texas states:
“The heartworm has been out there forever as far as we know, but we don’t read reports of wolves and coyotes being wiped out by heartworm, and yet domestic dogs are falling prey to it.”
Did you know heartworm is caused from a mosquito bite?
It is a parasite that takes up residence in the heart of an animal
with a compromised immune system. Remember, a dog that has been immunized has a weakened immune system.
Using a poor quality food, giving chemicals and drugs further
weaken the immune system.
It is always about the immune system.
What is Heartworm and How Does a Dog Get it?
Did you know many veterinarians think the heartworm preventative is worse than the disease itself?
It’s true.
They also claim that heartworm preventative is more harmful to our pets than vaccines.
The six-month injection for preventing heartworm called Pro-Heart 6 was recalled due to toxic side effects that included fatalities in dogs?
Dr Will Falconer
Heartworm is also explained below by animal expert and author of many books: Pat McKay
“Heartworms are not really worms, but parasites transferred to your dog via the bite of mosquitoes and lives in the hearts of dogs who have a compromised immune system.
So giving poisons, chemicals and drugs only perpetuates the problem by
suppressing the animals immune system even more.
I believe the reason we see the high degree of heartworms in domesticated dogs is because of the drugs that have been used over the years.
Coyotes and wolves deal with it by developing a mild infestation and then becoming immune.
We need to allow our animals immune system to mature, to build up a strong, viable immune system to fight all disease.
If you live in a high risk area (mosquito infested), your dog’s coat should never be cut, so that it can serve it’s natural function of a protective barrier against mosquitoes.
Let me add to that:
Because the drugs are so deadly, they cause the health of the animal to deteriorate to the point they can’t fight off many other ailments, including severe liver damage from the poisons and chemicals in the drugs.”
Read below what Dr. Jeffrey Levy has to say about heartworm:
This is a very important read!
“I practiced for seven years in the Santa Cruz, California area, and treated many dogs with heartworms.
The only dogs that developed symptoms of heart failure were those that were being vaccinated yearly, eating commercial dog food, and getting suppressive drug treatment for other symptoms, such as skin problems.
My treatment, at that time, whenever possible, and eliminating any chemical exposure, such as flea and tick poisons.
I would usually prescribe hawthorn tincture as well.
None of these dogs ever developed any symptoms of heart failure.
***I concluded from this that it was not the heartworms that caused disease, but the other factors that damaged the dogs’ health to the point that they could no longer compensate for an otherwise tolerable parasite load.
It is not really that different from the common intestinal roundworms,
in that most dogs do not show any symptoms.
Read that again! It’s pretty big!
Only a dog whose health is compromised is unable to tolerate a few worms.
Furthermore, a truly healthy dog would not be susceptible to either type of worm in the first place.
It seems to me that the real problem is that allopathic attitudes have instilled in many of us a fear of disease, fear of pathogens and parasites, fear of rabies, as if these are evil and malicious entities just waiting to lay waste to a naive and unprotected public.
Disease is not caused by viruses or by bacteria or by heartworm-bearing mosquitoes. Disease comes from within, and one aspect of disease can be the susceptibility to various pathogens. So the best thing to do is to address those susceptibilities on the deepest possible level, so that the pathogens will no longer be a threat.
Most importantly, don’t buy into the fear.
There are basically three choices with regard to heartworm prevention: drugs, nosodes, or nothing.
For what it’s worth, I never gave my dog any type of heartworm preventive, even when we lived in the Santa Cruz area where heartworms were very prevalent. I tested him yearly, and he never had a problem.”
Dr Jeffery Levy DVM
Heartworm preventatives kill larvae, that’s how they work. Guess where the larvae is? In the blood. Heartworm preventatives poison the larvae and poison the blood. Yikes! Heartworm preventatives are just about equally as bad as vaccinating! Yes, even that one little pill you give your dog, is poison.
Read what Dr Will Falconer say’s:
“Ivermectin, the chief ingredient of Heartguard, and its cousins in the same class, are indeed toxic. In small quantities. The cousins are in Interceptor, Trifexis, Sentinel, Revolution, Advantage Multi and ProHeart 6.
Has anyone studied them for safety over a period of a dog’s life? You can bet not. They went to market with weeks of study, not even years.
And I can tell you, from experience in my own body, that ivermectin made me ill every time I used it, very cautiously, to deworm horses. Rubber gloves on before use, hands washed afterwards, driving to the next farm, I’d feel dizzy and nauseous.
How much could I have been exposed to? Mere molecules.
ProHeart 6 was recalled in 2004 after the FDA received more than 5000 reports of sick or dying dogs. It’s back on the market.”
Read what Dr. Jeannie Thomason says about a certain heartworm preventative.
According to PfizerPro Heart 6, Moxidectin, is a sustained release product that is administered by the veterinarian and provides 6 months of heartworm protection in a single injection.
When this drug first was released, I was working in an allopathic veterinary clinic where the consensus of our 4 small animal doctors was to NOT offer it in our clinic due to the fact that in their limited trials there had been too many deaths from the use of this drug.
By 2004, the drug was pulled off the market due to a high rate of adverse reactions to the drug. According to an informed veterinarian, “Proheart caused more deaths in one year than all of the oral heartworm preventives combined did in ten years.”
Proheart was re-released here in US in 2008 with the following stipulations: Pfizer agreed to add additional warning labels to the drug packaging, and agreed to mandate that pet owners be given a drug fact sheet and be made to sign an “informed consent” document. Pfizer went even further as to mandate web-based training for veterinarians who gave the drug, and issued several “Dear Doctor” letters to all veterinarians regarding the adverse effects of the drug.
Also, the re-release stipulated that no vaccines be administered within a given time frame. However, it appears that more veterinarians than not either don’t care or are not capable of reading. Dogs continue to die from this injection said to “prevent” heartworms” as well as other internal parasites.
Richard Pitcairn DVM –
“Despite the extensive use of heartworm preventive drugs, the rate of heartworm infestation in dogs in any geographical part of the US is the same today as it was in 1982.
It doesn’t take much contemplation to realize that the path of continued drug use is a dead end road.”
Most vets will recommend heartworm preventative in the form of a pill, given once a month.
This heartworm preventative is very toxic!
The little pill has chemical insecticides in it that can cause disease.
“According to the American Veterinary Medical Association,
65% of adverse drug reactions and 48% of all reported deaths resulting from drug reactions are caused by heartworm preventatives.”
Dr. Pitcairns, DVM.
The potential side effects of Ivermectin (the active ingredient in Heartgard) include liver problems, vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite, depression, lethargy, skin eruptions, seizures, tremors, paralysis, autoimmune disorders, thyroid problems, fever, weakness, dizziness, coughing, nose bleeds,
difficulty breathing, pneumonia, irritability, sudden aggressive behavior,
nerve damage, fertility problems, and sudden death.
Other chemical heartworm preventatives have many of the same side effects. This weakens your dogs immune system and opens the door for any disease.
I wonder why we never heard of heartworm years ago? Think it’s another way to make money at the expense of your pet?
The Nature of Animal Healing
by Dr. Martin Goldstein
To judge by your local veterinarian’s stern insistence on regular heartworm pills for your dog, you’d think we’re in the midst of a brutal epidemic,
leaving piles of the dead in its wake. I think there’s an epidemic, too, but of a different sort: of disease-causing toxicity instilled in our pets by heartworm preventative pills.
Granted, heartworm is a serious condition.
An infected mosquito bites your dog (cats are rarely affected),
injecting microscopic worms that first hibernate, then gain access to his bloodstream. The worms find their way to the heart, where they grow to as long as twelve inches, constricting the heart’s passages and causing symptoms that range from coughing to labored breathing to heart failure.
If the image of giant worms literally blocking the life blood of your dog isn’t horrifying enough–and it can seem more so when viewing a real heart preserved in a jar of formalin, on display in a veterinarian’s office as a sales tactic for heartworm preventative–the fact that they spawn hundreds of thousands of baby larvae, called “microfilaria,” which circulate through the bloodstream, is nothing short of grotesque.
A few caveats are in order, however.
Only a small percentage of dogs who get heartworm die of it,
especially if they’re routinely tested twice yearly for early detection.
Even in untreated dogs, after a period of uncomfortable symptoms, the adult worms die. The microfilaria do not grow into adult worms on their own. To reach the next stage in their life cycle, they have to be sucked back out of the body by another mosquito, and go through the other stages of their maturation process within the mosquito.
Only when that mosquito alights again on a dog and bites it can the microfilaria reenter the bloodstream with the ability to grow into adults.
The chances of a microfilaria-infected mosquito biting your dog the first time are slim. Of it happening to the same dog twice, very slim.
And after two decades of pervasive administration of heartworm pills in the U.S., the chances of your dog contracting heartworm in most parts of this country even a first time are slimmer still.
Early in my career, I saw and treated hundreds of cases of heartworm disease, most with routine medication, yet witnessed only three deaths (the last was in 1979). By comparison, we’re seeing cancer kill dogs on a daily basis.
To my mind, the likelihood that toxicity from heartworm pills
is contributing to the tremendous amount of immune suppression now occurring, especially in cases of liver disease and cancer,
is far greater and more immediate than the threat of the disease they’re meant to prevent.
The most common form of heartworm prevention is a monthly pill taken just before and during mosquito season.
(Many veterinarians recommend giving it year-round, even in areas of the country that experience winter.)
Its toxins–ivermectin, for example–sweep through the body,
killing any microfilaria that have been introduced by mosquito bites in the previous month, and thus preventing the growth of adult worms.
Some brands also contain other toxins to kill intestinal parasites.
The other approach to treatment is with a daily dose of the drug diethylcarbamazine, starting several weeks before mosquito season.
The drugs called for in either course of treatment are, simply put, poisons.
Unfortunately, while they kill off microfilaria, they have the toxic effects of poisons, and can be especially damaging to the liver.
I’ve saved a 1987 product evaluation for diethylcarbamazine mixed with oxibendazole, a preventative also used for hookworm.
The evaluation, published by the company itself in a medical journal,
reported that of 2.5 million dogs give the stuff, the company received only 176 reports of problems. Including cases of liver toxicity and fatalities.
To me, 176 are too many.
But also, how many more went magnitude of occurrence is really unknown.
The manufacturer would argue, no doubt, that many of the symptoms I’ve seen cannot be linked in any provable way to any of the heartworm preventatives.
Perhaps–though the anecdotal evidence has long since persuaded me not to put dogs on the stuff.
But I have seen one obvious, immediate effect of these once-a-month preventatives in case after case: when you give a dog that pill, over the next few days, wherever he urinates outside, his urine burns the grass.
Permanently!
In some cases, you can’t grow grass there until you change the soil.
What, I wonder, can it be doing internally to your dog in that time?
When the first daily preventatives came out, my brother and I
witnessed evidence of hemorrhaging in the urine of several dogs put on them. We stopped the medication; the bleeding stopped.
We started it up again; the bleeding resumed. When we reported this to the manufacturer, we were informed that the company was aware of the problem from other complaints. Aware–but not about to pull its product form the shelves. All we could do was to stop giving the medication ourselves to the dogs we treated. Since then, the company has changed the product, diminishing this side effect and bringing it into the realm of acceptability for use in areas of high heartworm incidence.
Now for some easier reading!
I’ve read and reread this page many times, I’ve had it on 3 different websites, so I’ve had to, just because it is a good idea to check my website pages periodically. Every time I read this page, I am appalled. Appalled at the vets and drug manufacturers, not caring about these animals, all because they care so much about money.
You guys call me crying, yes, you really do. You don’t know me, but you do this because you are so heart sick at the loss of your pet. Please don’t worry about crying on the phone with me, I understand it, I think we all do.
I love these wonderful holistic vets who keep us informed and who support us! I think they are wonderful, caring people!
Lot’s of deep reading on this page and I know some of you are nervous about heartworm. Just consider this though; when you catch a cold, it is because your immune system was simply not strong enough to fight it. It is the same for heartworm. Your dog was weak. Why? He was in a weakened state because he no doubt came from vaccinated parents and then went on to be vaccinated. Some of you think, no big deal, a shot. It is not just one shot, it is often times quite a few shots and even one shot has 5-7 diseases in it. Please make sure you read my Immunizations Page.
Puppies have a weakened immune system from the antibiotics he was given every day of his life. Oftentimes 2 different kinds. (Read here why that’s so bad.) Quite probably he may have been sick and then recovered too. That takes quite a toll on their immune systems. Poor quality food can weaken their immune systems too.
What Can You Do Though?
I know many people I have sold puppies to are just scared scared scared of heartworm, but there are things you can do to prevent it, that are not harmful to your pet.
The Immune System
It is always about the immune system.
Is your pet healthy enough to resist this disease?
There are supplements you can use to keep your pets immune system strong, garlic, immune building essential oils like Black Walnut Hull, montmorillonite clay, apple cider vinegar… as a heartworm preventative. Read my entire website and you will learn about these things and how to use them.
Healthy Food
You have already read that a healthy dog food is important to keep their immune system strong, that’s why I use Life’s Abundance.
Although my puppies are on a homemade food until they are almost ready
to make the transition to your home, this is the food I transition them to.
Avoid Things
You should avoid the things that weaken the immune system,
like antibiotics, steroids, heartwormers, vaccines, flea products, including pills, dips, sprays bombs, shampoos, etc…
Detox
I did not do vaccinations at my house, on my children either.
When I do the rabies vaccine, as it is the law in most states, I always detox them and of course, make sure they are built up and strong beforehand!
Make sure you read my Detox Page.
I will be offering an herbal product to keep the fleas, ticks and mosquitoes away, this is key.
Montmorillonite Clay, available now in my store.
Garlic
Garlic has always been known as the “wonder drug.”
It is a good preventative for fleas and mosquitoes.
It also repels parasites.
It is wonderful for building up the immune system.
It is antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral.
It is the best antibiotic you can find.
One single clove equals 10,000 units of penicillin! Wow!
No side effects either!
Garlic stimulates the body’s immune system because it has a good amount of the mineral germanium in it.
It also strengthens blood vessels and is wonderful detoxifier against pollutants and heavy metals.
Garlic strengthens the heart too.
Garlic is best only used as fresh and raw. Make sure it is organic.
I will be offering some essential oils soon that will build up the immune system, they are very strong antibiotics, antivirals and antifungals.
In a nutshell, make sure you buy a non vaccinated puppy, hopefully from me, so we know that the parents are also not vaccinated. Remember, vaccinations alter the DNA and this can be passed down generation to generation.
We also give our puppies milk kefir, starting from the day they are born and continuing right up until they leave our home to go to yours. The best way to describe milk kefir to you if you are not familiar with it is to say it is like yogurt on steroids! LOVE this stuff! I will have this available soon in a kit, so you can make your own at home.
They have to get transitioned to an “easier” food for you. Of course, if you have a deposit on a puppy, you can always request me to leave your puppy on the homemade food so you can continue it at home. Some of you do this too! I am more than happy to pass along this recipe to you.
Of course we also have our puppies on the wonderful things you have been reading about on my website. SOooooo, healthy puppies with a very strong immune system can grow up to be very healthy adults with a strong immune system. keep it that way and just don’t worry. Okay? 🙂
Now, more reading, in case you aren’t convinced yet. I care about the future of your puppy too!
“Heartworm is a cyclical disease. Adult female heartworms that live inside an infected dog release microfilariae, or pre-larvae heartworms into the bloodstream. When a mosquito partakes of a blood meal from an infected dog, it ingests the microfilariae.
After two weeks maturing inside the mosquito,
the parasite is sufficiently developed to grow to its next stage
when its mosquito host bites another dog and infects it with the matured microfilaria. In about four or five months, the larvae show up in the heart or pulmonary arteries and, two months later, the adult heartworm is ready to produce microfilariae of its own (unless the heartworms are all of the same sex, in which case no microfilariae are produced).
Thus, the cycle begins again.”
Dr. Ian Buffet DVM
Dr. Kruesi and Dr. Buffet Share Some Thoughts!
“Despite the scare tactics, the prognosis for infected individuals is quite good, according to the University of Guelphs studies.
For asymptomatic dogs and individuals with severe right heart failure, guardians can be cautiously optimistic,
with most individuals usually responding to therapy.
Individuals with severe chronic disease may be left with a residual cough.
Regardless of which treatment a dog undergoes,
Dr. Kruesi and Dr. Buffet both recommend supplements
to bolster the dogs immune system. ”
With the incidence of heartworm so low in his area,
Kruesi worries more about the toxic effects of the preventatives.
He suspects there may be a link between these insecticides and fatty tumors known as lipomas,
which have been popping up in dogs with more frequency over the last few years.
Other vets worry how long-term effects of these drugs, in combination with over vaccination and poor diet,
may potentially lead to liver disease and cancer.
Kruesi feels it’s important for every guardian to do some of their own research,
even if their own vet isn’t particularly open to it.
“Some vets are still threatened by people going on the net and
have been giving only select information to clients, he says.
He still sees dogs who have been put on heartworm preventatives 12 months out of the year,
even though there’s virtually no risk.
We don’t even have mosquitoes for half that time.
I have a problem with the ethics of that.
As a vet, it’s up to me to give people the confidence to understand how the body works,
so they realize there’s a better way to take care of themselves and their animals.”
“According to studies published by the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph, the majority of dogs who become infected live in rural, outdoor settings. that most of the cases he sees are typically dogs from shelters, who are also infested with fleas, and those from canine rescues, who have a long history of being neglected.”
“These cases are few and far between though. Because the incidence of heartworm disease is only 1 in 1,000 dogs in the Northeast U.S.,Kruesi prefers to take common sense preventative measures that include limiting exposure to mosquitoes and building an animals natural immune system through a high quality diet to help fight off parasites.”
Dr. Will Falconer, D.V.M. says,
“The administration of common monthly heartworm preventatives has been associated with autoimmune disease and even death in some purebred dogs?
The six month injection for preventing heartworm called Pro-Heart 6 was recently recalled due to toxic side effects that included fatalities in dogs?”
I know a woman who rescued a dog who was so full of heartworm that
the vet said she should put the dog to sleep.
Instead this woman took her home and started her on the heartworm herbs and garlic.
When she went back to the vet the dog had no heartworm and was at a healthy weight!
Thank you for taking the time to read this page, really let it sink in and give it some thought!
www.buttercuppuppies.com