I have never given any of my English Shepherd’s heartworm meds and I have never had an English Shepherd have a case of heartworms. That covers the period from 1970 to 2008. One of the reasons that I haven’t “treated for heartworms” is because English Shepherds are in the Collie group and it has been known for a long time that they can be extremely sensitive to Ivermectin .

Within the past year of so we have learned that this sensitivity is related to a gene mutation – MDR-1 and there is now a test to determine if a dog has that mutation. I addressed this information in a previous post.

The attitude of the vet community smacked me in the face when I took our beloved Tessa into our local vet fearing that she was developing breast cancer. She was 9 years old.

They confirmed my suspicions and advised that surgery might be appropriate. We agreed to have her spayed and one side of her mammery glands removed. Then they delivered the blow.

“Has Tessa been on heartworm meds?” “No, I replied.” With a shocked look on his face, he declared that she probably had heartworms and she would not be a candidate for surgery.

I told him she had no symptoms of heartworms. He looked at me like I had 3 heads. I felt like I was supposed to show him my forehead so that he could see my “STUPID” tatoo.

“Let’s test her,” I suggested. He agreed. He drew the blood and disappeared. Guess What!!!

She was NEGATIVE. They did the surgery. About a year later they did another surgery to remove the rest of her teats..

She lived a long, full life to the age of 15.

Please know that I am NOT AGAINST heartworm medications. I stand 4 Square on the side of knowledge over ignorance. I don’t believe that we should over-treat or over- medicate our Dogs, our Children or our Selves.

It may be the wonderful coat that helps provide English Shepherds with a measure of protection from the mosquito bites that carry heartworms. But I must also add that I have never had a case of heartworms in my beagles either.

However, my beagles are on a different management routine than my shepherds in that they occasionally do get a dose of ivermectin. It was interesting to me that the article on heartworms indicated that a dose of ivermectin twice a year (spring and fall) would protect a dog. If this is true why are the vets and the drug companies recommending a dose every month – Isn’t this a case of overkill? Overkill that is costing us money!

The argument is given that heartworm medicationse do not prevent the dog from contracting the larvae of the heartworm – it just kills them so that they don’t have the opportunity to grow into the adult stage which lives in the heart. So if you kill any migrating larvae every six month, your dog should never develop heartworms.

Hmmmmm!

To this end, I encourage you to read “The Billion Dollar Heart Worm Scam“. Then make your own decision about the treatment of your dogs.