re: worming/dogs

[sweety@nni.com]

I've been told it affects dogs with a merle-type color gene <such as many
collies> Is this accurate or one of the many old-wives tales we hear?
Personally I treat any medication with care but it's nice to know these things.

At 09:31 PM 2/4/99 PST, you wrote:
>
>> >One word of caution, Ivomec was been know to cause fatalities in dogs
>> >that are collie or related to the collie breeds
>
>Just wanted to add something here.... I accidentally deleted the original
>post about using Ivomec in horses/dogs but the author mentioned
>having"treated dogs with heartworm disease" with Ivermectin also.
>
>For anyone that uses Ivermectin off-label for dogs, please be aware of the
>dangers.  Ivermectin only kills the heartworm microfilaria circulating in
>the dog's bloodstream. It does NOT kill the adult worms which reside in the
>heart/pulmonary vessels. Your dog may not be a reservoir of infection for
>other dogs if you "treat" in this manner, but he will still have heartworm
>disease.
>
>If you "treat" a massively infected dog with ivermectin, killing off many
>microfilaria at once can cause anaphylactic shock and possible death. This
>is why veterinarians insist on performing a heartworm test before placing
>dogs on Ivermectin as a monthly preventative.  If you use ivermectin as as
>preventative without a prescription from your veterinarian, and if your dog
>goes in for a heartworm test please tell your vet that you have been using
>Ivomec ..... it may affect the type of test they use as in the past
>screening for microfilaria was pretty much diagnostic.  If you've been
>using Ivermectin your dog will not have microfilaria even if it does have
>adult heartworms and the vet will want to do an "occult" (ELISA) test to
>check for the parasite.
>
>I'm not saying DON'T treat at home with Ivomec ....just be aware of the
>possible problems with it.  Believe me, I know about being on a budget and
>trying to cut corners to save... I'm an endurance rider, after all!  Also,
>sorry to be off-topic, but horse people are the most likely to encounter
>this problem and I thought it might prevent some heartache...
>
>Cheers,
>Shannon W
>LVT
>Laingsburg, MI
>
>





I like horses....it's their people I can't stand....