Questions for pet parents to ask about parasitic prevention
What pet parents can do to stay informed about parasitic prevention, plus the high cost of treatment vs prevention.
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Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Kara,now that you're a seasoned pet parent, too. What are some things that you would recommend to other pet parents out there, like questions to ask when they're in the veterinary hospital?
Kara Johnson: I'm definitely that pet parent that's preaching about all that stuff and like, you know, you should really do this and do that. But I actually had a neighbor the other day that asked me, "Hey, they're recommending I do a heartworm test at my next visit; is that really that important?" So then, of course, I go into my whole spiel of, "Yes of course it's important because they just hit 12 months of age, so now the heartworms could be developed. So, the importance of testing and then yearly testing, and I'm like, "Do you stay on your preventions all the time?"
Bill Carter, DVM: I just saw a dog from Tennessee, 9 months old, positive for heartworm. They tested it before it came up. That means that dog got infected as it was flying out of mama. And that's how prevalent it is, you know, down there in Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia...
Katina Carter, DVM: And they had been on their heartworm prevention since the since they adopted.
Bill Carter, DVM: That dog got it basically when it was born.
Katina Carter, DVM: Yeah, that's crazy.
Bill Carter, DVM: And we treated the dog; [the] dog's doing great.
Kara Johnson: That's good. That's important. And being tech, I know how it's treated, so that also puts the fear into me. So, I'm like, I'm very into...
Bill Carter, DVM: Yes. It's not you know, IV arsenic like when, you know, my grandpa was treating it, but it's not a benign thing whatsoever
Kara Johnson: No, it's a lot for the dog.
Bill Carter, DVM: It's very painful. I tell owners a lot of them shiver at night and not to scare them, but you know, hey, it's here. It's in New Jersey. It's in the United States. This is everywhere. You know, mosquitoes don't care. They'll get into your house and stay there in the winter.
Katina Carter, DVM: And money talks, too, so...Here let me tell you how much a year's worth of prevention is vs this treatment.
Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: I've seen that. They will use that as a marketing tactic to show like the cost, not necessarily like the pain, but just like at least the financial concerns associated with you know, treating heartworm disease or even like dealing with some of the long-term things of round worms. It can keep going.
Bill Carter, DVM: Oh, and damage the system. You know, you can damage those kidneys, with heartworm.
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