We have many questions around this time of year about Parasite Preventions (flea and tick, heartworm and intestinal parasite) and if you need to continue giving them.
Our doctors recommend that you continue to use flea and tick until there are 2 good touches of frost and the temperatures are consistently staying below 40 degrees. Ticks WILL come out anytime temps are over 42 degrees. However if your pet travels to areas with warmer weather, we recommend keeping them on the flea/tick preventatives year round.
As for Heartworm/intestinal parasite protection (Sentinel and Heartgard), we recommend keeping your pet on this YEAR ROUND.
The primary reason is to keep that protection against intestinal parasites, roundworm eggs are extremely resilient and can still infect your pet even in cold weather. They can pick up intestinal parasites anytime they come into contact with infected feces, so if you’re walking and someone hasn’t cleaned up after their pet or their is feces from wildlife around and your pet investigates or walks in the area then licks their paws. It is possible for them to become infected. Some of these intestinal parasites can affect humans if the larvae are introduced to our system, especially children, and immune-compromised individuals. This is why we feel it is so important to keep your pet protected always.
In the past, we used to feel comfortable about having people stop the heartworm preventatives during certain months. We changed our protocols based on the American Heartworm Society’s recommendations and when we started to see more pets come up positive. Some of those pets were still stopping their preventatives during the “winter” months. With our “winters” being so erratic lately, we cannot predict when it will be “safe” to not give the medications. Please also remember that Heartworm preventatives work backward in a way. When you give a pill, it is protecting against anything your pet was exposed to 30 days prior, so if you stop in December and there were warm days in November, your pet would not be covered. It is also important to point out that the companies that manufacture Sentinel and Heartgard will NOT pay for your pets treatment, should they come up positive, unless they have been on the medication year round and it was purchased through a veterinary clinic. It may seem like that would never happen, but we have experienced it with a few patients.