My dog needs heartworm prevention. Topical or oral for mosquitoes?

Heartworm disease is completely preventable dogs. There are now multiple options for heartworm preventative is available to pet owners. Most often these preventatives are given orally once a month or sometimes applied topically once a month. There are options now also for injections that last about six months. It just depends on what your veterinarian has available. It is usually recommended to give heartworm preventative year-round but this may vary depending on where in the country you live. Any dog who has not been on heartworm preventative, should be tested for heartworms prior to starting prevention. And then heartworm testing is recommended every one to two years while on heartworm preventative.

Yes, there is a difference in how all the different oral and topical heartworm and flea/tick medications work. Yes, a heartworm medication needs to get into the bloodstream, so even topical heartworm preventions will get absorbed through the skin and into the bloodstream to work. Flea and tick medications can work topically only or can be oral and work internally. Which are safest products is probably a matter of opinion. I will say that a couple of the oral flea/tick medications have been associated with seizures, so I do not recommend those in dogs that have seizures. Potentially, a topical flea/tick medication that does not get absorbed might be considered the "safest", but we certainly see some skin irritation from those products as one of their side effects. I think it's always a good idea to separate out new products, so you know if Doice is having a reaction to either, but since the products work differently, I don't know that there is a huge benefit to giving them separately long term. There are so many products out there on the market that I can't really give you a specific product recommendation for your area, but I would certainly speak with your vet about your concerns and ask them for their recommendations for Doice. I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

There are several medicines to choose from, but you will need a current heartworm test and a prescription from your vet for the medicines. You can look into Heartgard or Sentinel for monthly heartworm prevention or Proheart 6 is a 6 month injection for heartworm prevention but you will need a separate product such as Nexgard or Bravecto for flea and tick control

Congratulations on your new dog! I like Revolution if you are looking for a topical product. It consistently works well and is well tolerated. If you like the idea of an oral product better, I like Trifexis (it’s another all in one product). Sometimes though the pets can smell the Trifexis and they won’t eat it. In that instance, I like Simparica and Interceptor. My personal preference is oral products. I hope this helps and please feel free to post any additional questions.

Yes. Heartworm preventive medications work by intermittently killing the heartworm larvae that may have been transmitted to your dog by infected mosquitoes. As a result, [heartworm preventives](https://www.petcoach.co/article/3-common-types-of-heartworm-prevention) are killing larvae that may have infected a dog in the previous two months. Without the consistent administration of heartworm preventive medications, heartworm larvae can mature and cause serious signs of disease. In order to avoid this serious and life-threatening infection, it is crucial to give your dog [heartworm preventive medication](https://www.petcoach.co/article/should-i-stop-giving-my-pet-preventative-medication-in-the-winter) consistently year-round. ### Interceptor Plus is a trademark of Elanco or its affiliates.

If Vinny can not tolerate the oral heartworm prevention there are a few non-oral medications you could try. Proheart 6 which is an injectable medication that prevents heart worms for 6 months. You could also try a topical heartworm prevention like Advantage Multi or Revolution. I'm sure one of these will work well for Vinny.

For heat worm prevention, I recommend Heartgard Plus. You can get it via prescription from your vet. As for flea treatment, I recommend Advantage or Revolution. They are monthly spot on treatments and are excellent products. You can also get them from your vet's office. I would find a local vet for your dogs so you can get these medications. Good on you for getting this done!