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Home Tips > Useful > Dog Heartworm Prevention Prevention Of Heartworm Infection Can Be Obtained Through A Number Of Veterinary Drugs Most popular heartworm infection drugs are ivermectin (sold under the brand name Heartgard), milbemycin (Interceptor) and moxidectin (ProHeart) administered as pills or chewable tablets.
These drugs are given monthly during the local mosquito season. Moxidectin is also available in a six-month sustained release injection administered by veterinarians, but the injectable form of Moxidectin was taken off the market in the United States due to safety concerns.
Selamectin (Revolution), on the other hand, is a topical preventive that is likewise administered monthly.
Some of these drugs also kill other parasites, including intestinal worms.
In addition, Selamectin controls fleas, ticks, and mites.
Preventative drugs are highly effective, and when regularly administered will protect more than 99 percent of dogs from infection.
Most failures of protection result from irregular and infrequent administration of the drug.
However, the monthly preventives all have a reasonable margin for error in their administration such that if a single month's dose is accidentally missed, adequate protection is usually provided so long as the next two monthly doses are administered on schedule.
Cats may be treated with ivermectin (Heartgard for Cats), or the topical selamectin (Revolution for Cats).
Monthly heartworm prevention should be administered beginning within a month of the onset of the local mosquito season and continued for a month after the cessation of local mosquito activity.
In warm climates, such as the warm temperate climate along the immediate Gulf coast of the United States and in tropical and subtropical regions, heartworm prevention must be administered year round.
Some authorities recommend year round administration even in colder climates on the theory that mosquito activity may occur during the occasional unseasonable warm spell, but others argue that computer models indicate heartworm transmission is highly unlikely under such circumstances
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