I called in at my Vets yesterday (I live near Chesterfield UK) and saw a sign saying they have recently treated a patient for lungworm and that owners might want to make sure their worming program covers this. The nurses I asked were a bit vague about preventative treatments. I use Milbemax/Drontal. Does anyone have any knowledge on the subject please?
I think the best advice would be to ensure that the wormer you use covers Lungworm and ensure that you stick with the recommended programme which is not the same for puppies as older dogs. If in doubt speak to your vet though as prevention is definitely better with a disease that can kill
Hello Milbemax covers lungworm. Boris eats /used to eat snails and they are an intermediate host. At the moment no sign of snails in the garden I think Boris has eaten them all!
I was given some vague blurb about if you want to be sure, worm monthly with Milbemax, otherwise, continue every three months. Helpful...NOT. I didn't get to speak to the vet though. I didn't know it was safe to use monthly?? Do I really have to pay for a consultation to find out?
I don't even know what that is. We have heartworm. All I know of lungworm is we must freeze Pacific Salmon before feeding it raw, in order to kill off lung flukes and I'm thinking that's probably not the same thing.
Advocate is what most vets recommend for treating lungworm but again it needs to be monthly the same as Milbemax. A 7 day course of Panacur Granules will also treat them.
I am surprised the vet nurses/receptionist were not more clued up re Lungworm, there has been enough about it in veterinary surgeries. I hope it doesn't come to this area, but as soon as it does, despite my reluctance to give my dogs chemicals, I will give them the prescribed wormer.
@bubbles I've just gone back to look at Juno's health records. My vet's advice was to give a wormer monthly up to 6 months of age and then to go to 3 monthly. Have to say I completely forget the monthly to 6 months and continued until she was 10 months old before switching and that was after a conversation with my dog trainer . So yes it is safe to use on a monthly regime although that is usually intended for protection against heartworm. Not sure how old your pup is and wouldn't want to go against any advice you have received previously from your vet (they all have different ideas and my advice was from my vet in France), which should be based upon the needs for your locality, but if you use on the cycle recommended by your vet you shouldn't have any cause for concern.
Any queries on medication can usually be resolved by looking at the NOAH Compendium online and reading the datasheet of the product you are interested in.
It's up to you about paying for a consultation with your vet - I do like to consult my vet on all treatments my dog gets, I think that's best. He is a very good vet, and very practical about the risks of my dog's lifestyle. I leave with a clear idea about the risks and benefits of treating my dog that is individual to my dog - tapeworm not a high concern, fox mange a medium concern, lungworm a very high concern - he thinks about whether my dog is a scavenger (not really), walks and rolls where foxes live (all the time), eat snails (yes, unfortunately). And so on. He suggests tick treatment at certain times and not at others, and he even can comment on the risk of sandfleas on Cornish beaches. It's money well spent, but not all vets are like this, unfortunately. You don't have to pay a vet to find out about a drug, no. All the datasheets are online, and available. Indeed, my vet asks me whether I have read the datasheet for whatever he suggests, and if I haven't he usually gives me a print out. The datasheet for Milbemax can be found here: http://www.noahcompendium.co.uk/Compendium-datasheets_A-Z/Datasheets/-23650.html
My dog is 5yrs old. She had Fox Lungworm 15 months ago and went on monthly Advocate. She now has Lungworm again. I'd continued do a worm count every 3 months even though I'd been told she was safe with the medicine. I'd recommend a company called Wormcount who we've used since she was 18 months old as recommended by our dog trainer.
