“My pet can’t get heartworms Dr. Shawn because I feed him/her carrots.”

This is one of the many statements we’ve heard from clients who refuse to use heartworm preventative medication. Dr. Shawn has written books and articles about natural therapies. Based upon his extensive research, he has not found any natural supplement, herb, homeopathic, or even fruit/vegetable that can prevent or treat heartworms in dogs or cats.

While Dr. Shawn seeks to avoid conventional medication whenever possible, there is simply nothing natural that has been proven safe and effective in treating heartworms in dogs and cats.

Many pet parents are scared to use traditional heartworm preventatives based upon misinformation from breeders, groomer, and “Dr. Google.” Here are the facts:

  • Heartworm preventative (when not combined with flea/tick chemicals) is extremely safe for all breeds of dogs and cats. (because the medication comes in a tasty treat, we have had many pets eat the entire 6 months supply without any side effects)
  • Except for a rare case of vomiting or diarrhea, we have not seen any side effects in dogs or cats since we began prescribing heartworm preventatives over 30 years ago.
  • Unlike flea and tick chemicals (which are not need in most pets,) heartworm preventative medication only stays in the pet’s body for 72 hours while protecting against infection for 30 days.
  • Some owners, in a misguided attempt to increase the safety of the heartworm preventative, give the medication every 45-60 days. This will not increase the safety of the medication and in fact will increase the likelihood that the pet will become infected with heartworms.
  • If you do not give heartworm preventative due to unfounded fear, strong chemotherapy medications will be necessary to treat your pet if he/she becomes infected with heartworms and does not die prior to being diagnosed with heartworms.

We appreciate your desire for natural therapies whenever possible. We have made our reputation by being the local experts in natural medicine. There are few rare times when safe conventional medications must be used as there are no safe, effective, or proven natural therapies. Unfortunately, this is the case with heartworm prevention and treatment.

Please know that your pet’s health is vitally important to us. All of us give our own pets traditional heartworm prevention and would only do so and prescribe the same for your pets if we were convinced of the safety and effectiveness of the medication.

Please feel free to bring up any questions or concerns to our staff.