Prevent Your Dog From Heartworms While Saving Yourself Money!

Ivermectin is the active ingredient in most heartworm preventative sole by your vet. It's also used in cattle to prevent parasites. You can buy Ivermectin in tack shops or your local Agway. Please make sure it's the 1% solution and the bovine injectable. Please don't let the injectable word scare you off, nothing is going to be injected into the dog's skin or veins and it's safe to use orally. Please check with your vet before you start giving Ivermectin orally to your dogs since their is a list of contraindicators which include certain breeds (such as Collies) and Neuro Issues (such as epilepsy).

Take the weight of your dog. My dogs happen to be around 150 pounds. We'll use this as an example. The dosage for Ivermectin is 1ml per 100 pounds of dogs. So my dogs get 1.5 ml a month of Ivermectin. I measure this out and I mix it with a couple tablespoons of simple syrup or orange juice. It's very easy to make your own simple syrup by mixing equal parts water and sugar in a coffee mug and microwaving until the sugar dissolves. Make sure it's cooled off enough before you give it to Fido.

With someone's help, get the dog's mouth open and put the mixture in the back of the mouth. That's it! Very simple to do and the best part is that a 50ml bottle of Ivermectin costs around $30-$50!!! And it will last you a long time (please look at the expiration date on the bottle and refrigerate it after it's opened). Couldn't be simpler and cheaper and effective!