Using Heartguard? There's something you need to know.

In 2011, the company that made Interceptor, a heart worm preventative discontinued production. Many people switched over to Heartgard.

As you may well know, both Interceptor and Heartgard contain ivomectin as its main ingredient. They both also contain an ingredient to cover most intestinal parasites. Neither will take care of tapeworms, the evil little creatures that come from fleas, but they do take care of rounds and hooks.

Here's the difference. Only Interceptor prevented/killed whipworms.

I took a friends dog to the vet the other day. She was having bloody diarrhea. She was an older dog that had been vaccinated, so I was not concerned about parvo. I expected the diagnosis to be pancreatitis, which often happens when dogs are given human food or get into the trash and find something their tummies are not used to.

However, the vet was concerned about one other thing: Whipworms.

She told me 60-80 percent of her cases of bloody diarrhea in adult dogs since Interceptor was discontinued was whips.

I wanted to kick myself for not realizing that, but my worming protocol covers everything, even without the Interceptor, so I had not had that issue.

So, if your dog is not on a heart worm/intestinal parasite preventive, it is incredibly important. Even if you live in areas that are not prone to mosquitoes, the ingredients in these preventatives will prevent the nasty and unhealthy affects of intestinal parasites. Keep in mind, intestinal parasites can be passed to humans and kids are most vulnerable.

The company was still producing Sentinel in 2011, which covers the same parasites AND fleas, but it was much more expensive. In 2015 interceptor returned to the market. There are also many other heartworm and flea products now available that were not marketed during the time Interceptor wasn't produced.

When I wrote my last book, I was paying only $1.60 per month to prevent heartworm in 12 dogs. That's $1.60 TOTAL, not $1.60 each. If I added cost of prevention for intestinal parasites and fleas, I was paying about $7-10 per pet. Heartworm, intestinal parasite, and flea prevention for much less than any product out there.

For more information on my protocol, and much, much more please check out my book Secrets of a Vet Tech. It will cost you a lot less than a box of Heartgard.